Léonin

Léonin (flourished 12th century) was the leading liturgical composer of his generation, associated with the Notre Dame, or Parisian, school of composition.

The details of Léonin’s life are not known. To him is attributed the Magnus liber organi (c. 1170; “Great Book of Organum”), a collection of two-voiced organum settings, notably of Gradual, Alleluia, and Responsory chants, for the complete liturgical year. (Organum is the elaboration of a plainchant melody by a countermelody sung above it.) In the Magnus liber, melismatic, or florid, and note-against-note, or “discantus,” styles were combined within compositions characterized by the use of rhythmic modes, or short repeated patterns in triple rhythm. His discantus style is not strictly note-against-note but is an early instance in which the chant melody is organized into small rhythmic units with the same pulse as the added voice. See also organum; mode; rhythmic mode.