Motets

As a word and a concept, “isorhythm” is in a state of flux. The practice’s modern name and its validity as a generic determinant have been called into question by Margaret Bent, while Anna Maria Busse Berger has argued that the structural regularity we have tended to see as an end in itself is in fact the result of mnemonic practices.

Within this revitalized discourse, one aspect of the narrative remains unquestioned: the tenor continues to be viewed as the primary shaping force in the construction of “isorhythmic” works. This received view has consequences for the analysis and interpretation of motets because it casts the upper voices in a supporting role, both structurally and semantically.

Attention to upper-voice rhythmic repetition in a number of fourteenth-century French motets brings to light structures that are more intricate—and more interesting—than those suggested by their tenors. While this phenomenon—sometimes called “Großtalea” or “supertalea”—has occasionally been observed in the analyses of individual motets, the dozen or so works involved have never been considered as a group. In fact, supertaleae have broad implications for our understanding of isorhythmic procedures.
The hermeneutic consequences of independent upper-voice structures are particularly clear in the case of Machaut’s S’il estoit/S’amours (Motet 6). There, the presence of “extra bits” in the tenor has led several commentators to construct narratives about imbalance and excess, but such narratives are not sustained by an analysis that begins with the upper voices. Supertaleae can also help account for Beatius/Cum humanum, a motet newly edited from fragmentary sources. Though its tenor has not survived, its upper voices hint at a form that no known tenor repetition scheme would be able to support. That some works may have forms into which the tenor is made to fit, rather than forms built on that tenor, has radical implications for the analysis and interpretation of ars nova motets, regardless of whether their taleae be super- or not.

New researches have increased our knowledge of the recension of the 14th century Roman de Fauvel, BNF fr. 146. Political satires and allegories of historical events play a key role in the Roman, and reversals are an essential part of the text and of the manuscript. In the Roman, we find the earliest examples of red notes used to signify changing rhythmic modus. Why did the notator introduce such a device?

The motet "Probitate eminentem / Ploditando exarare" is attributed to the Central European composer and poet, Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz (b. 1392, d. after 1452). Although it was probably written during the mid-fifteenth century, it has survived in two manuscripts from the last quarter of that century: the Żagań partbooks (olim "Glogauer Liederbuch", KrakJ 40098) and the Lviv fragments (PozU 7022). The only complete version of this work is known from the first source. In this version the motet is intended for four voices: the two higher ones (discantus, contratenor altus) are provided with texts, while the two lower ones, the instrumental contratenor bassus and the isorhythmic tenor, have no text. An analysis of this work and its copy in the Lviv fragments leads to the conclusion that it was originally a three-voice composition, without the contratenor bassus.
The two texts of this composition are of a panegyrical character: they are dedicated to a monk from Żagań, Andreas Ritter (KrakJ 40098) or an unknown person (PozU 7022). The other aspect of the composition is revealed during performance: by using the device of "polyphony of texts" the laudatory motet becomes a satirical one. The true meaning of the work is also encoded in the symbolism of the number eleven, signifying sin and imperfection. The isorhythmic tenor consists of eleven notes, and the talea – taking repetition into account – recurs twenty-two times. The composition seems to refer to the tradition of laudatory motet, but it is an à rebours reference. Petrus Wilhelmi was more closely associated with the tradition of polytextual motets being composed in Central Europe than with the motets being written by such composers as Johannes Brassart, whom Wilhelmi may have met at the court of the Habsburgs. Association with the Central European tradition is indicated by such characteristics as the absence of metric complications, small rhythmic values of the tenor and song-like melodic features. "Probitate eminentem / Ploditando exarare" remains an isolated phenomenon among isorhythmic motets from the first half of the fifteenth century.

Polyphony associated with the Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame marks a historical turning point in medieval music. Yet a lack of analytical or theoretical systems has discouraged close study of twelfth- and thirteenth-century musical objects, despite the fact that such creations represent the beginnings of musical composition as we know it. Is musical analysis possible for such medieval repertoires? Catherine A. Bradley demonstrates that it is, presenting new methodologies to illuminate processes of musical and poetic creation, from monophonic plainchant and vernacular French songs, to polyphonic organa, clausulae, and motets in both Latin and French. This book engages with questions of text-music relationships, liturgy, and the development of notational technologies, exploring concepts of authorship and originality as well as practices of quotation and musical reworking.

