A French composer, known to many as Pérotin the Great, Magnus Pérotin was the most famous member of the Notre Dame School of polyphony and the ars antiqua style. Most of what is known of Pérotin is gleaned from the writings of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV.

He became successor to Maître Léonin at Notre Dame in Paris officiating until about 1230. He was referenced as a Maître (Master) indicating that he earned the degree magister atrium in Paris which entitled him to teach.

Pérotin excelled in descant style frequently in three parts and occasionally in four parts. Pérotin took his predecessor Léonin’s ‘Magnus Liber Organi’ and shortened many of the pieces providing new clausulae in descant style.

Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes are considered to be the earliest extant music surviving in Europe for four voices.

Pérotin had a definitive sense of tonality, especially evident in the larger three and four part pieces. His music acquires a highly impressive, shimmering sonority, which demands vast echoing arches of the gothic cathedrals for its adequate realization.

The works attributed to Pérotin are important in a manner beyond their beauty and historical importance, but in the considerable contribution to the development of mensural notation.

Pérotin - Also - Magnus Pérotin (Perotinus)