Early Polyphony (c.900 - c.1300) - Session 2

The Development of Polyphony (c.900)

The development of counterpoint was one of the most important musical accomplishments of the 9th to the 13th centuries. It was when the polyphony emerged in the Western Music giving more possibilities for the composers to create more complex musical pieces. 

The Polyphonic music, musical texture in two or more relatively independent parts, was long in growing.

The first step towards it was during the Carolingian period (800 – 1000) by doubling the chant in octaves. They realised that men and boys would sing the chant in parallel octaves, and then the practice of adding doubling in the fourth and fifth started to grown as well. This style is known as parallel organum, which wasn’t so effective in terms of independency of voices.

Parallel Organum

Leonin

Organum is the earliest form of polyphony, it was based on adding other voices to accompany the chant  as cantus firmus. Organum may be parallel, free (admitting oblique and contrary motion), melismatic (the upper part containing many notes against one tenor –chant line- note) or measured (with motion in both voices according to the rhythmic modes). The first significant composer of polyphony, know to music history was Leónin (French, c. 1135 – c.1201), considered the greatest master of organum.

The next outstanding composer of polyphony is Pérotin (French, c. 1160/70 -c.1205/25). His organa in three or four voices written about the year 1200 are considered a landmark in Western Music. And it is one of his Organum Quadruplum, dated from c. 1198, named Viderunt omnes, that we will take a look today.

Perótin - Viderunt Omnes - Original Manuscript

The Chant Viderunt omnes was borrowed, from the Mass for Christmas Day and it was added text and music, this process was known as Trope. It was typical during this period that only the solo portions are in polyphony (alternating between organum and discant), with the choral portions remaining in plainchant and the polyphony. One of the peculiarities of Perótin Virerunt omnes setting is the expansion from the organum duplum to organum quadruplum, that was made possible because of the rhythmic modes. Another peculiarity that really differs from Leónin's setting is the use of strong cadences throughout the music, giving his version a better sense of musical phrases since he always finishes them with a consonance.

You can hear Perótin's setting on the Youtube link bellow:

References

Seaton, Douglass. Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1991. Print.

Latham, Alison. The Oxford Dictionary of Musical Terms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Burkholder, James Peter, and Claude V. Palisca. Norton Anthology of Western Music.Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.