The Melody Web what each genre heard, and what it passed on

heard passed on Click or tap a node to recenter. Use a connecting line, or Influence, for the story.

Heard

Medieval polyphony style · 9th century–15th century

Organum is the first named job of the umbrella: write (or improvise) extra voices on a liturgical tenor already in the service.

Influence
Plainchant tradition · 9th century–

Organum is chant dressed, not a free composition that happens to sound modal.

Influence

Organum

style · 9th century–1220

Also called Notre-Dame organum

Kind of Medieval polyphony

The first named job of Western written polyphony: add one or more voices to a liturgical chant already in the service. From Musica enchiriadis parallel writing through Aquitanian florid organum to Notre-Dame organum purum and measured discant (Léonin, Pérotin). It is a style of medieval polyphony, not an alias of the thirteenth-century motet (Ars antiqua) and not a bin for every early two-voice piece. It hears Medieval polyphony as the umbrella and Plainchant as the tenor. It already gives Ars antiqua the measured motet exit. Aquitanian florid organum leftover as a dialect on this node. Versus leftover as a contemporary Latin-song neighbor, not a parent. English discant leftover as a related early-polyphony dialect. Empty additional Given is historically checked: the motet hop is Ars antiqua, not a skip to Ars nova.

Listen

  1. Rex caeli Domine Musica enchiriadis (9th century) YouTube
  2. Jubilemus, exultemus Saint-Martial / Aquitanian (12th century) YouTube
  3. Congaudeant catholici Codex Calixtinus (12th century) YouTube
  4. Viderunt omnes (organum duplum) Léonin (1160s) YouTube
  5. Alleluia Pascha nostrum Léonin (1170s) YouTube
  6. Alleluia Stirps Jesse Notre-Dame repertory (12th century) YouTube
  7. Viderunt omnes Pérotin (1198) YouTube
  8. Sederunt principes Pérotin (1199) YouTube
  9. Alleluia Nativitas Pérotin (1200) YouTube

Passed on

Ars antiqua style · 1200–1320

The thirteenth-century motet is a Notre-Dame clausula given words.

Influence

Medieval polyphony → Organum

melodyform and structureperformance practicefunction and contextstrength: highscholarly consensus9th century–1220liturgypedagogynotationoral

Mechanism

Organum is the first named job of the umbrella: write (or improvise) extra voices on a liturgical tenor already in the service. Taxonomically it is a style of Medieval polyphony; this edge names the transferable craft — chant-bearing texture, chapel training, and perfect-interval framing. Strength high on the child.

Evidence

Musica enchiriadis, Aquitanian florid organum, and the Magnus liber organi. Léonin and Pérotin are the usual Notre-Dame names (Anonymous 4).

Debate

Whether early organum belongs in the same node as Notre-Dame quadrupla. The corpus keeps one child for the chant-dressing practice; the motet is the next style.

Mediators

institution: Notre-Dame cathedral school

Plainchant → Organum

melodyform and structurefunction and contextperformance practicestrength: highscholarly consensus9th century–1220liturgypedagogynotationoral

Mechanism

Organum is chant dressed, not a free composition that happens to sound modal. The tenor is a gradual, alleluia, or responsory already required that day; the added voice (later voices) must fit that pitch set and that liturgical shape. Strength high. The umbrella edge plainchant medieval polyphony is the longer language (motet tenors still quote chant); this file is the first landing.

Shared material

Viderunt omnestunechant tenor in long notes under florid / discant voices

Donor Viderunt omnes (Gregorian tradition, medieval) · Christmas gradual YouTube

Receiver Viderunt omnes (Pérotin, 1198) · tenor YouTube

Same gradual, not a new tune. Organum stretches the chant and writes the upper voices around it

Evidence

Musica enchiriadis on singing a chant at the fourth or fifth. The Magnus liber organi builds on named Gregorian pieces — Viderunt omnes, Sederunt principes, Alleluia Nativitas. Pérotin’s quadrupla are the checkable extreme: the gradual is still there, held in long notes.

Debate

How much early organum was improvised rather than written, and how to transcribe rhythm before modal notation. The dependence on a pre-existing chant is not contested.

Mediators

institution: Notre-Dame cathedral school; community: monastic and cathedral scholae

Organum → Ars antiqua

form and structuremelodyrhythmstrength: highscholarly consensus1200–1250notationpedagogyliturgy

Mechanism

The thirteenth-century motet is a Notre-Dame clausula given words. Discant over a chant snippet (already a measured section inside organum) is copied out as a piece; the upper voice, then a third voice, receives a new Latin or French text while the tenor keeps the chant syllables. Conductus is the other Ars antiqua job and does not come from this mechanism. Strength high on the motet wing.

Shared material

Flos filius eiustunechant snippet as repeating tenor

Donor Alleluia Stirps Jesse (Notre-Dame repertory, 12th century) · verse, words Flos filius eius YouTube

Receiver Plus bele que flor / Quant revient / L'autrier joer / Flos filius eius (Montpellier Codex, 13th century) · tenor YouTube

Same tenor cell; the motet adds separately texted upper voices. Not a new chant

Evidence

Surviving clausulae and motets on the same tenors (Flos filius eius, In seculum, Omnes). Montpellier orders pieces by tenor. The notation of short values (Franco) is a later refinement of the same measured discant.

Debate

Whether some motets were conceived as motets without a prior clausula. Many were; the lineage still runs through organum’s tenor-and-discant craft.

Mediators

institution: Notre-Dame cathedral school