Short essay on the history of polyphony

Polyphony, arising from the ancient greek poly (much, many) and phony (from phono -
sound, voice, speech), is undoubtedly one of the most influential developments in the history of
music, which has laid the foundation for all musical styles that we know of today. It remains
largely unknown when exactly polyphony was introduced, but there is no doubt it existed long
before it was written down or even described. Polyphony was first transmitted aurally, and was
mostly performed and appreciated by independent, very small groups of people. However, soon
both the complexity of musical thought, and the volume of its influence began to grow so rapidly
that it became impossible to rely on aural memory alone to accurately communicate the inner
structure of this music. And hence, began the first era of notated polyphonic music, from what,
ultimately our idea of music as whole as we know it today is derived.

The first major development of early notated music was connected to the rise, and final
solidification of Christianity all around Europe. Music began to sprout as part of the new culture
introduced by the Christian Church. The musical notation needed to describe the music
performed by the church was gradually developed through a series of innovations. In the
earliest notations, signs known as neumes (latin: gesture) were introduced. These signs were
written above the words and indicated the number of notes to be sung per syllable, and whether
the melody ascended, descended or repeated a pitch. However, due to the inherent inaccuracy
of such a rough notation, it still wasnt possible to reproduce this music without prior knowledge
of how it sounded. Later (at around 10-11 century) a system now known as Diastematic
notation was developed which allowed specifying the approximate relative pitch of a neume by
placing it at different heights above the text. These are called heightened or diastematic
neumes. The authors of these writings began drawing straight lines through the neumes, to
indicate a base pitch. Some were even labeled to be representative of a particular pitch. The
next major innovation was suggested by the monk Guido of Arezzo (ca. 911 - after 1033). He
introduced a revolutionary pattern of lines and spaces designed to much more accurately
represent pitches: the pattern involved using a line of red ink for F and of yellow ink for C, with
letters in the left margin identifying each line and one note within each space. After these
innovations, the existing notational practice was sufficient to allow a singer to somewhat
accurately learn and reproduce a verse without having heard the piece prior. However, until
much later rhythm was rather unanimous, much like pitches had been before.
Finally, we are introduced to the two main volumes of practical music theory: Musica enchiriadis
(Music Handbook) and Scolica enchiriadis (Excerpts from handbooks) and Guido of Arezzos
Micrologus (ca. 1025-28), a special guide for singers that covers notes, intervals, scales, the
modes, melodic composition, and improvised polyphony. By the 13th century these advances
gave birth to the earliest known written polyphony, that presented itself in the form of genres
such as the organum (pl. organa), conductus and the motet.
The earliest organum was simply put forth as meaning two or more voices singing together in
pleasant combinations. As it developed different forms started arising, these forms are now
known today as: parallel organum, mixed parallel and oblique organum. Parallel organum refers
to organum where a clear separation exists between what is known as the principal voice, being
the original melody of the chant, and the other organal voice, moving in perfect parallel motion a
fifth below. Mixed parallel organum is almost identical to parallel organum with parallel fourths,
but is modified slightly to avoid the naturally occurring augmented fourths present in perfect
parallel motion of fourths. Later this gave rise not only to different step intervals of both voices,
but to intervals of seconds and thirds as the result of the new, independent movement of the two
voices. By the 11th century a freer form of organal voice leading appeared, now known today
simply as free organum. A century later, a more detailed form of polyphony, now known as
Aquitanian polyphony began developing. As part of the rise of this new form of polyphony, two
distinct styles were clearly defined by the theorists of the time: Discant polyphony, in which the
two voices move at about the same rate, and Florid organum, where the top voice moves much
faster than the lower voice. Eventually these developments became the cornerstone for the
most important polyphonic style of the late 12th and early 13th centuries: Notre Dame
Polyphony. This new style was connected with the recently completed building of the cathedral
of Paris: Notre Dame. This style was the first to finally introduce somewhat reproducible
rhythmic notation. As described by a 13th century treatise by Johannes de Garlandia this
notation involved using ligatures to portray different rhythmic modes - combinations of longs
(Longer notes) and breves (Shorter notes). We now know about two of the main composers
associated with Notre Dame Polyphony: Leonin (credited with writing the Magnus liber organi)
and Perotin, who was the first to start developing three and four-voice organum, now known as
organum duplum, organum triplum and even organum quadruplum. Prominent as this style was,
however, it soon gave way to a whole new genre in the early 13th century - the motet. The
principal advantage of this new style was that it became possibly to add new text (in Latin) to
the upper voices of discant style organal incipids. Very soon the motet became the singular
most important polyphonic genre for both sacred and secular music. The end of the 13th
century finally gives the motet a firm definition, and what used to be the tenor of early organum
was now called cantus firmus, types of rhythmic division finally develop and there are now two
new subdivisions of the former longs and breves.