Philosophical and cultural context of the Ars subtilior style

Tasks of scientific research:– to characterize the Ars subtilior style;– to determine the philosophical and cultural prerequisites for the emer-gence of the Ars subtilior style;– to describe their impact on the musical art of that time.The methodology of the research is based on the use of historical andtheoretical methods.Conclusions: Composers of Ars subtilior style tried to achieve absolutepossibilities in music: the complexity of rhythm, visual representation andlyrical content, the variety of ways to fix it, and, to a lesser extent, the matterof harmony. Like their contemporaries in the domain of logic, composersaccepted simple logical puzzles and deliberately made them as difficult aspossible. It looked like this: the composers of Ars subtilior took simplemelodic lines and decorated them in various ways, as if competing amongthemselves, just for the sake of the complexity of the experiment. Followingthe example of their predecessors, Ars subtilior composers focused onexpanding the boundaries of rhythm and notation more than on other musicalcomponents (for example, harmony and melody). However, they did this morefor the sake of curiosity, not seeking to improve or clarify the rhythm andnotation.Experiments in the development of rhythmics went in parallel with thedevelopment of other medieval sciences. Especially close and obvious contactcan be traced with the philosophy of the same time. The 13th century inWestern Europe became a period of its rapid development. There werecreated philosophical schools, particularly in England, France, Italy. Thelargest European philosophical center was created at Oxford University.