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A page from Perotin’s
Alleluia nativitas
Perotin
(lived around
1200
), was a
medieval
composer
. He was probably
French
. Nothing is known about his life except that he worked in or around
Paris
in the late
12th century
to early
13th century
. People have tried to find out who he was by studying the
archives
of
Notre Dame Cathedral
, but his name has not been found there. He probably had another name, and used the name Perotin for his compositions.
Perotin worked on a very important collection of
polyphonic
music called
Magnus Liber
(meaning: Big Book). The composer
Leonin
had written a lot of this music. He may have been Perotin's teacher, but we do not know. He seems to have written music for four voices which are settings of words for the
Feast of the Circumcision
and
St Stephen
's Day. He wrote three and four voice music of a type called
organum
. It was a very important development in the history of Western music. He wrote music in a
polyphonic
style. Often he took a tune and arranged it so that one voice sang it incredibly slowly while another voice sang something much faster on top.
It is difficult to work out any dates for his works because of the way the music was written. Often it is not even clear what
mode
they are in.
Perotin's music has been an influence on some
20th century
composers who wrote
minimalist
music such as
Steve Reich
.
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan