Motet

motet (mōtĕt`), 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.

Bibliography

See F. Matthiassen, The Style of the Early Motet (1966).

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motet

Latin choral composition, generally in one movement. Its origins are in the 13th century, when words (French mots) began to be added to originally wordless polyphonic lines in settings of plainchant. It grew directly out of the clausula, a polyphonic decoration of a portion of organum, but it soon split off to become a separate composition, while retaining a meaningless fragment of chant text and melody in the tenor part. The upper texts often became a confusing mixture of sacred and secular—and even anticlerical—poems, indicating its intended performance in courtly as well as ecclesiastical settings. The motet was the most important musical genre of the 13th century and an essential vehicle for the development of polyphony. In the Renaissance, sacred motets, now employing a single text, were written by composers such as Josquin des Prez, Orlande de Lassus, and William Byrd, though it remains unclear how often they were performed in church settings. In the 17th–18th centuries, motets were written by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Heinrich Schütz, and Johann Sebastian Bach. After c. 1750 the genre declined, and its distinguishing characteristics became diffuse.

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motet

a polyphonic choral composition used as an anthem in the Roman Catholic service

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Motet 

a genre of polyphonic vocal music that originated in 12th-century France. Originally, the motet was a musical composition for two voices, consisting of a new voice added to a voice based on refrains in the Catholic service (Gregorian chants). The new voice was called the motet. Subsequently, the term was applied to the entire composition. Later, motets were written for three or four voices.

The voices that were added to the main voice were melodically richer. Their texts—originally variations on the text for the main voice—became more and more independent. Some motets combined religious texts and humorous secular texts, nonsense texts, and texts in different languages. The main voice was often as signed to an instrumentalist. Later, the fugue and counterpoint were used in motets.

From the 15th century any vocal composition more developed and more ceremonial than a song was called a motet. A purely vocal (noninstrumental) style of choral polyphony was developed in the motets of O. Lassus, G. Gabrieli, and Palestrina in the 16th century. Choral settings prevail in the 16th-century French motet. A solo motet with a figured bass originated in 17th-century Italy. The motet reached its peak in the works of J. S. Bach, who made the choral motet a more profound musical form similar to the cantata.

In the 19th century the motet was developed as a choral composition based on a serious text and sometimes including religious motifs. Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner, M. Reger, and Gounod were among the 19th-century composers who favored the form.

REFERENCE

Leichtentritt, H. Geschichte der Motette, 2nd ed. Hildesheim, 1966.