(m t t´) (KEY) ,
name for the outstanding type of musical composition of the 13th cent. and
for a different type that originated in the Renaissance. The 13th-century
motet, a creation (c.1200) of the school of Notre-Dame de Paris, was a
polyphonic composition based on a
tenor that was a
fragment of plainsong (or, later, of any type of melody, sacred or secular)
arranged in a brief, reiterated rhythmic pattern called an ordo. It
existed side by side but was distinct from the conductus, an earlier
development of choral composition, which was not based on preexisting
liturgical chants and which employed several voice parts in a type of
harmony. The motet’s original text, sometimes only a word or two, was kept,
but the tenor may have been played on instruments. The second part, called
motetus [Fr. mot=word], had its own text, usually sacred and
in Latin but by the second half of the century sometimes secular and in
French. The third voice, the triplum, had still another text, and very often
the motet combined a triplum that was a French love song and a motetus
that was a Latin hymn to the Virgin Mary. The outgrowth of this early motet
was the isorhythmic motet of the late 13th and the 14th cent. It employed a
recurring rhythmic pattern called a talea, longer than an ordo
and not restricted to the tenor part. Of the 23 extant motets of Guillaume
de Machaut
(c.1300–c.1377), an outstanding 14th-century composer, 20 are isorhythmic.
Isorhythmic technique was not confined to the motet and persisted into the
mid-15th cent. The Renaissance motet had but one text, in Latin, and was a
polyphonic, unaccompanied composition. It had usually from four to six
voices and was free from the 13th-century rhythmic rigidity. Cultivated by
composers of the Flemish school, it had spread throughout Europe by the
middle of the 15th cent. Outstanding composers are Josquin Desprez and
Orlando di Lasso of the Flemish school; the Italians Andrea Gabrieli,
Giovanni Gabrieli, and Palestrina; the Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria; and
the Englishmen Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. In the baroque era the
greatest motets were written in Germany to German texts. The Symphoniae
Sacrae of Heinrich Schütz include many motets in various styles, with
the addition of solo voices and instrumental accompaniment. The peak is
reached in the six motets of Bach, which are thought to have had some
continuo accompaniment. Since Bach’s time the term motet has been
applied to almost any kind of sacred choral polyphony but usually refers to
unaccompanied Latin motets for use in Roman Catholic services. Many anthems
in English, however, have been designated motets by their composers. |
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