Pérotin: 1 Musical Forms and Style

Protin
magnus by Anonymous IV, a mark of the esteem in

which he was held, even long after his death.[2]
1 Musical forms and style

Protin composed organa, the earliest type of polyphonic
music; previous European music, such as Gregorian
and other types of chant, had been monophonic. He
pioneered the styles of organum triplum and organum
quadruplum (three and four-part polyphony); in fact his
Sederunt principes and Viderunt Omnes are among only a
few organa quadrupla known.
A prominent feature of his compositional style was the
'tenor'. The tenor is based on an existing melody from
the liturgical repertoire, such as Alleluia, Verse; Gradual, Verse from the mass, or a Responsory or Benedicamus from the Oce. In the various forms of organum
that were developed in Paris, the tenor literally 'holds the
melody (Lat. tenere) of the Gregorian chant. An organum
duplum on Benedicamus Domino as can be found in the
sources gives a clear example of two main styles used:
orid organum/organum purum and discantus. The chant
melody for the second-tone Benedicamus is mostly syllabic with only three simple ligatures. This part will be
sung in extended continuous sounding syllables, laying an
organ-point or harmonic basis for the duplum or vox organalis, a new orid line which will have many notes to
the one of the tenor. Usually a single syllable in the chant
comes back as a long note in the tenor, its length is governed by the development of the upper voice as it works
toward a modulation to the next tone of the tenor. In
this fashion, Be....ne..di...ca...mu....s is stretched out syllable per syllable. The next section, Domino, starts with a
long melisma on 'Do' and is set in discantus style, where
both the tenor and organal voice proceed in one of the
rhythmic modes. In organum purum, the tenor tends to
be static a lot on a few tones; in discantus style it has its
fair share of the modal rhythms. At the end, the O of
'Domino' the tenor comes to rest on the tonic note, while
the upper voice makes its nal runs toward the tonic or
the octave. At that point the organum is nished, and the
'Deo Gratias will be sung choraliter.
A page from Protins Alleluia nativitas
Protin (. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great,

was a European composer, believed to be French, who
lived around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th
century. He was the most famous member of the Notre
Dame school of polyphony and the ars antiqua style. He
was one of very few composers of his day whose name
has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of
an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as
Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Lonin. Anonymous IV called him Magister Perotinus (Protin the Master).[1] The title, employed also by
Johannes de Garlandia, means that Perotinus, like Leoninus, earned the degree magister artium, almost certainly
in Paris, and that he was licensed to teach. The name
Perotinus, the Latin diminutive of Petrus, is assumed to
be derived from the French name Protin, diminutive of
Pierre. The diminutive was presumably a mark of respect bestowed by his colleagues. He was also designated
Organa exist for two to four voices. That for two voices,
organum duplum, has the most freedom in performance,
as it will invariably have many sections of organum purum, where the upper voice is rhapsodic and not bound
by strict modal rhythm. In three- or four-part organa all
the upper voices need to be organized rhythmically, even
1
6 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
over a long static tenor.
at the University of Paris during the years of Lonin and

There is another group of new compositions on new texts, Protin. He attended many services at the Notre Dame
the conductus, which exist in a variety of forms: mono- Choir School. In De nugis curialiam he oers a rst-hand
phonic strophic songs and simple or complex conductus description of what was happening to music in the high
Middle Ages. This philosopher and Bishop of Chartres
for two to four voices.
wrote:
Works
Anonymous IV attributed four compositions to Protin:

the four-voice Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes,
and the three-voice Alleluia Posui adiutorium and Alleluia Nativitas.[3] Nine other works are attributed to
him by contemporary scholars on stylistic grounds, all
in the organum style, as well as the two-voice Dum sigillum summi Patris and the monophonic Beata viscera in
the conductus style.[4] (The conductus sets a rhymed Latin
poem called a sequence to a repeated melody, much like
a contemporary hymn.)
When you hear the soft harmonies of the

various singers, some taking high and others
low parts, some singing in advance, some following in the rear, others with pauses and interludes, you would think yourself listening to
a concert of sirens rather than men, and wonder at the powers of voices whatever is most
tuneful among birds, could not equal. Such is
the facility of running up and down the scale;
so wonderful the shortening or multiplying of
notes, the repetition of the phrases, or their emphatic utterance: the treble and shrill notes are
so mingled with tenor and bass, that the ears
lost their power of judging. When this goes to
excess it is more tted to excite lust than devotion; but if it is kept in the limits of moderation, it drives away care from the soul and
the solicitudes of life, confers joy and peace
and exultation in God, and transports the soul
to the society of angels.[6]
Protins works are preserved in the Magnus Liber, the

