LEONINUS. – Composer of the Ars antiqua, active in the 12th century (c. 1160–80) in Paris, at the church of Beatae Mariae Virginis, later called Notre-Dame.
The most important historical source of information on L. is provided by a 13th-century writer (Anonymous IV, in C. E. H. Coussemaker: Scriptores de musica medii aevi, I, Paris 1864, pp. 327, 341), who calls him optimus organista, i.e., a composer of organa dupla, in which the upper voice had a melismatic character while the lower voice (tenor) “held” the melody with long notes “in pedal.”
A collection of about 90 of his organa (two-part compositions for the entire liturgical cycle, titled Magnus liber organi de graduali et antiphonario pro servitio divino multiplicando) remained in use until the time of his great successor Perotinus, who revised it and added his own works.
L. is the first great figure of the new musical era, representing the transition between the rhythmically free style of St. Martial of Limoges and the strictly rhythmic style, governed by rhythmic modes, which would later be used by Perotinus. Among the compositions attributed by scholars to L. are: Haec dies, Crucifixum in carne laudate, and Deum time; these pieces have also been recorded on ten phonograph records.