The ''Magnus Liber'' or ''Magnus liber organi'' (English translation: ''Great Book of Organum''), written in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, was a repertory of
medieval music
Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...
known as
organum
''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the same ...
. This collection of organum survives today in three major manuscripts. This repertoire was in use by the
Notre-Dame school
The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced.
The only composers whose names hav ...
composers working in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
around the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries, though it is well agreed upon by scholars that
Leonin contributed a bulk of the organum in the repertoire. This large body of repertoire is known from references to a ''"magnum volumen"'' by
Johannes de Garlandia and to a ''"Magnus liber organi de graduali et antiphonario pro servitio divino"'' by the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
music theorist known as
Anonymous IV
Anonymous may refer to:
* Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown
** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author
* Anony ...
.
Today it is known only from later manuscripts containing compositions named in Anonymous IV's description. The ''Magnus Liber'' is regarded as one of the earliest collections of polyphony.
Surviving Manuscripts
The ''Magnus Liber organi'' most likely to have originated in Paris and is known today from only a few surviving manuscripts and fragments, and there are records of at least seventeen lost versions.
Today its contents can be inferred from the three surviving major manuscripts:
* Florence Manuscript
'' (I-Fl
Pluteo 29.1,
Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence ) 1,023 compositions , 1250 A.D.
* Wolfenbüttel 677
1'' (Wolfenbüttel Cod. Guelf. Helmst. 677) Saint Andrews, Scotland , 1250 A.D.
* Wolfenbüttel 1099
2'' (Wolfenbüttel Cod. Guelf. Helmst 1099) French manuscript , after 1250 A.D.
These three manuscripts date from later than the original ''Magnus Liber,'' but careful study has revealed many details regarding origin and development. "Evidence of lost Notre Dame manuscripts, including the names of their owners, is plentiful indeed",
tracing back to year 1456 when manuscript F first appeared in the library of
Piero de' Medici. Of the two others, referred to as W1 & W2, both in the
Herzog August Bibliothek (Ducal Library), the first is thought to have originated in the cathedral
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
of St Andrews, Scotland, and less is known about W2. Catalogues referring to other lost copies attest to the wide diffusion through Western Europe of the repertoire later called ''
ars antiqua
''Ars antiqua'', also called ''ars veterum'' or ''ars vetus'', is a term used by modern scholars to refer to the Medieval music of Europe during the High Middle Ages, between approximately 1170 and 1310. This covers the period of the Notre-Dam ...
''.
Heinrich Husmann summarizes that "these manuscripts, then, do not represent any more the original state of the ''Magnus Liber,'' but rather enlarged forms of it, differing from each other. In fact, these manuscripts embody different stylistic developments of the ''Magnus Liber'' itself, particularly in the field of composition mentioned by Anonymous IV, the
clausula. This is born out by the differing versions of the discantus parts".
Husmann also notes that a comparison of the repertory contained in the three manuscripts shows there "are a great many pieces common to all three sources" and that "the most reasonable attitude is obviously to consider the pieces in common to all three sources as the original body, consequently as the true ''Magnus Liber organi".''
Contributors to the Liber
It is unknown whether the ''Magnus'' ''Liber'' had one sole contributor, though it is noted by scholars that large parts were composed by
Léonin
Léonin (also Leoninus, Leonius, Leo; ) was the first known significant composer of polyphonic organum. He was probably French, probably lived and worked in Paris at the Notre Dame Cathedral and was the earliest member of the Notre Dame school ...
(1135–c.1200) and this conclusion is drawn from the writings of Anonymous IV.
Though it is a controversial topic among scholars, some believe parts of the ''Magnus Liber organi'' may have been revised by
Pérotin
Pérotin () was a composer associated with the Notre Dame school of polyphony in Paris and the broader musical style of high medieval music. He is credited with developing the polyphonic practices of his predecessor Léonin, with the introdu ...
(fl. 1200), while others such as Heinrich Husmann note that the finding is from 'the rather slim report of Anonymous IV' and that 'as for its connections with Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the name of Pérotin alone is adduced' in connection with his books having only been ''used''. This 'by no means confirms that Pérotin himself was active at Notre Dame, or anywhere else in Paris for that matter'.
The music from the ''Liber'' has been published in modern times by
William Waite (1954),
Hans Tischler
Hans Tischler (January 18, 1915 in Vienna – November 18, 2010 in Bloomington) was an American musicologist and composer with Austrian origins.
Career
Tischler completed his first PhD in musicology from the University of Vienna with the dis ...
(1989), and by Edward Roesner (1993–2009).
Styles and Genres of the Repertoire
![Magnus Liber Organi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Magnus_Liber_Organi.jpg)
The
early music
Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...
of Notre Dame cathedral represents a transitional time for Western culture. This time of change coincided with the architectural innovation that produced the structure of the Cathedral itself (earliest start of construction in 1163). A handful of surviving manuscripts demonstrate the evolution of
polyphonic
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
elaboration of the liturgical
plainchant
Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. ...
that was used at the cathedral every day throughout the year. While the concept of combining voices in harmony to enrich plainsong chant was not new, there lacked the established and codified
musical theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "Elements of music, rudiments", that are needed to understand ...
techniques to enable the rational construction of such pieces.
The ''Magnus Liber'' represents a step in the development of
Western music between
plainchant
Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. ...
and the intricate
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
of the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (see
Machaut
Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...
and
Ars Nova). The music of the ''Magnus Liber'' displays a connection to the emerging
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style of architecture; just as ornate
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
s were built to house holy
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...
s, organa were written to elaborate
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...
, which too was considered holy.
The innovations at Notre Dame consisted of a system of
musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
which included patterns of short and long
musical notes
In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound.
Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class.
Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretization ...
known as longs and
breves. This system is referred to as mensural music as it demonstrates the beginning of "measured time" in music, organizing lengths of pitches within plainchant and later, the
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
genre. In the organi of the ''Magnus Liber,'' one voice sang the notes of the Gregorian chant elongated to enormous length called the tenor (from Latin 'to hold'), but was also known as the ''vox principalis.'' As many as three voices, known as the ''vox organalis'' (or ''vinnola vox'', the "vining voice") were notated above the tenor, with quicker lines moving and weaving together, a style also known as ''florid organum''.
The development from a single line of music (
monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of musical textures, consisting of a melody (or "tune"), typically sung by a single singer or played by a single instrument player (e.g., a flute player) without accompanying harmony or chords. Many folk son ...
) to one where multiple lines all carried the same weight (
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
) is shown through the writing of organa. The practice of keeping a slow moving "tenor" line continued into secular music, and the words of the original chant survived in some cases as well. One of the most common genres in the ''Magnus Liber'' is the
clausula, which are "sections where, in
discant
A descant, discant, or is any of several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice (''cantus'') above or removed from others. The Harvard Dictionary of Music states:
A descant is a ...
style, the tenor uses rhythmic patterns as well as the upper part".
These sections of polyphony were substituted into longer organa. The extant manuscripts provide a number of notational challenges for modern editors since they contain only the polyphonic sections to which the monophonic chant must be added.
References
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
Medieval music manuscript sources
Ars antiqua
13th-century Latin books