Léonin

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Léonin, also known as Leoninus, is the first known major composer of polyphonic organa. He probably worked in Paris at the cathedral of Notre-Dame and was active between about 1163 and 1190. What we know of him comes mainly from the writings of a thirteenth-century English student known as Anonymous IV. He calls him the best organist and the maker of the Magnus liber organi, the great book of organum. It was intended to enrich church services, with polyphonic settings of Gregorian chant for the gradual and the antiphonary.

Music and breakthrough

In his style a soloist sings an ornate, decorated upper voice above the long notes of the Gregorian tenor chant. This produced what is known as organum purum. Later Pérotin revised the book, making it shorter and adding new sections. The music of Léonin and his school is called the Notre-Dame school and belongs to the ars antiqua. Its notes were written down in square notation.

Influence

His significance is great, even though almost everything about him is uncertain. He helped lay the foundations of Western polyphony, the idea that different voices sing independent lines at the same time. From this came the later motets, the polyphony of the Renaissance and ultimately our whole harmonic tradition. Records such as Sacred Music from 12th-century Paris bring this medieval sound back for the modern listener.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1958Music of the Middle Ages, vol. II
• 1985École Notre-Dame: Messe du Jour de Noël
• 1997Sacred Music from 12th-century Paris
• 1997The School of Notre Dame
• 2001Sacred Music from 12th-century Paris – 2
• 2005Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral

Mentioned in other articles

• Organum and the Notre-Dame school GenreLéonin collected such two-part pieces, called organum, in a large choirbook.

See also

• Organum and the Notre-Dame school