France has a rich music history that was already prominent in Europe as far back as the 10th century. French music originated as a unified style in medieval times, focusing around the Notre-Dame school of composers. This group developed the motet, a specific musical composition. Notable in the high Middle Ages were the troubadours and trouvères soon began touring France, composing and performing many original songs. The styles of ars nova and ars subtilior sprung up in the 14th century, both of which focused on secular songs. As Europe moved into the Renaissance age, the music of France evolved in sophistication. The popularity of French music in the rest of Europe declined slightly, yet the popular chanson and the old motet were further developed during this time. The epicenter of French music moved from Paris to Burgundy, as it followed the Burgundian School of composers. During the Baroque period, music was simplified and restricted due to Calvinist influence. The air de cour then became the primary style of French music, as it was secular and preferred by the royal court.
Medieval music
Some of the earliest manuscripts with polyphony are organa from 10th century French cities like Chartres and Tours. The Saint Martial school is especially important, as are the 12th century Parisian composers at the Notre-Dame school from whence came the earliest motets. Secular music in medieval France was dominated by troubadours, jongleurs and trouvères, who were poets and musicians known for creating forms like the ballade (forme fixe) and lai. The most famous of the trouvère was Adam de la Halle.
Saint Martial school
The Saint Martial school, named after the Abbey of Saint Martial around which it was centered, was an important group in the development of early French music. The school created various forms of music based on poetry. These forms of music were often organa consisting of elaborate proses and tropes. Important composers from this school include Roger de Chabannes and his nephew and student Adémar de Chabannes. The manuscripts written by these two became very popular and included early uses of troper-prosers and sequentiaries. The duo also pioneered a new form of notation for their work that collected new forms of liturgical poetry. While polyphony was not invented at the Saint Martial school, the group developed it extensively and brought it into common use. All of these contributions made the Saint Martial school an important precursor to the later Notre-Dame school.
Notre-Dame school
The Notre-Dame school was a group of composers who used a style of polyphonic organum that flourished at Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral between about 1170 to 1250. The only composers whose names have survived are Léonin and Pérotin. These two are believed to have written the Magnus Liber, a comprehensive book of organum.
Motet
The motet, a lyrical piece of music in several parts, evolved from the Notre-Dame school when upper-register voices were added to discant sections, usually strophic interludes, in a longer sequence of organum. Usually the discant representing a strophic sequence in Latin which was sung as a descant over a cantus firmus, which typically was a Gregorian chant fragment with different words from the descant. The motet took a definite rhythm from the words of the verse, and as such appeared as a brief rhythmic interlude in the middle of the longer, more chantlike organum.
Troubadours
In the 12th century, traveling noblemen and musicians called troubadours began traveling southern France. Inspired by the Code of Chivalry, troubadours composed and performed vernacular songs, in contrast to the older tradition dating back to the 10th century of goliards. The tradition seems to have originated in Aquitaine, and troubadours became most prominent in Europe in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Provence was the region with the most troubadours, but the practice soon spread north and aristocrats like Adam de la Halle became the first trouvères. Contemporaneous with the troubadours, the trouvères, another itinerant class of musicians, used the langue d'oil, while the troubadours used langue d'oc. This period ended abruptly with the Albigensian Crusade, which decimated southern France.