PEROTINUS (MAGNUS)

PEROTINUS (Magnus). - Chapel master of the cathedral of Paris, successor of Leoninus, and, together with him, one of the Ars antiqua (v.), whose activity extended between 1183 and 1236.

He expanded the repertory written by his predecessor (Magnus Liber Organi), increasing the number of parts from 2 to 3 and 4 (organa tripla and quadrupla), adding to it many clausulae, short compositions in 2 parts; he also imparted a well-defined rhythmic movement which, according to the schemes of strict modal metre, falls within a more precise mensuralism. Indeed, this is precisely the distinctive feature separating P.’s period from the preceding one: the rhythmic freedom derived by Leoninus from the school of s. Marziale is replaced by P.’s rigid modal metre, also giving rise to appreciable semiographic differences, embodied in two kinds of writing: duplum notation (for the Leoninian period) and modal notation (for the Perotinian period).

Among P.’s works, Anonymous IV (Coussemaker, I, p. 342) mentions two organa quadrupla: « Viderunt » and « Sederunt » (for the latter V. the modern transcription by R. Ficker: Vienna 1930); two organa tripla: Alleluia, Posui adjutorium and Alleluia Nativitas gloriose (v. the transcription in Y. Rokseth, Polyphonies du XIIIe siècle, II, Parigi 1921, pp. 16-23, 31-37); among the triplices conductus: Salvatoris hodie; among the duplices: Dum sigillum summi Patris; and among the simplices: Beata viscera and Justitia.

(fol. Anderson)