Margot Fassler, Endowed Professor of Theology and expert in liturgy, music history and Medieval cathedrals. She has led undergraduate tours of the Notre Dame Cathedral. 

 

Comment: 

 

The Cathedral ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ is the cradle of late medieval music. Much of the imagination of those involved in European, religion, culture and music is tied to this place.

 

Late 12th- and early 13th- century polyphonic repertory created at Notre Dame has provided an understanding of how musicians learned to capture rhythm in their notational systems.  The innovative musicians Adam of St. Victor, Leonin, and Perotin were all connected to the cathedral in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

 

Although the building has been constantly reshaped over time, much of the architecture and sculpture dates back to the original building, which was completed in around a century beginning in the 1160s. The thirteenth-century rose windows and the organs are assumed to be among the casualties.