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organum
organum, plural Organa, originally, any musical instrument (later in particular an organ); the term attained its lasting sense, however, during the
Middle Ages in reference to a polyphonic (many-voiced) setting, in certain specific styles, of Gregorian chant.
In its earliest written form, found in the treatise Musica enchiriadis (c. 900; Musical Handbook), organum consisted of two melodic lines moving
simultaneously note against note. Sometimes a second, or organal, voice doubled the chant, or principal voice, a fourth or a fifth below (as G or F below
c, etc.). In other instances, the two voices started in unison, then moved to wider intervals. Both melodies might in turn be doubled at the octave. Early
organum of this sort (9th11th century) was, it seems, spontaneously produced by specially trained singers before being committed to manuscript.
In more elaborate forms of organum, a freely composed melody was sung note against note above the plainchant. Finally, at the abbeys of Santiago de
Compostela, Spain (c. 1137), and Saint-Martial of Limoges, Fr. (c. 1150), an important new principle emergedthat of composing a highly florid melody
(duplum) above the plainchant tenor.
This new melismatic organum (having several pitches to a syllable) reached maturity in compositions associated with the Notre-Dame school in Paris
and collected in the Magnus liber organi (c. 1170; Great Book of Organum), probably by Lonin, or Leoninus, the first major composer known by
name, who set chant melodies for the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories of the masses for all major feasts.
In Notre-Dame organum, the organal style proper alternates with descant sections in which both melodies move rhythmically in accordance with the
triple patterns of the late medieval system of rhythmic modes (see rhythmic mode). Modern scholars have tended to apply these modes also to the
ambiguously notated melismatic portions. More likely, however, melismatic organum reflected the free melodic flow of Oriental music with which
crusaders in particular must have been thoroughly familiar. Characteristically, Lonins two-part compositions were quickly superseded by the
rhythmically solid three- and four-part organa of his successor Protin, or Perotinus.
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