Unit 2: Organum

Question 1

Organum background and origins

Answer 1

• earliest form of polyphony in Western art music
• began as an improvised practice; evolved over several centuries
• first notated examples are found in the 9th century treatise Music enchiriadis
• composers at Notre dame Cathedral (Paris) further developed organum in the 12th and 13th centuries

Question 2

Organum characteristic features

Answer 2

• the original - pre-existing - chant is referred to as the cantus firmus
• initially, parallel lines were added to chant melodies, emphasizing perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves (parallel organum)
• later developments by Notre Dame composers involved a wider variety of intervals, rhythms, and melodic motion in the newly composed upper parts (free organum)

Question 3

Musica enchiriadis

Answer 3

• Latin for “Music Handbook”
• anonymous 9th-century treatise
• contains earliest examples of notated polyphony in Western art music
• scholars believe that his was a book for theorists and not used in performance, as singers most likely could not read the specific notation employed
• includes parallel organum, with new melodic lines added above or below the original chant

Question 4

organum

Answer 4

• polyphony based on plainchant; from the 9th to 13th centuries
• vocal music in which 1 or more new melodic lines are added to an existing Gregorian chant (cantus firmus)
• early styles featured perfect intervals - fourths, fifths, and octaves - often with parallel motion between the voices
• later styles featured more independent melodic parts and a greater variety of intervals

Question 5

cantus firmus

Answer 5

• Latin for “fixed song”
• borrowed material, often from a Gregorian chant
• serves as structural framework for a new polyphonic composition
• originally found in the lowest voice

Question 6

tenor

Answer 6

• from Latin tenere, “to hold”
• in a polyphonic composition from the Middle Ages: it refers to the voice that contains the cantus firmus (borrowed material)

Question 7

organal style

Answer 7

• a style of ree organum in which the notes from the original chant are sung by the lower voice in long note values
• sometimes called “sustained-note organum” organum purum, or florid style

Question 8

discant style

Answer 8

• a style of organum in which there is more rhythmic movement of the cantus firmus
• sometimes features “note-against-note” movement between the voices

Question 9

(clausula)

Answer 9

• self-contained, polyphonic section within discant–style organum
• often based on a single word or syllable; highly melismatic
• serves as a link to the developent of the motet

Question 10

rhythmic modes

Answer 10

• an early step in the evolution to rhythmic notation; developed by Notre Dame composers in the late -12th to early-13th century
• 6 basic rhythmic patterns, related to poetic meters used in Latin grammar, were used to provide rhythmic structure
• served to keep 2 or more voices in rhythmic alignment when they were not moving note-against-note

Question 11

Two leading composers of the Note Dame School were

Answer 11

• Léonin

- Pérotin

Question 12

Léonin

Answer 12

• first composer of polyphony known to us by name
• active in PAris in the late 12th century
• produced two-part organum, using organal and discant style and employing rhythmic modes
• wrote Magnus Liber Organi (Great Book of Organum)

Question 13

Pérotin

Answer 13

• active at Notre Dame Cathedral in the 13th century
• expaded polyphonic technique by composing three- and four-part polyphony
• compoed “substitute clausulae” to replace sections within organa originally composed by Léonin