Post Description

If ever there has been music composed only for connoisseurs, it was the avant-garde music of the 14th Century that self-consciously called itself Ars Nova -- New Art -- and later Ars Subtilior -- Subtler Art. Literally, it was not for everyone, since only the upmost elite of chivalric society would ever have heard it. At the tiptop pinnacle of elitism was the illustrious Valois Duc Jean de Berry, the epitome of "taste" and collector/patron of everything beautiful and rare. It was he who commissioned the exquisite illuminated manuscript known as "Les Tres Riches Heures" from the Limbourg Brothers and their successors, a treasure that wasn't completed until decades after Jean's death. Jean was renowned as a patron of the most refined music and the least refined avarice. The music included on this recording is known to have been composed for specific celebrations in the Duc's life - mostly weddings - or written by members of Jean's 'inner circle' of connoisseurs. A substantial share of all surviving Ars Nova music, except that of Guillaume Machaut, comes from a single manuscript, the Chantilly Codex, which is the source of all but three of the twelve pieces on this CD.