A Critical Companion to Medieval Motets

First full comprehensive guide to one of the most important genres of music in the Middle Ages.

Motets constitute the most important polyphonic genre of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Moreover, these compositions are intrinsically involved in the early development of polyphony. This volume - the first to be devotedexclusively to medieval motets - aims to provide a comprehensive guide to them, from a number of different disciplines and perspectives. It addresses crucial matters such as how the motet developed; the rich interplay of musical,poetic, and intertextual modes of meaning specific to the genre; and the changing social and historical circumstances surrounding motets in medieval France, England, and Italy. It also seeks to question many traditional assumptions and received opinions in the area.
The first part of the book considers core concepts in motet scholarship: issues of genre, relationships between the motet and other musico-poetic forms, tenor organization, isorhythm, notational development, social functions, and manuscript layout. This is followed by a series of individual case studies which look in detail at a variety of specific pieces, compositional techniques, collections, and subgenres.

JARED C. HARTT is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

ELIZABETH EVA LEACH is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her work focuses on song in the medieval West in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

GAËL SAINT-CRICQ is Professor of Musicology at the Université Lumière Lyon 2, France.

MATTHEW P. THOMSON is Assistant Professor in Early Music, University College Dublin. Previously a Fitzjames Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford, his research focuses on music of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including polyphonic motets, monophonic song, and the role of music in literature.

MARGARET BENT is an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.