The goal of this work was the study of structural aspects in polyphonic pieces by Adrian Willaert, aiming to identify a possible relationship between his vocal and instrumental works, namely the moteto and ricercare genres. Among the various structural aspects that served as a basis for comparison, cadence was chosen as a measurable and predominant common element, by patterns of occurrence and typology associated with a relatively well-established classification by Bernhard Meier. Some unusual cadential species were identified in Willaert’s pieces, specially the melodic clausula cantizans fuggita, which however could not be attributed to the composer without an investigation on its possible occurrence in works by influential composers such as Josquin. This observation implied in the study of primary sources previous to Willaert, in order to identify, on the one hand, aspects that corroborated the development of the instrumental music from vocal models during the fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuries and, on the other hand, possible influences related to the use of these unusual cadential species. An expanded cadential plan model was developed as the pieces were being analyzed, including a method of motivic analysis that prompted the scope examination of this converging analytical method in a piece by Clemens non Papa, a contemporary but unrelated composer to Willaert’s circle. As a consequence of this research, it was possible to identify a cadential structure nominated ‘staggered cadence’ as an ultimate means of potential articulation, besides some structural groupings in coupling with the basic cadential pattern cantizans-tenorizans, here nominated as ‘C/T-cadence’.

A transcription of Machaut's Rondeau 14, "Ma fin est ma commencement" ("my end is my beginning"). The score is rendered to be read both forwards and backwards as necessitated by the music. For an animated video of the score with a performance visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcfPr4IN2MM

A pedagogical transcription of Richard Sampson's (attr.) motet in double canon, "Salve radix," written to celebrate the union of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon and the birth of their daughter, Mary.

For a video with recording accompanying the modern transcription with side-by-side animated original notated music see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9wl1XqV6Nk

Les grands motets de Mondonville représentent l'apogée d'un genre initié par Robert et Dumont, formalisé par Lully et développé par Lalande et ses successeurs.
Ces grands motets assurèrent le succès à Mondonville pendant plus de vingt ans au Concert Spirituel et à la Chapelle Royale. Le Nisi Dominus fut joué plus d'une quarantaine de fois au Concert Spirituel.

La source unique de cette œuvre est sans doute une partition réduite, c'est à dire dont il manque les parties d'alto. La préface propose une étude sur les parties d'alto dans les grands motets de Mondonville, et une argumentation pour démontrer que le Nisi Dominus comportait surement des parties d'alto.
Dans la partition, on trouvera une proposition de reconstitution de ces parties d'alto.

Le Nisi Dominus a été recréé pour la première fois en 2003 par l'ensemble Le Parnasse français.

Cette édition du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles comporte une introduction historique, le texte latin et sa traduction en français, des notes pour l'interprétation, la partition et des notes critiques.

Composé pour la Maison royale de Saint-Cyr, couvent et pensionnat pour jeunes filles nobles fondé par Madame de Maintenon, le Miserere de Nicolas Clérambault représente, avec les Leçons de Ténèbres de Couperin, l’apogée du motet à voix égales destiné aux couvents.

Écrit pour un chœur à trois voix égales (2 dessus et 1 bas-dessus), dont sont issus les solistes, et basse continue à l’orgue, le Miserere est une œuvre particulièrement remarquable par ses proportions – près de 700 mesures – rares pour ce type d’effectif. Le psaume Miserere, l’un des sept psaumes de pénitence, se chantait à Saint-Cyr aux laudes de l’office des Morts et, pendant la semaine sainte, à celles de l’office des Ténèbres.

Cette édition accompagnée d’une préface documentée et d’un appareil critique, en français et en anglais, se fonde sur les quatre sources manuscrites parvenues jusqu’à nous.

Les grands motets de Mondonville représentent l'apogée d'un genre initié par Robert et Dumont, formalisé par Lully et développé par Lalande et ses successeurs. Ces grands motets assurèrent le succès à Mondonville pendant plus de vingt ans au Concert Spirituel et à la Chapelle Royale.
Cette édition du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles comporte une introduction historique, le texte latin et sa traduction en français, des notes pour l'interprétation, la partition et des notes critiques.

Tomás Luis de Victoria’s and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s motets are surprisingly understudied. On the other hand, recent analytical comparisons have clearly (and intriguingly) demonstrated that Victoria knew Palestrina’s music, reworked it, modelled his own works on it in different ways and in different phases of his career, but most notably in his first published collection of 1572. Thus, the aim of the article is twofold: to study Palestrina’s motets published before 1572 and Victoria’s motets of the same year focusing on formal design and sonic architecture; and to shed new light on the compositional relationship between the two masters. Palestrina’s "Motecta festorum totius anni" (1563), "Liber primus motettorum" (1569), "Motettorum … liber secundus" (1572), and Victoria’s "Motecta" (1572) are taken into consideration. Issues of imitatio and originality, the problem of form in the motet, and questions regarding the definition of sonic styles in late sixteenth-century polyphony are discussed. The results of this analytical survey confirm Palestrina’s role as a ‘great inspirer’, and at the same time show that Victoria, while setting up an enduring compositional dialogue with his senior colleague, used and developed his own, highly individual voice.