Great Book of early polyphonic church music, which
was in the collection of the cathedral of Notre Dame
in Paris. The Magnus Liber also contains the works of
his slightly earlier contemporary Lonin. However, attempts by scholars to place Protin at Notre Dame have
been inconclusive, all evidence being circumstantial, and
very little is known of his life. His dates of activity
can be approximately established from some late 12th
century edicts of the Bishop of Paris, Eudes de Sully, 4 Inuence
which mention organum triplum and organum quadruplum, and his known collaboration with poet Philip the Protins music has inuenced modern minimalist comChancellor, whose Beata viscera he could not have set be- posers such as Steve Reich, particularly in Reichs work
fore about 1220.[5] The bishops edicts are quite specic, Proverb.[7]
and suggest that Protins organum quadruplum Viderunt
omnes was written for Christmas 1198, and his other organum quadruplum Sederunt Principes was composed for 5 Footnotes
St. Stephens Day (26 December), 1199, for the dedication of a new wing of the Notre Dame Cathedral. His
[1] Pinegar 1995, 720.
music, as well as that of Lonin and their anonymous contemporaries, has been grouped together as the School of [2] Roesner n.d.
Notre Dame.
[3] Anon. 4 186476, 1:342, 360; Anon. 4 1967, 1:46, 82.
Two important members of the Notre Dame administration have been suggested as possible identities for Perotinus: the theologian Petrus Cantor (who died in 1197)
and the Petrus who was Succentor of Notre Dame from
at least 1207 until about 1238. Petrus Succentor is more
probable, in part on chronological grounds, and partly because of the succentors role in overseeing the celebration
of the liturgy in the cathedral.[2]
[4] Bent 1980, 542.

[5] Bent 1980, 54041.
[6] Hayburn 1979, 18.
[7] Reich n.d.
6 Sources and further reading

3
Contemporary critiques
With polyphony, musicians were able to achieve musical feats perceived by many as beautiful, and by others, distasteful. John of Salisbury (11201180) taught
Anonymous 4 (186476). De mensuris et discantu. In Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series a Gerbertina altera, 4 vols., edited by Edmond
de Coussemaker, 1:327-64. Paris: Durand. Reprint
edition, Hildesheim: Olms, 1963.
3
Anonymous 4 (1967). "[De mensuris et discantu]"
In Fritz Reckow, Der Musiktraktat des Anonymus 4,
2 vols. 1:2289. Beihefte zum Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft 45. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Roesner, Edward H. (n.d.). Perotinus [Perrotinus,

Perotinus Magnus, Magister Perotinus, Protin]".
Grove Music Online, ed. Deane Root. Oxford Music
Online (Accessed 15 January 2011), (subscription
access)
Bent, Ian D. (1980). Protin. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vols., ed. Stanley
Sadie, 14:54043. London, Macmillan Publishers
Ltd. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Sanders, Ernest H. 1967. The Question of Perotins uvre and Dates. In Festschrift fr Walter
Wiora zum 30. Dezember 1966, edited by Ernest J.
Sanders, 24149. Kassel: Brenreiter.
Flotzinger, Rudolf (2000). Perotinus musicus: Wegbereiter abendlndischen Komponierens. Mainz:

