EARLY POLYPHONY

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CHAPTER 7

• EARLY POLYPHONY

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ORGANUM IN MUSIC THEORY SOURCES

• Western art music is marked by one important
  characteristic polyphonynot melody, not rhythm
  but polyphony (the simultaneous sounding of two
  or more independent musical lines).

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Musica enchiriadis (Music Handbook c890s)

• Ascribed to Abbot Hoger (d. 906)
• First surviving written description of early
  polyphony, or organum (pl. organa).
• Intended to teach church singers how to improvise
  polyphonic music on the spotto take a given
  Gregorian chant and make it sound more splendid
  by adding one or more lines around it.

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Organum

• A term used to connote all early polyphony
  generally.
• Most organum in the Musica enchiriadis is
  parallel organum (organum in which all voices
  move in lockstep, up or down
• Parallel organum at the fifth and then with
  voices doubled at an octave. The existing
  Gregorian chant is to be found in vox principalis
  (principal voice).

• Micrologus (Little Essay c1030) written by Guido
  of Arezzo (d. c1033) allows for contrary motion
  in organum and discuss the occursusthe coming
  together of voices at cadences.

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An example of two-voice organum from Guidos
Micrologus showing a clear occursus at the end

• De Musica (On Music c1100) by John of St. Gall
  situates the vox principalis (chant) as the lower
  voice and the vox organalis (newly added voice)
  above. The chant was now, and would remain, in
  the lowest voice.

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ORGANUM IN PRACTICAL SOURCES

• Winchester Troper (c1000) a book of tropes
  written in Winchester, England, that also
  includes the organal voice for about 150
  two-voice organaKyries and Alleluias for the
  Mass, for example. The exact pitches of the
  polyphony cannot be determined with certainty.

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Aquitanian polyphony

• A collection of some sixty-five pieces of
  two-voice organum originating in monasteries in
  the southern French province of Aquitaine. The
  notation of these manuscripts gives precise
  indication with regard to pitch. Acquitanian
  polyphony often involves a style called
  sustained-tone organumthe bottom voice holds a
  note while the fast-moving upper voice
  embellishes it in florid fashion. The end of the
  opening phrase of the anonymous two-voice organum
  Viderunt omnes exhibits such a moment of
  sustained-tone organum.

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Viderunt omnes

• An anonymous example of two-voice
• Aquitanian polyphony Viderunt omnes

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The anonymous Viderunt omnes as it exists in the
original twelfth-century manuscript coming from
southern France
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Codex Calixtunus

• (c1150 named after Pope Calixtus II) A
  liturgical book and travel guide that includes
  twenty polyphony pieces for the liturgy of St.
  James the Apostle. The church of St. James
  (Santiago) in Compostela, Spain, was a pilgrimage
  site in the West second in importance only to
  Rome.

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An opening in the Codex Calixtinus

• Showing the three-voice organum Congaudeant
  catholici by Master Albertus of Paris.
• The Codex Calixtinus is the first manuscript to
  ascribe composers names to particular pieces.

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Congaudeant catholoci

• A transcription of Master Albertus Congaudeant
  catholoci, the first example of three-voice music
  to survive in a practical source.