The Origin of Polyphony in Catholicism—Taking the Medieval Organum as an Example

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Medieval Religion; Polyphonic Music; Organum

Abstract

With the development of medieval religion, the earliest form of polyphonic music in Europe, the Organum, emerged in the 9th century. This paper takes the Organum, a core form of medieval Catholic music, as the research object and delves into the unique characteristics of polyphonic music formed in the specific environment of Catholicism, as well as its complete historical evolution from its inception to development. By employing the method of literature review combined with score analysis, this paper presents the typological characteristics of the Organum and argues that the Organum is not only a foundational practice of polyphonic music but also a combination of faith expression and artistic innovation. The study ultimately points out that medieval theological thought, liturgical practice, and social environment became a unique breeding ground for the growth of polyphony. The development of the Organum reflects the combination of sacredness and artistic autonomy in medieval Christian culture, and under the combined influence of church needs, technical standardization (notation), and socio-cultural changes, it paved the way for the subsequent evolution of Western polyphonic music.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Xinyu Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - The Origin of Polyphony in Catholicism—Taking the Medieval Organum as an Example
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 236
EP  - 243
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_28
ID  - Wang2026
ER  -