The primary goal of this dissertation is to produce a rigorous methodology for distinguishing between the contrapunctus structure and its elaboration in performing structural analysis of fourteenth-century diminished counterpoint. This methodology is based on historical thought by carefully analyzing contemporaneous treatises and their musical examples in order to better understand the compositional process conveyed both explicitly and implicitly in the treatises. In Chapter 1, I examine the various uses of the phrase “fundamentum discanti” (“foundation of discant”) in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century treatises and discuss its connection to contrapunctus as the structural foundation to support its embellishment, demonstrated through analysis of the musical examples in De diminutione contrapuncti and the Compendium de discantu mensurabili by Petrus dictus Palma Ociosa. Chapter 2 further contextualizes this argument by illustrating the significant conceptual shift regarding the relationship between tonal structure and elaboration from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century. I then consider the relationship between theory and practice in Chapter 3 through a detailed analysis of dissonance treatment in the treatise examples and contemporaneous repertoires in order to determine which repertoires most relate to the teachings of contrapunctus treatises. Finally, Chapter 4 presents structural analyses of fourteenth-century motets and motet-style liturgical polyphony. First, I build upon the analytical methodology presented in Chapter 1 by presenting a number of analytical criteria for determining the contrapunctus structure. Then, I discuss the prevalence of particular elaborative figures and their implications for structural analysis. Finally, I demonstrate how my analytical methodology may be used in conjunction with other methodologies of sonority and cadence to analyze large-scale tonal structures, illustrated with an analysis of Machaut’s Motet 17 as well as a comparison of Vitry’s Flos/Celsa and Gloria Ivrea 64.

En􏰂 este􏰂 trabajo􏰂 pretendo􏰂 adentrarme􏰂 en􏰂 el􏰂 repertorio􏰂 coral􏰂 sacro􏰂 a􏰂 capella􏰂 del􏰂 compositor􏰂 francés􏰂 Francis􏰂 Poulenc􏰂 (*París,􏰂 1899;􏰂 †París,􏰂 1963),􏰂 uno􏰂 de􏰂 los􏰂 más􏰂 importantes 􏰂compositores 􏰂del 􏰂siglo􏰂XX.􏰂

􏰂Dentro􏰂 de􏰂 la􏰂 música􏰂 de􏰂 este􏰂 autor,􏰂 sus􏰂 aportaciones􏰂 a􏰂 la􏰂 escritura􏰂 coral􏰂 (originalidad􏰂 en􏰂 el􏰂 tratamiento􏰂 melódico􏰂 de􏰂 las􏰂 líneas,􏰂 cuidado􏰂 trabajo􏰂 de􏰂 los􏰂 textos,􏰂 armonía...)􏰂 lo􏰂 prefiguran􏰂 como􏰂 uno􏰂 de􏰂 los􏰂 autores􏰂 más􏰂 audaces􏰂 e􏰂 innovadores􏰂 en􏰂 este􏰂 campo,􏰂 alcanzando􏰂 cotas􏰂 geniales􏰂 de􏰂 originalidad􏰂 y􏰂 creatividad,􏰂 todo􏰂 ello􏰂 en􏰂 el􏰂 contexto􏰂 de􏰂 su􏰂 formación􏰂 autodidacta.􏰂 Es􏰂 en􏰂 su􏰂 música􏰂 coral􏰂 a􏰂 capella,􏰂 más􏰂 concretamente􏰂 en􏰂 la􏰂 música􏰂 sacra,􏰂 donde􏰂 encontramos􏰂 estos􏰂 rasgos􏰂 tan􏰂 interesantes􏰂 de􏰂 manera􏰂 más􏰂 lograda􏰂 y􏰂 perfecta,􏰂 probablemente􏰂 como􏰂 consecuencia􏰂 de􏰂 su􏰂 conversión 􏰂al 􏰂catolicismo.􏰂􏰂

Después􏰂 de􏰂 hacer􏰂 un􏰂 recorrido􏰂 por􏰂 su􏰂 biografía􏰂 y􏰂 por􏰂 su􏰂 catálogo􏰂 de􏰂 música􏰂 coral􏰂 me􏰂 centraré􏰂 en􏰂 el􏰂 estudio􏰂 de􏰂 dos􏰂 de􏰂 sus􏰂 obras􏰂 para􏰂 coro􏰂 mixto􏰂 a􏰂 capella:􏰂 los􏰂 Quatre􏰂 motets􏰂 pour􏰂 un􏰂 temps􏰂 de􏰂 pénitence􏰂 (1938􏰭39)􏰂 y􏰂 los􏰂 Quatre􏰂 motets􏰂 pour􏰂 le􏰂 temps􏰂 de􏰂 Noël􏰂 (1951􏰭52),􏰂 que􏰂 analizaré􏰂 detalladamente􏰂 tratando􏰂 de􏰂 encontrar􏰂 rasgos característicos de este repertorio que me permitan entenderlo con profundidad.􏰂

Poulenc􏰂 sintetiza􏰂 y􏰂 sublima􏰂 el􏰂 estilo􏰂 francés,􏰂 recibiendo􏰂 el􏰂 testigo􏰂 del􏰂 siglo􏰂 anterior􏰂 (iniciado􏰂 con􏰂 Charles􏰂 Gounod􏰂 y􏰂 Camille􏰂 Saint-􏰭Saëns􏰂 y􏰂 continuado􏰂 con􏰂 Gabriel􏰂 Fauré),􏰂 llegando􏰂 a􏰂 ocupar􏰂 un􏰂 puesto􏰂 de􏰂 gran􏰂 relevancia􏰂 dentro􏰂 de􏰂 la􏰂 música􏰂 religiosa􏰂 francesa.􏰂

