Download LEONIN AND PEROTIN GO TO SCHOOL

LEONIN AND PEROTIN
GO TO SCHOOL
The Gregorian chants spoken ot in the last
chapterwere single melodies. Therewas only one
melody being sung to the words written. Around
A.D. 1100 a very imponant development in music
history took place. This development, known as
polyphony, combined two or more simultaneous
melodic lines. Then, instead ol just one line ol
melody, the priests and monks in monasteries
could sing two or three or Iour lines ol melody at
one lime.
Having that many melodies meant that muwould
have to be written down in a more
sic
precise manner. ln this way, the development ot
Example ot a motet
polyphony brought about the development ol precise notation ol music. The earliest known composer of polyphonic musicwas Leonin, who
lived in the last part ot the twellth century. He was one of a number ol composers whose
center ol study and composition was the cathsdral ol Notre Dame in Paris. The style of
polyphony that Leonin composed was called organum. Otganum was created by adding a
second voice or second melody to the Gregorian chant. lt ran parallel to that chant at the
interval of a Iourth, either above or below.
Leonin's su@essor was Perotin. Perotin wrote polyphonic music in three and four
parts. Toward the end of Perotin's lire composers began writing new words to be used by
the additionalvoices. Whilethe originalGregorian chant melody was sung with the original
Gregorian chant text orwords, new words would be written fbrthe other two orthree voices.
The addition ol these new telts resulted in what was called the moret lt was the most
important lorm ol early polyphonic music. The motet lrom the late Middle Ages could be
either secular or sacred; it could have to do with a religious or nonreligious theme.
(Something sacred is religious, and something secular is nonreligious.)