Organum / Ars Antiqua

Chronology Musica Enchiriadis (9C) Leonin[us] (1100s): “Viderunt omnes” [2-voiced organum] Perotin[us] (c. 1160- c. 1240): “Viderunt omnes” [4-voiced organum] (c. 1198) Leonin: 2-voice organum “Viderunt omnes” Music of the Gothic Era CD 1 Band 1 Perotin: 4-voiced organum “Viderunt omnes” Music of the Gothic Era CD 1 Band 5

Organum from Musica Enchiriadis (9C) The musical illustrations in the 9C Frankish treatises “Musica Enchiriadis” and “Scholia Enchiriadis” are the earliest known examples of polyphony -- I.e., of music in which two or more melodic lines are sounded at once. This primitive polyphony, which was known as “organum”, came into existence in the same area as and only a little later than the practices of troping and sequence composition, and like them its purpose was to adorn and elaborate the liturgy. It did so by adding another vocal line -- the “vox organalis” -- to an existing plainchant -- the “vox principalis”. In early organum the added part lay underneath the plainsong. First example: The two voices proceeded in exactly parallel motion a fifth or fourth apart. Translation: “You are the everlasting Son of the Father” (from the Te Deum) Second Example: To enhance the sonority the plainsong could be doubled an octave lower and/or the vox organalis could be doubled an octave higher. Translation: “You are the everlasting Son of the Father”

First example: Translation: “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; the Lord shall rejoice in his works” (Psalm 104) Of greater importance for the future was the technique of free organum, which, in order to avoid the harmonic tritone which certain melodic progressions in parallel motion would produce, abandoned parallelism in favor of more independent part-movement. The usual procedure was for the voices to begin on a unison, for the vox organalis to remain on the initial pitch until the plainsong had moved a fourth or fifth away from it, and for the two voices then to move in parallel intervals until the end of the phrase, when they returned to a unison in a variety of ways. Second example: Translation: “King of heaven, Lord of the roaring sea, of the shining sun and the dark earth” Third example: Translation: “Your humble servants, by worshipping with pious phrases, beg you to free them -- at your command -- from their various ills.” [N.B. The second and third examples are from the same sequence.)

Troped Kyrie 2-voice Organum

Gradual for Christmas (3rd Mass): Viderunt Omnes Leonin 2-voiced organum: Music of the Gothic Era CD 1 Band 1 Perotin: 4-voiced organum: Music of the Gothic Era CD 1 Band 5

Perotin (d. 1200 / 1230) “Viderunt omnes” (1198) Perotin (Latin “Perotinus”) was a most gifted composer of the Notre Dame school, which, during the late 12C and early 13C, was the first school to produce polyphony of international acclaim. He was probably the first composer ever to write in as many as four parts. Called “optimus discantor” (most excellent composer of discant), he developed the use of unifying devices such as imitation, exchange of parts (Stimmtausch), and melodic variation, which have become part of contrapuntual practice ever since. Attributed to him are organa, motets, and conductus. A Perotin organum consists of a liturgical melody and text, which forms the tenor or cantus firmus. Its rhythm is altered. In approximately the same vocal range, the composer added one, two, or three other voices, the “duplum”. “triplum”, and “quadruplum”, all of them in one of the six rhythmic patterns known as modi: 1) quarter note/eighth note; 2) eighth note/quarter note; 3) dotted quarter note/eighth note/quarter note; 4) eighth note/quarter note/dotted quarter note; 5) three dotted quarter notes; 6) three eighth notes. These patterns are varied at irregular intervals by occasional held notes (“fusio modi”), rests (“pausationes”), or broken up with quick passing notes or other ornaments (“fractio modi”). However, the variations never obscure the patterns, as the rhythm was conceived in these patterns rather than in subdivisions of metrical pulses. The upper voices cross and recross one another in clear cut phrases which often begin and end on perfect consonances, touching on unisons at various points. The perfect consonances also appear on most but by no means all of the main beats, the other beats carrying any of the other intervals, even major sevenths, minor seconds, augmented fourths, and diminished fifths. The syllabic parts of the chant cantus firmus in the tenor were stretched out beneath the upper voices into very long notes, sometimes lasting several pages, and excluding any perception as melody. However, the liturgical melody, though not perceived, was known to the listeners, who were familiar with the chants. The melismatic sections of the cantus firmus were reshaped rhythmically into rows of longae (transcribed as dotted quarter notes), rows of duplices longae (usually dotted half notes when in rows), or rhythmic patterns slower than those of the upper voices. The music flowed past in two speeds which were mathematically related. These sections were called clausulae. The style is called discant style.

Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Plut. 29.1. The writing of melismatic organa took place between 1100 and about 1240. Perotin’s “Viderunt”, probably performed in 1198, represent the highest point in the history of this genre. Perotin’s works have survived, along with works by other composers of his school, in three Notre Dame MSS, one of which is represented here. Little is known of his life. Husmann believes him to have been court composer in Paris, by this theory has been challenged. Scholars disagree as to his death date, the earliest being set at c. 1200, the latest, c. 1230.

This and the organum “Sederunt” are the first known works of western European music to have been written in four parts. They are probably the ones referred to in the ordinances of Bishop Eude de Sully, which describe the services for the Christmas season in 1198 and 1199 at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The chant tenor, on which the organum “Viderunt omnes” is based, is sung at both Christmas and New Years. Particularly striking is the beginning of the organum, after the sustained introductory chord, on an augmented fourth. Interesting passages include the exchange of voices at the beginning, the row of 19 consecutive fifths at rehearsal #11 in the duplum and quadruplum, and the canon at the fifth below at rehearsal #26.