Questions of authorship are central to the late thirteenth-century motet repertoire represented by the seventh section or fascicle of the Montpellier Codex (Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section de médecine, H. 196, hereafter Mo). Mo does not explicitly attribute any of its compositions, but theoretical sources name Petrus de Cruce as the composer of the two motets that open fascicle 7, and three later motets in this fascicle are elsewhere ascribed to Adam de la Halle. This monograph reveals a musical and textual quotation of Adam’s Aucun se sont loe incipit at the outset of Petrus’s Aucun ont trouve triplum, and it explores various invocations of Adam and Petrus – their works and techniques – within further anonymous compositions. Authorship is additionally considered from the perspective of two new types of motets especially prevalent in fascicle 7: motets that name musicians, as well as those based on vernacular song or instrumental melodies, some of which are identified by the names of their creators. This book offers new insights into the musical, poetic, and curatorial reception of thirteenth-century composers’ works in their own time. It uncovers, beneath the surface of an anonymous motet book, unsuspected interactions between authors and traces of compositional identities.

Review of Catherine A. Bradley and Karen Desmond, eds, The Montpellier Codex: The Final Fascicle, Contents, Contexts, Chronologies, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2018), pp. 351, 2 colour + 17 b&w illust., £75. ISBN: 978-1-78327-272-3.

"
Four of La Rue's motets are considered as (possibly) relating to death and mourning. The uniquely bimodal design of "Regina celi" (more extensively treated in Fuhrmann 2004) invites speculation that it is a mourning piece. "Considera Israel", often believed to refer to the death of Philipp the Fair, is more likely to have had an independent origin as a setting of a strongly emotional biblical text; any reference to Philipp seems to have been devised in retrospect. "Delicta iuventutis", the only unequivocal prayer for the dead among the pieces considered, is transmitted with two slightly different texts; though the text in I-Rvat 1976-79 is rightly considered authentic, the reference to "Philippus" in RISM 15383 has more to it than the recent motet volume of La Rue's Collected Works leads one to believe. Finally, "Quis dabit pacem", transmitted without text in I-Fn 232, is shown to belong to a tradition of mourning motets beginning with the words "Quis dabit", which originated with Isaac's works on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici and continued into the early 17th century. But any attempt to reconstruct La Rue's textsetting with the help of Isaac's "Quis dabit pacem" faces serious problems, as is demonstrated here. (Author)"

"Sebastián de Vivanco y las tendencias progresistas del motete hispánico en torno a 1600". Notas musicológicas para el CD Sancti et Justi. Sebastián de Vivanco (Motecta, 1610). Capilla Flamenca y Oltremontano, Dirk Snellings, director. Cantus, C9649, Madrid, pp. 4-22 [español] y pp. 23-38 [inglés].
En los meses de noviembre y diciembre de 2002, el maravilloso conjunto vocal Capilla Flamenca unió sus fuerzas al grupo de cornetas y sacabuches Oltremontano en la capilla del Colegio Irlandés de Lovaina (Bélgica), para grabar una selección de motetes del compositor abulense Sebastián de Vivanco. La elección de Capilla Flamenca y Oltremontano para interpretar estas extraordinarias obras no fue casual. Musicalmente, pocos intérpretes podrían ser mejores que estos dos conjuntos de renombre universal para rescatar estos bellos motetes. Fue además Artus Taberniel, el impresor de Amberes radicado en Salamanca, quien publicó los tres libros de polifonía de Vivanco que han llegado hasta nosotros. Y ningún grupo vocal más apropiado que la Capilla Flamenca, cuyo nombre se tomó de la famosa capilla formada por Carlos I de España, quien al abandonar los Países Bajos en 1517, escogió a algunos de los mejores músicos de allá para que lo acompañaran en su viaje a España.
Cuando Dirk Snellings, fundador y director de Capilla Flamenca, contactó con José Carlos Cabello, el director artístico de Cantus, para pedirle que coordinara algunos aspectos relativos a la producción general de la grabación y eventual publicación del CD resultante, surgió entre ambos una amistad que perduró hasta que Snellings murió en 2014. La edición original del CD, que utiliza la transcripción de Dámaso García Fraile (2001) fue publicada por la Fundación de Las Edades del Hombre en 2003 para acompañar su exposición “El Árbol de la Vida”, celebrada en Segovia (en cuya catedral sirvió Vivanco también) ese año. Nunca fue comercializada ni distribuida de manera regular. Al inicio de su enfermedad, Dirk Snellings pidió a José Carlos Cabello que realizara una reedición en Cantus de este disco, que fuera tan bella y completa como la música de Vivanco y las interpretaciones de Capilla Flamenca y Oltremontano merecían. El Dr. Javier Marín, de la Universidad de Jaén, gran especialista en Vivanco, ha sido el encargado de redactar y coordinar las nuevas notas al programa. El deslumbrante resultado está ahora por fin disponible en todo el mundo, como homenaje a Sebastián de Vivanco y por supuesto a Dirk Snellings, que al frente de su Capilla Flamenca grabó casi 40 discos absolutamente indispensables (este de Vivanco fue, por cierto, su única incursión monográfica en la música de un compositor español).
Aunque los musicólogos siempre han reconocido la calidad de la música de Vivanco, sólo en tiempos recientes se ha profundizado en su vida y su obra merced a especialistas como Bruno Turner, Dean Neuernberger, Dámaso García Fraile, Jorge Martín, Javier Marín o Ana Sabe. Al parecer Vivanco habría nacido en Ávila, coincidiendo con Victoria como niño de coro de la catedral. Con frecuencia se ha querido comparar la obra de uno y otro, pero la de Vivanco, que siempre permaneció en España, ha de ser puesta en relación con la de otros compositores como Alonso Lobo, Juan Esquivel o Alonso de Tejeda. Pese a no haber viajado a Italia, Vivanco exhibe un buen conocimiento de las tendencias más vanguardistas de su tiempo adaptadas a la tradición castellana y sus motetes permiten conocer los cambios operados en la música española con el cambio de siglo.
Las versiones propuestas por Capilla Flamenca y Oltremontano son extraordinarias. Tanto en los motetes más íntimos como en los más exultantes, extraen todas las posibilidades expresivas y técnicas de las obras: resaltan las atrevidas armonías que incluyen intervalos aumentados, subrayan los súbitos cambios de ritmo tan propios de la seconda prattica, dan una gran claridad a los pasajes imitativos de los principios de frase… Alternan la interpretación puramente a capella de algunos motetes con las versiones instrumentales, o buscan también las lecturas que fusionan voces e instrumentos, obteniendo unos colores realmente fascinantes. Sin duda, interpretaciones de la máxima altura para una música de gran finura y calidad, que concilia modernidad y tradición en una época de profundas transformaciones.