Schott Musik International. ISBN 3-7957-0431-6.
Flotzinger, Rudolf (2007). Von Leonin zu Perotin:
Der musikalische Paradigmenwechsel in Paris um
1210. Varia Musicologica 8. Bern: Peter Lang.
ISBN 978-3-03910-987-6.
Hayburn, Robert F. (1979). Papal Legislation on Sacred Music 95 AD to 1977 AD. Collegeville: The
Liturgical Press.
Heerings, Arnoud (2005). Perotinus. Gregoriusblad: Tijdschrift tot bevordering van liturgische
muziek 129, no. 1 (March): 5357.
Hillier, Paul (1989). Perotin. program notes to
The Hilliard Ensemble: Perotin. CD ECM New Series 1385 (837-751-2). Munich: ECM Records.
Hoppin, Richard H. (1978). Medieval Music. New
York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-09090-6
Morent, Stefan. 2002. Der 'wahre' Perotin?
berlegungen zm Verhltnis zwischen Musikwissenschaft und Auhrungspraxis. In Musikwissenschaft im Phonomarkt: 'Alte Musik' und CDProduktionBericht zum 1. Lneburger Musiksymposium im Februar 1999, edited by Evelyn Marien,
Andreas Heinen, and Simon M. Sommer, 6979.
Schriftenreihe zur Musikwissenschaft der Universitt Lneburg 1. Wilhelmshaven: Noetzel. ISBN
978-3-7959-0809-6.
Page, Christopher. (1990) The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 11001300.
University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-069447
Pinegar, Sandra (1995). Protin in William W.
Kibler (ed.), Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, p.
720. Psychology Press. ISBN 0-8240-4444-4
Reich, Steve (n.d.). "Proverb (1995): Composers
Note". Boosey & Hawkes publishers website. (Accessed 19 March 2011)
Riehn, Rainer, and Heinz-Klaus Metzger (eds.)
(2000). Musik-Konzepte 107 (January 2000): Perotinus Magnus. Munich: Edition text + kritik. ISBN
3-88377-629-7.
7 Recordings
Gothic Revolution Sacred MusicThe Sixteen,
Harry Christophers, Simon Russell Beale CORO
DVD
Messe de la Nativit de la Vierge. Ensemble Organum, Marcel Prs. Harmonia Mundi 901538
(1995).
Perotin. The Hilliard Ensemble, CD ECM New Series, 837-751-2
Sacred Music From Notre-Dame Cathedral, Tonus
Peregrinus; Antony Pitts, CD NAXOS 8.557340
(2005)
8 External links
Free scores by Protin at the International Music
Score Library Project
Free scores by Protin in the Choral Public Domain
Library (ChoralWiki)
9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
9.1
Text
Protin Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9rotin?oldid=663124198 Contributors: Infrogmation, Ihcoyc, Charles Matthews,

Adam Bishop, Maximus Rex, Hyacinth, Fredrik, UtherSRG, Zinnmann, Antandrus, Ary29, Marcus2, Picapica, Jashiin, SidP, Gene Nygaard, Japanese Searobin, Znusgy~enwiki, Sterio, FeanorStar7, Chochopk, Btw~enwiki, FlaBot, Gdrbot, Badagnani, LiniShu, Tony1,
FF2010, Light current, GrinBot~enwiki, SmackBot, Eskimbot, Srnec, Hmains, Makemi, Martin spaink, Reccmo, SMasters, Voceditenore,
Xionbox, Violncello, Ioannes Pragensis, R9tgokunks, Cydebot, Sheilakirbos, Thijs!bot, JAnDbot, Jerome Kohl, Bobnotts, Waacstats, InnocuousPseudonym, S.dedalus, J.delanoy, Sparafucil, Nikthestunned, VolkovBot, TXiKiBoT, Tomaxer, Alex Middleton, Wolfcm, Lethesl,
ClueBot, CrazyLuca, Laetoli, Gwguey, Arjayay, DumZiBoT, Addbot, LaaknorBot, Lightbot, Zorrobot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Xqbot,
A.amitkumar, Heathers8806, SpaceFlight89, TS1616, Zeljkovuckovac, Cikibli, RjwilmsiBot, EmausBot, SporkBot, Helpful Pixie Bot,
Hehe678, Triceratropes, TerryAlex, KasparBot and Anonymous: 39
9.2
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Protin

magnus by Anonymous IV, a mark of the esteem in

1 Musical forms and style

A page from Protins Alleluia nativitas

Protin (. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great,

6 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

over a long static tenor.

at the University of Paris during the years of Lonin and

Anonymous IV attributed four compositions to Protin:

When you hear the soft harmonies of the

Protins works are preserved in the Magnus Liber, the

[4] Bent 1980, 542.

6 Sources and further reading

Roesner, Edward H. (n.d.). Perotinus [Perrotinus,

Flotzinger, Rudolf (2000). Perotinus musicus: Wegbereiter abendlndischen Komponierens. Mainz:

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Protin Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9rotin?oldid=663124198 Contributors: Infrogmation, Ihcoyc, Charles Matthews,

File:Perotin_-_Alleluia_nativitas.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Perotin_-_Alleluia_nativitas.jpg

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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