French composer of sacred music, the most highly acclaimed musical figure of the High Gothic period. Pérotin worked in Paris, and was the most celebrated exponent of the School of Notre Dame, in which monophonic chant was elaborated into polyphony – a style called "organum" (tenor chant in even rhythm, enlivened by quicker figures in the upper voices).

He composed mostly hymns & sequences, as well as some likely partial attributions of mass cycles (along with his older contemporary, Leonin). It was for his supreme mastery of this style that he was dubbed "The Great." ~ Todd McComb (6/94)