Créé pendant la Semaine Sainte de l’année 1663, par les chanteurs de la Chambre et de la Chapelle du Roi, et l’orchestre des Vingt-quatre Violons, le Miserere de Lully fut admiré en son temps et longtemps considéré comme le modèle du grand motet français

Le psaume 50, avec ses vingt versets courts aux affects variés offrit à Lully l’occasion de prouver, dans le genre du motet, son talent de dramaturge. À une époque où l’écriture contrapuntique dominait encore la musique sacrée, les contrastes dramatiques introduits par Lully, en usant de tous les artifices d’écriture permis par le double-chœur, représentèrent une véritable nouveauté en France.

Cette partition peut être interprétée par différents effectifs vocaux et orchestraux. Au minimum, il faut un petit chœur de 6 solistes (2 dessus, 1 bas-dessus, 1 haute-contre, 1 taille, 1 basse), un grand chœur à 5 voix (dessus, haute-contre, taille, basse-taille, basse), un orchestre à cordes, et un orgue positif.

Cette édition du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles comporte une introduction historique (FR/EN), le texte latin et sa traduction (FR/EN), la partition et un appareil critique (FR/EN). La réduction clavier et le matériel du Miserere sont disponibles chez le même éditeur.

The fourteenth-century French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut is Western Europe's first example of what we may term the "conscious composer," a composer aware of his entire output and therefore interested in compiling and preserving it. Machaut's consistent use of his own distinctive musical language, combining predominant stylistic techniques of his day with unique melodic features, provides the modern scholar with a number of compelling challenges, especially in the interpretation of what is generally thought to be the first polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary by a single composer, the Messe De Nostre Dame. Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame is thus the first documented setting of a complete Mass Ordinary by a single composer. An important question for students and scholars is whether the Mass was conceived as a coherent work or was a mere assemblage of settings of the various sections, compiled for some special occasion or for regular liturgical use. Most contemporary scholars believe this setting was not composed as a unified work, but rather was composed as separate pieces for various occasions and later compiled into a single work overseen by Machaut himself.

Thus, the scholar is faced with a fundamental methodological question: Should a work's stylistic, modal and melodic cohesion be analyzed when its composer was perhaps not consciously interested in them? Machaut’s setting employs isorhythm and both contrapuntal and homophonic polyphonic styles, is set in two modes and foreshadows many later fifteenth-century techniques such as the use of a cantus firmus and head motifs without adopting them directly. This study will explore the analytical problems in the interpretation of an admittedly transitional work, the first of its kind, bringing to the surface myriad aesthetic concerns from different epochs and displaying different musical organizational methods.

