What is Pérotin?
[[File:Perotin - Alleluia nativitas.jpg|right|thumb|200px| A page from Pérotin’s ''Alleluia nativitas'']] '''Pérotin''' (lived around [[1200]]), was a [[medieval]] [[composer]]. He was probably [[France|French]]. Nothing is known about his life except that he worked in or around [[Paris]] in the late [[12th century]] to early [[13th century]]. People have tried to find out who he was by studying the [[archive]]s of [[Notre Dame Cathedral]], but his name has not been found there. He probably had another name, and used the name Pérotin for his compositions. Pérotin worked on a very important collection of [[polyphonic]] music called ''Magnus Liber'' (meaning: Big Book). The composer [[Léonin]] had written a lot of this music. He may have been Pérotin's teacher, but we do not know. He seems to have written music for four voices which are settings of words for the [[Feast of the Circumcision]] and [[St Stephen]]'s Day. He wrote three and four voice music of a type called [[organum]]. It was a very important development in the history of Western music. He wrote music in a [[polyphonic]] style. Often he took a tune and arranged it so that one voice sang it incredibly slowly while another voice sang something much faster on top. It is difficult to work out any dates for his works because of the way the music was written. Often it is not even clear what [[mode (music)|mode]] they are in. Pérotin's music has been an influence on some [[20th century]] composers who wrote [[minimalism|minimalist]] music such as [[Steve Reich]]. == References == *''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan {{DEFAULTSORT:Perotin}} [[Category:Medieval composers]] [[Category:French composers]]