Motet
by Matt Boynick

One of the most important forms of polyphonic music from circa 1250 to 1750. It originated in the 13th century in the practice of Pérotin and his contemporaries at Notre Dame, Paris, of adding words to the upper voice or voices of a Clausula, with a plainchant tenor ('motet' derives from the French mot, 'word'). Sometimes two upper voices had different words. At first Latin texts, mainly concerning the Virgin, were used, but French secular texts became common as the motet shed its connection with church and liturgy. With the notational reforms of the late 13th century, motets with tenors rhythmically similar to the upper voices, or which quote secular songs and dances, became possible. Several motet types flourished in France, but these reduced to one definitive type capable of much variety in the reforms of Philippe de Vitry. Machaut's motets show a preference for French texts and use Isorhythm in the tenor and occasionally the upper parts as well; this became increasingly common in the late 14th century, as did rhythmic refinements. Many large-scale and complex 'mensuration motets' are found in English and French sources of the late 14th century and early 15th; Dufay, in his 14 isorhythmic and mensuration motets, achieved a magnificent synthesis of numerically constructed cantus firmus polyphony with the new techniques that hastened its decline.
With the gradual abandonment of isorhythm after circa 1420, composers began to return to the liturgical and devotional contexts in which the motet had originated. They used a variety of structural principles and contrapuntal techniques, setting mostly Marian texts and juxtaposing vocal and instrumental pairs of voices. For three-part song motets Dufay adopted a treble-dominated texture derived from the chanson. With the next generation, including Ockeghem and Busnois, the motet built on a tenor cantus firmus became once more important. Four to six parts is the norm. The key figure in the late 15th and early 16th centuries was Josquin, in whose motets all the traditional styles found a place but in whose later works cantus firmus technique and canon gave way to imitative counterpoint, with homophonic writing to provide variety and text illustration.
By Josquin's death in 1521, the musical language of the 16th-century motet was essentially formed. The Franco-Netherlands style, exemplified by Mouton, Gombert and Clemens non Papa, took firm root in Italy and saw a synthesis in the motets of Lassus, which draw on rhetorical gestures borrowed from the madrigal, and in those of the more conservative Palestrina. A distinctive Italian contribution to the development of the motet was the use of divided choirs (con spezzati), associated particularly with St Mark's, Venice. It was there that G. Gabrieli, in such works as In ecclesiis, sowed the seeds of a new manner in motet writing.
Motet composition in the Baroque period follows two independent lines. The Palestrina tradition, maintained by the Vatican, predominated in Italy, Austria, south Germany and Iberia, where the motet showed studious craftsmanship, schematic sequences and monotonous harmony. later a more harmonic conception developed, with a periodic style of vocal melody, da capo form (Caldara, Lotti), and normally instrumental doubling and continuo accompaniment. The other line of development lay in the vocal concerto. Viadana's Cento concerti ecclesiastici (1602) showed the feasibility of a small-scale medium, using a handful of modest voices with continuo. There was a vogue in Venice in the 1620s for such works, which often included violins and increasingly reflected the influence of opera and cantata. Important mid-Baroque composers include Cazzati and Bassani. At Rome the old and new styles co-existed, while with Neapolitans such as Alessandro Scarlatti, Durante and Leo the orchestral motet came nearest to current operatic forms.
The motets of G. Gabrieli and Viadana served as starting-points for German composers such as Praetorius, Schütz and Scheidt. The sectional structures of their sacred concertos led to the introduction of such elements as arias and chorales and finally to the church cantata of the 18th century. At the same time the choral motet was cultivated locally, for weddings, funerals and other special occasions. Bach's six motets represent its culmination.
In England the anthem superseded the motet in church music. In France the grands motets of Du Mont, Lully, Charpentier, Lalande, Campra and others formed an impressive repertory for the king's chapel and were heard at the Concert Spirituel. Most were psalm settings for soloists, ensembles, chorus and orchestra. The petit motet for one, two or three voices and continuo was more appropriate to convents, though some by F. Couperin and others also had concert performances.
After 1750 the history of the motet is largely an account of individual and mostly isolated works. Mozart, Liszt and Bruckner are important as composers of Latin motets, while the German Protestant tradition is best represented by the seven motets of Brahms.

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