Elevation motets have been considered as a peculiar feature of the Milanese motetti missales. Yet an exploration on the elevation prayers and their circulation makes it possible to contextualize the Milanese transmission of elevation motets in a wider liturgical and musical practice. After discussing the liturgical significance and function of the elevation, with its rich gestural symbolism, this study focuses on the peculiarities of the Milanese elevation motets in comparison with other examples of elevation pieces. The ‘loco sanctus’ motets of the Milanese Libroni were intended to surround the elevation ritual with music, and also include a part to be sung before the elevation took place. In this regard the Milanese elevation motets show a more direct connection with the mass ritual then other motets ‘de corpore Christi’. Mapping the elevation motet texts reveals significant connections in particular between O salutaris hostia and the liturgical usages of the regions in northern France and Flanders from which Galeazzo Maria Sforza recruited his singers. Although our knowledge of the use of motets and of related practices in that region is incomplete, this nevertheless suggests narrower ties than have typically been supposed between the Milanese elevation sections and Franco-Flemish singing traditions related to the elevation at Mass.

In order to provide a new theoretical basis for reassessing the late fifteenth-century motetti missales and their interaction with liturgy in Sforza Milan, this paper starts not with the missales specifically, but rather with the broader issue of ‘hearing the mass’. This precept was central to the life of early modern Christians, but in how many ways could the faithful fulfil it? How many forms of attention and participation were deemed acceptable? What role did sonic elements play in it? And conversely, how did these conceptions influence musical choices? Through the study of treatises, methods, and other documents, the first sections of the paper explore the theory and practice of attending mass and examine problems such as the synchronization between ritual actions, individual devotion, and collective experiences. Focusing back on the motetti missales in light of the background thus delineated, I argue that the motetti missales were performed during votive low masses. In the conclusions, I put this practice in the perspective of the early modern era and suggest that the low mass may have been an important venue for the performance of motets throughout the period.

Cantus firmus technique, or the use of pre-existing material in longer rhythmic units to structure a musical composition, was a method that originated in the beginning stages of Western polyphony. The use of a cantus firmus in the sixteenth century, both in improvisation and in composer training, is evident from the ordering of material in Renaissance treatises, and explored more recently in the secondary literature.  However, previous authors have not sufficiently noted exactly to what extent cantus firmus thinking manifested itself compositionally in Renaissance works, even those not structured around pre-existing material.

In this study, I explore the role and influence of cantus firmus technique in Byrd’s 1589 Cantiones Sacrae, a collection of motets with Latin texts that rank among his most important works of the period 1575-1590. Byrd’s early experiments in the 1570s with the cantus firmus motet sub-genre, examples of which appeared in his first publication, the Byrd-Tallis Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, influenced his freely composed motets from the late 1570s and early 1580s.

We will see that the vestiges of cantus firmus technique manifest themselves in Byrd’s preference for subject material in longer rhythmic values (breves and semibreves), analogous to brief cantus firmus segments. These segments act metaphorically as a Schenkerian middleground structure with which the composer can combine faster moving lines, and are thus influential in determining the overall tonal design of an imitative point. Identification of such segments and their subsequent development can give the analyst insights into Renaissance tonal and formal structure at the level of the imitative point, or 10-to-20-measure unit.

During the fourteenth century, Venetian chronicles, art, and ceremony
fostered provocative analogies between angelic annunciation and
the political voice of the Venetian populace. Such analogies imagined
a city whose civic and heavenly members were united through the sound
of unanimity. At the intersection of the state’s civic and celestial bodies
stood the doge, considered to be the image of the Republic and of its
patron, Saint Mark. A complex of sung ceremonies and musical compositions
addressed to the doge dramatized the notion that the voice, as
a ritual instrument, could engender real political or spiritual change in
the state and its leaders. Performances of acclamations to the doge
positioned him within Venice’s sacred and civic hierarchies, while state
art and ceremony forged symbolic resemblances between ducal acclamation
and angelic annunciation. A repertory of occasional motets evidences
polyphonic play with the notion that vocal rituals centered on the
doge could activate the spiritual ideals of the state: the anonymous Marce,
Marcum imitaris (c. 1365) draws a sonic analogy between spiritual likeness
and musical imitation in order to dramatize the concept of the doge as
Mark’s image, whereas Johannes Ciconia’s Venecie mundi splendor/Michael
qui Stena domus elides a text dedicated to the Annunciate Virgin with one
addressed to the doge, creating musical echoes and simultaneities in its
praises of Venice’s temporal and celestial leaders.

