Repetitio in Perotin's organa quadrupla: on the rhetorical nature of the organization of the musical discourse

Abstract

In the light of the Parisian intellectual context of the 13th century, this paper proposes tools for the analysis of Perotin's quadrupla, Viderunt omnes and Sederunt principes. The study of these works evidences the organization of a musical discourse intemally structured, in the sur­face, by the use of repetitio and its various rhetorical "figures". At a larger scale, however, repe­tition does not produce the same effects.