Pérotin

Pérotin (fl. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style. He was one of very few composers of his day whose name has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Léonin. Anonymous IV called him "Magister Perotinus" ("Pérotin the Master"). The title, employed also by Johannes de Garlandia, means that Perotinus, like Leoninus, earned the degree magister artium, almost certainly in Paris, and that he was licensed to teach. The name Perotinus, the Latin diminutive of Petrus, is assumed to be derived from the French name Pérotin, diminutive of Pierre. The diminutive was presumably a mark of respect bestowed by his colleagues. He was also designated "magnus" by Anonymous IV, a mark of the esteem in which he was held, even long after his death.

Pérotin composed organa, the earliest type of polyphonic European church music; previous church music such as Gregorian and other types of chant, had been monophonic. He pioneered the styles of organum triplum and organum quadruplum (three and four-part polyphony); in fact his Sederunt principes and Viderunt Omnes are among only a few organa quadrupla known.

A prominent feature of his compositional style was the 'tenor'. The tenor is based on an existing melody from the liturgical repertoire, such as Alleluia, Verse; Gradual, Verse from the mass, or a Responsory or Benedicamus from the Office. In the various forms of organum that were developed in Paris, the tenor literally 'holds' the melody (Lat. tenere) of the Gregorian chant. An organum duplum on Benedicamus Domino as can be found in the sources gives a clear example of two main styles used: florid organum/organum purum and discantus. The chant melody for the second-tone Benedicamus is mostly syllabic with only three simple ligatures. This part will be sung in extended continuous sounding syllables, laying an organ-point or harmonic basis for the duplum or vox organalis, a new florid line which will have many notes to the one of the tenor. Usually a single syllable in the chant comes back as a long note in the tenor, its length is governed by the development of the upper voice as it works toward a modulation to the next tone of the tenor. In this fashion, Be....ne..di...ca...mu....s is stretched out syllable per syllable. The next section, Domino, starts with a long melisma on 'Do' and is set in discantus style, where both the tenor and organal voice proceed in one of the rhythmic modes. In organum purum, the tenor tends to be static a lot on a few tones; in discantus style it has its fair share of the modal rhythms. At the end, the O of 'Domino' the tenor comes to rest on the tonic note, while the upper voice makes its final runs toward the tonic or the octave. At that point the organum is finished, and the 'Deo Gratias' will be sung choraliter.

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