LEONIN / PEROTIN: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral

Featuring

Antony Pitts
Tonus Peregrinus
Perotinus
Anonymous
Leoninus
Anonymous (13th century)

Did you know?

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Compositional Technique

The two-part music from Notre-Dame, known as 'organum duplum' and associated with Léonin, either slowed down the plainchant for a soloistic line ('organum purum') or rhythmicized it into a 'modal' system ('discantus').

Composer Biography

Pérotin made a new edition of Léonin's 'magnus liber' and added his own massive polyphonic versions of two Gradual chants, likely for feast-days in 1198 and 1199.

Recording & Production

This recording was made at Chancelade Abbey, Dordogne, France, from January 5th to 9th, 2004.

Compositional Technique

Early polyphony was constructed by adding a drone (a held note) or by singing the same plainchant at a fixed interval, as demonstrated in the ninth-century treatise 'Scolica enchiriadis'.

Composer Biography

Léonin, a master of polyphonic composition, is believed to have been responsible for the original 'magnus liber organi' (great book of organum) for Notre-Dame.

Compositional Technique

The foundation of the repertoire in the 'magnus liber organi' is plainchant, which are unmeasured melodies associated with every liturgical moment in the Church's calendar.

Historical Context

The music on this album was written for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, a building project that spanned several generations from its cornerstone laying in 1163.