Week 20: Perotin

Virtually nothing is known of the life of Perotin (c.1200), also called Magister Perotinus or Perotinus Magnus. Our entire knowledge of his attributions and activity rests on a paragraph written by the theorist Anonymous IV. Anonymous IV states that Perotin extended and edited the work of Leonin in the Magnus liber organi, and among other things that he took what was a two-voice style of writing and developed it into three- and four-voice polyphony. Although Perotin is not believed to have been alone in this undertaking, his is the most prominent name associated with what was a seminal event in Western music. While the grandeur of his four-voice Viderunt omnes & Sederunt principes is a testament to his contrapuntal skill, his monophonic conductus Beata viscera shows his melodic talent. Perotin is known for regularizing the structure of organum, introducing new elements of planning, and ultimately removing it from its improvisational roots. This activity manifested itself most clearly in the extended clausulas, or closing cadential flourishes in mostly note-against-note (descant) style, which Perotin wrote. These clausulas became the basis of the motet genre, another innovation in which Perotin might have participated directly.