Petrus de Cruce [Pierre de la Croix]

(ca. 1250 - after 1300)

French composer and theorist who lived in Paris, though it has also been suggested that he was an Italian who brought his ideas about notation to Paris, since they foreshadowed notational developments in fourteenth century Italy.

Although only two motets are securely to be attributed to him, they show the real innovation of dividing the breve into a variable number of semibreves (3 or more) in the top part or triplum, increasing its domination of the other 2 voices and lending it a parlando s

tyle of rapid declamation. His ideas rapidly became fashionable in late thirteenth century France.



IIC: Early Polyphony before 1300 | IID: The Ars Nova In France