c. 1360Reputable sourceWell documented
Machaut and the Ars Nova
On the timeline · around c. 1360 · The Medieval World
What happened
The French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut was the towering figure of the fourteenth-century Ars Nova ('new art'), a style of greater rhythmic freedom and complexity. Around 1360 he composed his Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest known complete polyphonic setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by a single named composer, using the intricate technique of isorhythm.
Why it matters
Machaut's Mass showed that a single composer could conceive a large, unified musical work, and his secular songs elevated the composer as an individual artist — a step toward the modern idea of a musical masterpiece.