<P> Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has a wide, if uneven, distribution among the peoples of the world . Most polyphonic regions of the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Oceania . It is believed that the origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predate the emergence of polyphony in European professional music . Currently there are two contradictory approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony: the Cultural Model, and the Evolutionary Model . According to the Cultural Model, the origins of polyphony are connected to the development of human musical culture; polyphony came as the natural development of the primordial monophonic singing; therefore polyphonic traditions are bound to gradually replace monophonic traditions . According to the Evolutionary Model, the origins of polyphonic singing are much deeper, and are connected to the earlier stages of human evolution; polyphony was an important part of a defence system of the hominids, and traditions of polyphony are gradually disappearing all over the world . </P> <P> Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis, both dating from c. 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony . These treatises provided examples of two - voice note - against - note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths . Rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance . The Winchester Troper, from c. 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, although the notation does not indicate precise pitch levels or durations . </P> <P> European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant . Twelfth - century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant . In the thirteenth century, the chant - based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to play with this new invention called polyphony . The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody . The oldest surviving piece of six - part music is the English rota Sumer is icumen in (c. 1240). </P> <P> These musical innovations appeared in a greater context of societal change . After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular . Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages . However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a living language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). Once these ancient works started being translated thus becoming accessible, the philosophies had a great impact on the mind of Western Europe . This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, and music . </P>

Who was the first composer to write polyphonic music