Demoing Perotin (8 guitars)

Don and I were talking about the pretty-much-anonymous 13th century composer Perotin the other night.

Their compositional style is some of the first true polyphony (more than one voice) we know of after Gregorian Chant, at least looking through the Western/European lens. Don thought it would be cool to set something of theirs up for our Guitar Cult.

Inspired by that, I demoed this today:

This is actually maybe the initial third of the piece Viderunt Omnes. We just moved our piano back home, and I used it to full effect: I rested the amp on the sustain pedal, aimed at the soundboard, and recorded each part. Lots of resonance.

Here’s the vocal version of the whole shebang (way faster than I’m taking it – maybe double-time):