Even in the 12th century the Notre Dame school for singers in Paris was famous everywhere for its artistic arrangement of liturgic singing. When the gothic cathedrals were still enormous construction sights, the musical foundations for a new style were laid there as well. 100 years later Guillaume de Machaut created a masterpiece of the then young vocal polyphony for the still unfinished cathedral in Reims: the first recorded four-part scoring of a mass by a single composer with his individual "signature". Startling interpretations by the Ensemble Organum have revolutionized this repertoire. Their 1997 recording of the "Messe de Notre Dame" was voted one of the 100 most important 20th century records by the New York Times.