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Organum (The stress is traditionally on the first syllable [OR-ga-num] but it is occasionally put on the second instead [or-GA-num]) is a technique of 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. HISTORY Early organum The first document to describe organum specifically, and give rules for its performance, was the '' Musica Enchiriadis '' (c. 895 ), a treatise traditionally (and probably incorrectly) attributed to Hucbald Of St. Amand . In its original conception, organum was never intended as polyphony in the modern sense; the added voice was intended as a reinforcement of the singers, who were normally in unison. It is also made clear in the ''Musica enchiriadis'' that octave doubling was acceptable, since such doubling was inevitable when men and boys sang together; and it was also acceptable to double parts with instruments. The 10th-century treatise '' Scholia Enchiriadis '' treats the subject in greater detail. The ''Musica enchiriadis'' documented a practice which was already going on, although it has not been possible to establish a beginning date for the practice, which may go back hundreds of years. Since the treatise was written slightly before the reinvention of standardised musical notation around 900, its descriptions of organum are verbal only, and it is not known how closely they were followed. For parallel singing, the original chant was the upper voice; the ''vox organalis'' was at a parallel perfect interval below, usually a fourth. Thus the melody would be heard as the principal voice, the ''vox organalis'' as an accompaniment or reinforcement. This kind of organum is now usually called parallel organum, although terms such as ''sinfonia'' were used in early treatises. Free Organum After organum the next development to arise in the practice of was that of free organum. Early examples of this style of organum use only [contrary motion (voices moving in opposite directions) as well as motion , but the introduction of motion (voices moving in the same direction, but to different intervals) and motion (one voice moving while the other stays still) led to progressively freer musical lines - a prerequisite element of Although free organum is mostly still in note-against-note style, towards the end of its lifetime (some time in the 11th century) there are examples of more than one note of the organal voice against one note in the [cantus firmus - another precursor of contrapuntal techniques. Florid organum Organum as a musical genre reached its peak in the twelfth century with the development of two very different schools of organum composition: the ), which included composers such as Léonin and Pérotin , and out of which grew most of the later forms such as the Motet . Melismatic Organum Notre Dame school SEE ALSO
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