Léonin

Léonin 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 of polyphony and the ars antiqua style who is known by name, thanks to the writer known as Anonymous IV. Though no further identification is certain, the name "Leoninus" and its Latin diminutive Leo have the French equivalents Léonin/Léo.

Overview

All our knowledge about him starts from the writing of a 13c. student at the cathedral known as Anonymous IV, an Englishman who left a treatise on theory and who mentions Léonin as the composer of the Magnus Liber, the "great book" of organum.

People say master Leoninus was the best organista, he made the great organum-book of graduals and antiphons in order to expand the Divine Service. This book remained in use until the time of the great Perotin who abridged it and composed clausules and sections that were many in number and better because he was the best discantor, and better than Leoninus. But this is not said for the subtlety of his organum.