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The Magnus Liber or Magnus liber organi (English translation: Great Book of Organum), written in Latin, was a repertory of medieval music known as organum. This collection of organum survives today in 3 major manuscripts. This repertoire was in use by the Notre-Dame school composers working in Paris around the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, though it is well agreed upon by scholars that Leonin contributed a bulk of the organum in the repertoire. This large body of repertoire is known from references to a "magnum volumen" by Johannes de Garlandia and to a "Magnus liber organi de graduali et antiphonario pro servitio divino" by the English music theorist known simply as Anonymous IV. Today it is known only from later manuscripts containing compositions named in Anonymous IV's description. The Magnus liber is regarded as the earliest collection of polyphony, and is therefore regarded highly in the studies of musicology and music history.

Surviving Manuscripts

The Magnus liber organi is considered most likely to have originated in Paris, and is known today by only a few surviving manuscripts and fragments, and there are records of at least seventeen lost versions. Today its contents can be inferred from the 3 surviving major manuscripts:

• Florence Manuscript [F] (I-Fl Pluteo 29.1, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence)
• Wolfenbüttel 677 [W1] (Wolfenbüttel Cod. Guelf. Helmst. 677)
• Wolfenbüttel 1099 [W2] (Wolfenbüttel Cod. Guelf. Helmst 1099)

"Evidence of lost Notre Dame manuscripts, including the names of their owners, is plentiful indeed" , tracing back to year 1456 when manscript F first appeared in the library of Piero de' Medici. Of the two others, referred to as W1 & W2, both in the Herzog August Bibliothek (Ducal Library), the first is thought to have originated in the cathedral priory of St Andrews, Scotland, and less is known about W2. The Ma fragment (Madrid 20486) is, believed to be originally from Toledo. Catalogues referring to other lost copies attest to the wide diffusion through Western Europe of the repertoire later called ars antiqua.

Contributors to the Liber

It is unknown whether the the Liber had one sole contributor, though it is noted by scholars that large parts were composed by Léonin (1135–c.1200). Though it is a controversial topic among scholars, some believe parts of the Magnus liber organi may have revised by Pérotin (fl. 1200).

The music from the Liber has been published in modern times by William Waite (1954), Hans Tischler (1989) and by Edward Roesner (1993–2009).

Styles and Genres of the Repertoire

The early music of Notre Dame cathedral represents a transitional time for Western culture. Coinciding with the architectural innovation that produced the structure of the Cathedral itself, from the beginning of its construction in 1163. A handful of surviving manuscripts demonstrate the evolution of polyphonic elaboration of the liturgical plainchant that was used at the cathedral every day throughout the year. While the concept of combining voices in harmony to enrich plainsong chant was not new, there lacked the established and codified musical theory techniques to enable the rational construction of such pieces.

The innovations at Notre Dame consisted of a system of musical notation which included patterns of short and long musical notes known as longs and breves. This system is referred to mensural music as it demonstrates the beginning of 'measured time' in music, organizing lengths of pitches within plainchant and later, the motet genre.

The Magnus Liber represents a step in the evolution of Western music between plainchant and the intricate polyphony of the later 13th and 14th centuries (see Machaut and Ars Nova). The music of the Magnus Liber displays a connection to the emerging Gothic style of architecture; just as ornate cathedrals were built to house holy relics, organa were written to elaborate Gregorian chant, which too was considered holy. In the organi of the Magnus liber, one voice sang the notes of the Gregorian chant elongated to enormous length called the tenor (from Latin 'to hold'), but was also known as the vox principalis. As many as three voices, known as the vox organalis (or vinnola vox, the "vining voice") were notated above the tenor, with quicker lines moving and weaving together, a style also known as florid organum . The evolution from a single line of music (monophony) to one where multiple lines all carried the same weight (polyphony) is shown through the writing of organa. The practice of keeping a slow moving "tenor" line continued into secular music, and the words of the original chant survived in some cases as well. One of the most common types of organa in the Magnus Liber is the clausula, which are "sections where, in discantus style, the tenor uses rhythmic patterns as well as the upper part" . These sections of polyphony were substituted into longer organa. The extant manuscripts provide a number of notational challenges to modern practice, since they contain only the polyphonic elements, from which the chant has to be inferred.

The music of the Magnus Liber was used in the liturgy of the church throughout the feasts of the church year. The text contains only the polyphonic lines and the notation is not exact, as barlines were still several centuries from invention. The chant was added to the notated music, and it was up to the performers to fit the disparate lines together into a coherent whole, meaning even an instrument could have been used to represent the tenor line.

References

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