Magister leoninus biography graphic organizer

During his lifetime, Leoninus wrote both poetry and music.  Among his accomplishments as a poet was the setting of the first eight books of the Old Testament as hexametric verse.  However, today he is chiefly remembered for his contributions as a composer of polyphonic liturgical music.  While most composers of this genre were anonymous, Leoninus is credited with having written the Magnus liber organi (The Great Book of Organum), a work that notated Leoninus’s sacred polyphonic compositions and which greatly influenced western musical practices for the next several hundred years.

Life

While there is some debate as to the identity of the Magnus liber organi’s composer, the theory that the composer was Magister Leonius (Leoninus) of the Paris Notre Dame Cathedral is the most commonly accepted one.  Active in Paris during the building of the Notre Dame Cathedral, Leoninus’s life corresponds with a very exciting time i