Despite recent scholarly interest in Monteverdi's Selva morale et spirituale (1641), many aspects of this large, complex print remain enigmatic, and the intended context for much of the music in the collection has long been a matter of pure conjecture. Yet two of the most anomalous features of the Selva morale, the solo motets Ab aeterno ordinata sum and Pianto della Madonna, can now be placed into the context of the Habsburg court in Vienna during the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (1637-57). Both of these works play directly into the most important aspects of Habsburg Marian devotion. Ab aeterno is a setting of Proverbs 8:23-31, a text that although very rare for seventeenth-century motets would nonetheless have been widely understood as a celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. The Pianto, a Latin contrafactum of Monteverdi's celebrated Lamento d'Arianna, would have been perfectly suited for the Habsburgs' Fifteen Mysteries Celebration, a Lenten devotion in praise of the Most Holy Rosary. Various types of evidence, including liturgical and other religious writings, Habsburg sermons, and additional musical works, support these interpretations of Monteverdi's motets and reveal their importance to the imperial court. That the composer did indeed include the motets in his print with the Habsburg court in mind is further indicated by similarities between the Selva morale and an earlier publication stemming directly from Ferdinand III's court: Giovanni Felice Sances's Motetti a voce sola of 1638.

The motet Laudate Dominum de caelis, copied in Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ms. Cappella Sistina 42 c. 1509-12, is distinctive in Brumel's output, bearing many of the hallmarks of the so-called 'Milanese' style. This article addresses its sources, style, and technical construction in the context of some of Brumel's other motets and of Joshua Rifkin's recent research on the French-court motet around 1500, as exemplified by the motets of Josquin and Mouton. Analyses of local contrapuntal structures and of the motet's overall form offer a view of Brumel's working methods. These considerations lead to a picture of the motet as a product of Brumel's engagement with a French-court motet repertory in the first decade of the sixteenth century.

Wurstisen Lute Book contains intabulations of four Latin motets among its enormous number of pieces. The first three bear the authorship of Orlando di Lasso, while the last one is a barely known piece of music. Before focusing on the musical content and the process of arranging the vocal models to lute pieces, I find it necessary to focus my attention on the outstanding musical figure of Orlando di Lasso and the influence of his music on the lute repertory in the second half of the 16th century.
Another crucial topic that needs to be discussed is the problem of musica ficta, its guidelines and positions among some prominent modern musicologists. This preliminary data leads to the core part of the study – the motets of Lasso, intabulated for lute and written down by Wurstisen. It has become clear that these particular arrangements were first published by Melchior Neusidler in his Italian print of 1566, only four years after their original appearance, and were reprinted later in 1571 by Pierre Phalese. The analysis sheds light on the questions of how the intabulations were compiled, which rules were preferable, how the ornamentation and passages were used, and whether any word-painting was involved. The examination supports the notion of the special influence which the two Bavarian-based masters Lasso and Neusidler had on Wurstisen. A further examination of this manuscript has the potential of revealing more about it.

The Polish tablature written by Johannes of Lublin (collected between 1537 and 1548) contains four of Ludwig Senfl's motets: "Vita in Ligno moritur," "Homo quidam fecit coenam," "Ave rosa sine spinis," and "Philippe qui videt me." With its repertoire of about 400 pieces of the most famous contemporary composers the collection represents the most extensive anthology of keyboard music in the first half of the 16th century. An inscription in the front-cover of the manuscript tells us that Johannes was an organist in the monastery of Kraśnik, which raises the basic question of how he gained access to the vocal music he arranged (especially the prints in which Senfl's motets had been published). Johannes most likely lived in Krakow, the Polish capital at that time, where German culture was part of everyday life. Beyond that there existed several institutions that maintained cultural exchange with the neighboring countries. In particular the University of KraKow (founded in 1364), which Johannes possibly attended, and the Royal Chapel of Zygmunt I. and Zygmunt II. August received music by western-European composers.
The manuscript PL-Kp Ms. 1716 was collected over a period of about ten years and was notated in Old German Tablature, in which the Discantus is written in mensural notation and the other voices in letters. Most of the pieces were notated by Johannes himself, who also added a musical treatise, which introduces his collection. Apart from Johannes (and only in a very few cases) there were two other writers who could not be identified yet. Besides the mentioned works by Senfl, there are tablatures from (among others) Josquin, Verdelot, Finck, Stoltzer, Isaac, and Jannequin as well as many Polish pieces by the organist Nicolaus Cracoviensis, who might have been in personal contact with Johannes. Nevertheless the majority of the tablatures are still not identified.
Ludwig Senfl composed about 130 motets, of which 10 motets in 21 adaptations came down as organ tablatures. Especially "Vita in Ligno" (the "tertia pars" of the three parted motet "Qui prophetice prompsisti") was very popular and therefore used quite often as a model. Apart from PL-Kp Ms. 1716 and another copy (the so called "Holy Ghost Tablature," PL-Wn rkp.564) this piece can be found in the two sources D-B Sammlung Bohn Ms. mus. 18 and 119 as well as in two prints by Johannes Rühling and Jacob Paix. In the Lublin Tablature Senfl's motet was highly modified compared to its model, using (among others) numerous colorations and removing vocal elements for adapting the piece to organ-specific conditions. "Philippe qui videt me" and "Homo quidam" (which takes over the cantus firmus of Josquin's musical setting of the same text) were also modified but with lesser ornamentation than "Vita in Ligno." The extensive motet "Ave rosa sine spinis" (which also uses a cantus firmus by Josquin, in this case from his "Stabat Mater") was taken over as an almost verbatim reproduction. To figure out the function of the tablatures, each piece needs to be examined individually. On the one hand the intabulations could be considered as pure instrumental compositions that were performed only by the organist soloistically, on the other hand they could have simply been used to accompany the vocal choir. However, the exact intention of the author cannot be fully reconstructed in the end.

