Organum

This article is about a style of music. For the musical instrument, see organum (musical instrument).

Related Topics:
Music - Organum (musical instrument)

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Organum (The stress is traditionally on the first syllable but it is occasionally put on the second instead ) is a technique of singing developed in the Middle Ages, and is an early form of polyphonic music. In its earliest stages, organum involved two musical voices: a Gregorian chant melody, and the same melody transposed by a consonant interval, usually a perfect fifth or fourth. In these cases often the composition began and ended on a unison, maintaining the transposition only between the start and finish. Organum was originally improvised; while one singer performed a notated melody (the vox principalis), another singer—singing "by ear"—provided the unnotated second melody (the vox organalis). Over time, composers began to write added parts that were not just simple transpositions, and thus true polyphony was born.

Related Topics:
Singing - Middle Ages - Polyphonic - Voice - Gregorian chant - Melody - Transposed - Interval - Perfect fifth - Fourth - Unison - Improvised - Notated

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