Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

An In-Depth Look at Notre Dame Organum Notre Dame Organum developed into the first known use of polyphony. Many believe that the Organum composed at the French Cathedral in Notre Dame was some of the most important advances in the history of music ever. This was the first time there was two or more independent lines of music at the same time. Obviously, this was very exciting. Finally after thousands of years music was advancing into a thick rich multi-part and multi-rhythmic texture. Let us first look into the cathedral where all this mystery and wonder was taking place. Notre Dame began having mass in 1163. At this time, this cathedral was arguably the most famous church in all of Europe, because of its architectural beauty. It was also a school for composers who later be remembered as the great contributors of that century. In fact later the new style of mass would create so much chaos that a council would have to be established to decide whether or not to keep the mass or revert to an older monophonic style. The music of Leonin (c. 1159-c. 1201) and Perotin (c. 1170-c. 1236) and their French contemporaries were very influential composers; their style of Mass was widely excepted and reproduced all over the