In 1587 the Flemish composer Carolus Luython, employed by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, published an unusual motet collection in Prague. Titled Popularis anni jubilus, the collection describes the sounds and rituals beloved by Central European peasants, recasting them as the ecstatic songs of rustic laborers (jubilus) famously celebrated by Saint Augustine in his Psalm commentaries. Highlighting the composer’s collaboration with the Czech cleric who wrote the motet texts, this study serves as a corrective to the interpretative frameworks that have broadly shaped discourses on Central European musical and religious practices in the early modern period.

To make sense of the print’s raucous parade of drunken revelers, mythological figures, honking geese, and the Christ child, this analysis sets aside the hermetic lens typically used to account for the cultural products of the Rudolfine court and turns instead to contemporary theological tracts and writings by Augustine and Ovid that were foundational to the literary worlds of Renaissance humanists. Doing so brings into focus an ordered sequence of motets that offers some of the earliest and most vivid documentation in Central Europe of lay practices associated with the major feasts of the church year, from the bonfires on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist to the drowning of winter on Laetare Sunday. At the same time, this study shows the extent to which such “folk” traditions, parsed along national lines since the nineteenth century, had in fact long occupied common ground in the diverse territories of Habsburg Central Europe.

A transcription of French 14th century Ars Nova Chace, "Se je chant," from the Ivrea Codex, B.C. 115 fol. 52v possibly by Denis le Grant (died 1352). Watch the score with a rare virtuosic recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Yn9y0BjR8

Here we point to his birth, his life and his contemporaries. Then we will have a glance at his works, including masses, motets, and secular vocal music, and will analyze one of his motets: "Ave Maria … Virgo serena"

اشاره‌ای به تولد، زندگی و معاصران ژوسکن دوپره در کنار نگاه گذرا به تصنیفاتش، همانند مِس‌ها، موتت‌ها و قطعات وکال غیرمذهبی و آنالیز میزان به میزانِ موتتِ "آوه ماریای" او (ویرگو سِرِنا Virgo serena) از اجزای کوناگونِ گفتارِ مربوط به ژوسکن دوپره و موتت رنسانس است

Despite the frequently critiqued prolixity in much of his oeuvre, Alexander Agricola (1445/46-1506) crafted music comprehensible enough to elicit great praise from numerous contemporaries. What is then inherently praiseworthy in this abstruse music? In his Salve Regina I, Agricola crafts a musical argument for his garrulity, the thesis of which aims to clarify and justify the virtue of his style. While Agricola employed cantus firmus conventions to provide formal scaffolding, he also imbues discursiveness with comprehensibility through rhetorical techniques, such as inflection of cadence, clearness of imitation, phraseology of text, and varied implementation of cantus firmus. Articulating the micro-structure of his music, these components are then couched in the discourse of the classical argument: an introduction, confirmation, and refutation of a thesis. In Agricola’s Salve Regina I, motet becomes a medium for the exhibition and logical justification of his musical thesis of abstract polystylism.

A score analysis of Alexander Agricola's first "Salve Regina" motet by Jordan Key. If you are interested in this analysis, my paper "Rhetoric, Prolixity, and Agricola: Alexander Agricola's Salve Regina I as a Defense of Polystylism During the Late 15th Century" discusses at length this piece as a model of rhetoric in music during the 15th century.


See:
https://www.academia.edu/27395799/Rhetoric_Prolixity_and_Agricola_Alexander_Agricolas_Salve_Regina_I_as_a_Defense_of_Polystylism_During_the_Late_15th_Century


For a performance recording with a score, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B-j3fUbqc

The four Milanese Libroni, prepared during Franchinus Gaffurius’s tenure as chapel master at the Duomo, rank among the most important manuscripts of sacred polyphony at the turn of the fifteenth century. Their interest, notably as the only extant sources of Milan’s flourishing musical scene under the Sforzas, has been widely recognized. In spite, however, of the attention raised in the musicological community by Jeppesen’s brief essay of 1931 and by the facsimiles published in the 1960s and 1980s, the manuscripts have never been thoroughly studied. The present book discloses the results of an interdisciplinary investigation conducted within the Polifonia Sforzesca Research Project (funded by the SNF at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2018–2020), in conjunction with the full digitization of the sources. Combining archival evidence (Filippi) with palaeographic and codicological data (Pantarotto, Filippi) and with a mapping of the contained repertoire (Cassia, Pavanello), the volume provides fresh elements regarding the making and the dating of the Libroni, clarifies Gaffurius’s role as the mastermind of the operation, and better situates the manuscripts in the contemporary landscape of copying, collecting, and circulating polyphonic music.