Friday, May 08, 2009

Pérotin 'Alleluia nativitas'

As sung by the Hilliard Ensemble, per this YouTube entry.





Background information at the YouTube page:
Pérotin (fl. c. 1200), also called Perotin the Great, was a European composer, believed to be French, who lived around the end of the twelfth and beginning of the 13th century. He was the most famous member of the Notre Dame school of polyphony. He was one of very few composers of his day whose name has been preserved, and can be reliably attached to individual compositions; this is due to the testimony of an anonymous English student at Notre Dame known as Anonymous IV, who wrote about him and his predecessor Léonin. Anonymous IV called him "Perotin Magister", which means "Pérotin the master or expert." The name Pérotin is itself derived from "Perotinus," the Latin diminutive of Petrus, the Latin version of the French name Pierre.

"Alleluia nativitas"

Choral Alleluya V. Nativitas gloriose virginis is a three-part organum, which is attributed to the medieval French composer Perotinus (fl c.1200), who is also known as Pérotin. Written for three male voices, it contains many common aspects of organa composition, including particularly the frequent and interweaving juxtaposition of intervalic consonance with extreme discord. Following the tradition of tropes and sequences in the 10th and 11th centuries, organa were composed for feast days. They were used in both the Offices (small services held throughout the day) and the Ordinary of the Mass (The part of the mass that could use changeable texts). Alleluya Nativitas forms the Alleluia from the Mass of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is celebrated on September 8. As such, it consists of an the sung word "Alleluia" followed by three verses (the first line of which is "Nativitas gloriose virginis") ~ All Music Guide

Performed : The Hilliard Ensemble


And now we know where the women's vocal ensemble, Anonymous 4, got their name, too! More about the original Anonymous IV here.

And here, apparently, is the chant score:
























EDIT:   Then there's this version, from Japan; it says "[Len Teto Gakupo] Perotin "Alleluya. Nativitas" from Organum with pipe organ [Vocalo Classica]":



And there's also this, jazz version. It says "Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble - Alleluia. Nativitas," although I must say it's difficult to find the tune of the original 'Alleluia nativitas' in there! Still, I like it quite a lot.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

As you may know, this was removed from YouTube! I absolutely adore this arrangement & would love to know if you could provide an mp3 or another link. Thank you!

bls said...

I didn't know. I found another version by an Italian choir, and then a couple of other things, too, above.

Unknown said...

Wow, thank you for the near-immediate reply! I particularly like the Italian choir version. You are very appreciated!

bls said...

Sure, delighted. The Hilliard version is wonderful, I agree - too bad about that. But I do like putting up the recordings that small choirs make, too....

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