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What is a Motet?

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Smith Warner
What is a Motet?

Motet (French mot: "word") is a vocal composition style that has experienced various changes over the ages. It is usually a Latin religious choral music piece, although it can also be a secular composition or a work for soloist(s) with instrumental accompaniment, written in any language and performed with or without a choir.


The motet was founded in the early 13th century as an adaptation of earlier music to a new text (i.e., "word"). The text was inserted to the wordless upper-voice sections of descant clausulae in particular. These were short sections of organum, a 13th-century and earlier form consisting of a plainchant melody in the tenor, above which one, two, or three simultaneous melodies were added; unlike other organum, all the voice parts in descant clausulae were set in short, repeated rhythmic patterns called rhythmic modes.


Two or even three sections were given a text while composing motets from descant clausulae. Although the early motets were typically written in Latin and meant for church use, bilingual motets (French–Latin, English–Latin) based on secular and holy themes, or a combination of both, were popular later. The motet was secular in its additional texts, which were typically completely in French, especially during the late 13th century. Tenors were occasionally taken from popular French melodies rather than plainchant. Rhythmic patterns grew increasingly diverse and free, while rhythmic modes went out of favour.

Instruments seemed to play the lower vocal parts as an accompaniment to a singer's rendition of the top portion, allowing the singer to focus on the upper part.
Secular motets were mostly serious in substance (e.g., on historical matters) and were employed for ceremonial events in the 14th century. Isorhythm is a method employed in both holy and secular motets that involves the repeating of a complicated rhythmic pattern throughout the piece. This pattern frequently coincided, although not always, with the melody's recurrence.


Motets were often sung in all vocal parts during the second half of the 15th century. Almost all of the segments now had the same text. Contrapuntal was a big part of the musical texture (i.e., consisting of interwoven melodies). Except in contrasting portions based on chords, syllables and words were not usually sung simultaneously in the separate vocal parts. Plainchant tunes dominated the tenor repertoire, with holy Latin words predominating. During the 16th century, the usage of cantus firmus plainchant fell out of favour.


Motets were often composed for a certain holy day and sung at mass between the Credo and Sanctus or during Vespers in the divine office. Plainchants were frequently used to accompany the words in such motets. The mass music might also be based on the same melodic ideas, giving the entire service a musical coherence not seen in subsequent church music, even under J.S. Bach. It was conceivable for a composer to write a motet and a mass setting on the same themes even if the motet was not based on a plainchant fragment. The motet or plainchant on which a 16th-century mass is based is frequently indicated in the title.


Thus, the Roman composer Francesco Soriano's Missa nos autem gloriari was based on Giovanni da Palestrina's motet Nos autem gloriari. When a motet was divided into two movements, or self-contained portions, the second movement generally concluded with the first movement's final melodic lines and words.

 

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