Léonin (also Leoninus, Leonius, Leo) (fl. 1150s — d. ? 1201) was the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum.
What was the first polyphonic music in the West?
Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis, both dating from c. 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony.
What was the first polyphonic music?
The inscription is believed to date back to the start of the 10th century and is the setting of a short chant dedicated to Boniface, patron Saint of Germany. It is the earliest practical example of a piece of polyphonic music – the term given to music that combines more than one independent melody – ever discovered.
What is Notre Dame polyphony?
The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names have come down to us from this time are Léonin and Pérotin.
What was the first type of polyphony was called?
The earliest forms of polyphony in Europe were called organum. Organum reached its height at the hands of the composers at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Leoninus and his successor Perotinus perfected a style of florid or melismatic organum that must have been astonishing to the people of their day.
Who started polyphonic music?
priest Guillaume de Machaut
It was in 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V, that composer and priest Guillaume de Machaut composed the first polyphonic setting of the mass called La Messe de Notre Dame. This was the first time that the Church officially sanctioned polyphony in sacred music.
What was the first major center of polyphony?
The first major center of polyphony was: c. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
What is polyphonic song?
polyphony, in music, the simultaneous combination of two or more tones or melodic lines (the term derives from the Greek word for “many sounds”). Thus, even a single interval made up of two simultaneous tones or a chord of three simultaneous tones is rudimentarily polyphonic.
What is polyphonic?
Definition of polyphony
: a style of musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively independent melodic lines : counterpoint.
Who was the earliest known composer of polyphony?
Leonin
The earliest known composer of polyphonic music was Leonin, who lived in the last part of the twelfth century. He was one of a number of composers whose center of study and composition was the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
Who were the first to write music?
The founder of what is now considered the standard music staff was Guido d’Arezzo, an Italian Benedictine monk who lived from about 991 until after 1033.
Is call and response polyphonic?
Polyphonic means ‘many sounds’. The instruments playing may all have different melodies that overlap and weave together to create the music. Call and Response music is exactly that, a ‘call’ tune (often a solo) is followed by a ‘response’ tune (often a group of instruments).
Who started the Organa genre?
1170; “Great Book of Organum”), probably by Léonin, or Leoninus, the first major composer known by name, who set chant melodies for the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories of the masses for all major feasts.
Who were the Notre Dame composers?
Today, we know the names of only two composers from the Notre Dame school: Léonin and Pérotin, both born in France in the mid 1100s. These names were revealed by the writings of an English medieval musical theorist now known only as Anonymous IV.
Which type of music was created by the Notre Dame School of composers?
The Notre Dame School, important to the history of music because it produced the earliest repertory of polyphonic (multipart) music to gain international prestige and circulation.
Who is known as the first composer to write organum at Notre Dame in Paris?
1170; “Great Book of Organum”), probably by Léonin, or Leoninus, the first major composer known by name, who set chant melodies for the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories of the masses for all major feasts.
Who composed Ars Nova?
composer Philippe de Vitry
The designation Ars Nova, as opposed to the Ars Antiqua (q.v.) of 13th-century France, was the title of a treatise written about 1320 by the composer Philippe de Vitry.
Did Léonin compose organa?
Léonin evidently composed his organa for the Cathedral of Notre Dame, whose present magnificent stone structure rose in the main between 1163 and 1208. It has been suggested that he was a choirboy first and later became the master of the choirboys.
