Léonin

Léonin (also Leoninus, Leonius, Leo; Template:Fl<ref>Per Bent, in NG</ref>) was the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre-Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name, thanks to the writer known as Anonymous IV. Though no further identification is certain, the name "Leoninus" and its Latin diminutive Leo have the French equivalents Léonin/Léo.

Overview

All our knowledge about him starts from the writing of a 13c. student at the cathedral known as Anonymous IV, an Englishman who left a treatise on theory and who mentions Léonin as the composer of the Magnus Liber, the "great book" of organum.

People say master Leoninus was the best organista (composer?/singer? of organum), he made (composed?) the great organum-book of graduals and antiphons in order to expand the Divine Service. This book remained in use until the time of the great Perotin who abridged it and composed clausules and sections that were many in number and better because he was the best discantor (composer?/singer? of descant), and better than Leoninus. But this is not said for the subtlety of his organum. {{refn|Et nota, quod magister Leoninus, secundum quod dicebatur, fuit optimus organista, qui fecit magnum librumorgani de gradali et antifonario pro servitio divino multiplicando. Et fuit in usu usque ad tempus Perotini Magni, qui abbreviavit eundem et fecit clausulas sive puncta plurima meliora, quoniam optimus discantor erat, et melior quam Leoninus erat. Sed hoc non [est] dicendum de subtilitate organi etc. .<ref>A longer excerpt may be found at the Pérotin article, where the citation is to Haines 2006 p=378. The retranslation here incorporates the caveats from Ian D. Bent's article (Léonin) in New Grove vol. 10 p. 676.</ref>

Much of the Magnus Liber (as it is reconstructed from later manuscripts) is devoted to clausulae—melismatic portions of Gregorian chant which were extracted into separate pieces where the original note values of the chant were greatly slowed down and a fast-moving upper part is superimposed. Léonin may have been the first composer to use the rhythmic modes, and might have invented a notation for them. According to W.G. Waite, writing in 1954: "It was Léonin's incomparable achievement to introduce a rational system of rhythm into polyphonic music for the first time, and, equally important, to create a method of notation expressive of this rhythm."<ref>W.G. Waite: The Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony: its Theory and Practice, Template:Page needed. Yale Studies in the History of Music, New Haven, 1954.</ref>

The Magnus Liber was intended for liturgical use. According to Anonymous IV, "Magister Leoninus (Léonin) was the finest composer of organum; he wrote the great book (Magnus Liber) for the gradual and antiphoner for the sacred service." All of the Magnus Liber is for two voices,Template:Fact although little is known about actual performance practice: the two voices were not necessarily soloists.

See also Medieval music.

The musicologist Craig M. Wright believes that Léonin may have been the same person as a contemporaneous Parisian poet, Leonius, after whom Leonine verse may have been named. This could make Léonin's use of meter even more significant.<ref>Notre Dame de Paris, Parisian Cathedral Music in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries and Its Makers</ref> Another possible suspect is an Henricus Leonellus, who was at the Abbey of St. Victor c. 1163-1192.<ref>Bent, Ian D: "Léonin" in New Grove</ref>

Further reading

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• Articles Anonymous theoretical writings, Organum, Leonin, Perotin, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. (Template:ISBN)
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External links

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