In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.

Etymology[link]

The name comes either from the Latin movere, ("to move") or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian mottetto was also used.^[1] If the word is from Latin, the name describes the movement of the different voices against one another.

According to Margaret Bent (1997),

"a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. This is close to one of the earliest descriptions we have, that of the late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheio.

Grocheio believed that the motet was,

"not intended for the vulgar who do not understand its finer points and derive no pleasure from hearing it: it is meant for educated people and those who look for refinement in art."^[2]

Medieval motets[link]

The earliest motets arose in the 13th century (Bent, 1997) from the organum tradition exemplified in the Notre Dame school of Léonin and Pérotin. The motet probably arose from clausula sections, usually strophic interludes, in a longer sequence of organum, to which upper voices were added.^[3] Usually the clausula represented a strophic sequence in Latin which was sung as a discant over a cantus firmus, which typically was a plainchant fragment with different words from the discant. The motet took a definite rhythm from the words of the verse, and as such appeared as a brief rhythmic interlude in the middle of the longer, more chantlike organum.

The practice of discant over a cantus firmus marked the beginnings of counterpoint in Western music. From these first motets arose a medieval tradition of secular motets. These were two or three part compositions in which several different texts, sometimes in different vernacular languages, were sung simultaneously over a Latin cantus firmus that once again was usually adapted from a passage of Gregorian chant. It is suspected that, for the sake of intelligibility, in performance the cantus firmus and one or another of the vocal lines were performed on instruments. Among the trouvères, Robert de Reins La Chievre and Richart de Fournival composed motets.

Increasingly in the 14th and 15th centuries, motets tended to be isorhythmic; that is, they employed repeated rhythmic patterns in all voices—not only the cantus firmus—which did not necessarily coincide with repeating melodic patterns. Philippe de Vitry was one of the earliest composers to use this technique, and his work evidently had an influence on that of Guillaume de Machaut, one of the most famous named composers of late medieval motets.

Medieval motet composers[link]

Medieval motet composers include:

• Philippe de Vitry
• Guillaume de Machaut
• Willelmus de Winchecumbe (fl. 1270s)

Renaissance motets[link]

Luca della Robbia: fragment from a choir. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence.

The name of the motet was preserved in the transition from medieval to Renaissance music, but the character of the composition was entirely changed. While it grew out of the medieval isorhythmic motet, the Renaissance composers of the motet generally abandoned the use of a repeated figure as a cantus firmus. Guillaume Dufay was a transitional figure in this regard; he wrote one of the last important motets in the medieval, isorhythmic style, Nuper rosarum flores (1436), written to commemorate the completion of Filippo Brunelleschi's dome in the Cathedral of Florence.^[4][5] During this time, however, the use of cantus firmi in works such as the parody mass tended to stretch the cantus firmus out to great lengths compared to the multivoice descant above it. This tended to obscure the rhythm supplied by the cantus firmus that had been apparent in the medieval isorhythmic motet. The cascading, passing chords created by the interplay between multiple voices, and the absence of a strong or obvious beat, are the features that distinguish medieval and renaissance motet styles.

Instead, the Renaissance motet is a polyphonic musical setting, sometimes in imitative counterpoint, for chorus, of a Latin text, usually sacred, not specifically connected to the liturgy of a given day, and therefore suitable for use in any service. The texts of antiphons were frequently used as motet texts. This is the sort of composition that is most familiarly designated by the term "motet," and the Renaissance period marked the flowering of the form.

In essence, these motets were sacred madrigals. The relationship between the two forms is most obvious in the composers who concentrated on sacred music, especially Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose "motets" setting texts from the Canticum Canticorum, the biblical "Song of Solomon," are among the most lush and madrigal-like of Palestrina's compositions, while his "madrigals" that set poems of Petrarch in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary would not be out of place in church. The language of the text was the decisive feature: if it's Latin, it's a motet; if the vernacular, a madrigal.^[6] Religious compositions in vernacular languages were often called madrigali spirituali, "spiritual madrigals." Like their madrigal cousins, Renaissance motets developed in episodic format, with separate phrases of the source text being given independent melodic treatment and contrapuntal development; contrapuntal passages often alternate with monody.

Secular motets continued to be written however. These motets typically set a Latin text in praise of a monarch, commemorating some public triumph, or even praising music itself. Nevertheless, the themes of courtly love often found in the medieval secular motet were banished from the Renaissance motet. Many secular motets are known as "ceremonial motets" ^[7] Characteristic of ceremonial motets was a clarity of diction, for the audience was not presumed to be familiar already with the text (as would have been true with Latin hymns) and also a clear articulation of formal structure, for example a setting apart of successive portions of text with sharp contrasts of texture or rhythm. Adrian Willaert, Ludwig Senfl, and Cipriano de Rore were among the most prominent composers of ceremonial motets during the first half of the 16th century.^[8]

Renaissance motet composers[link]

The motet was one of the pre-eminent forms of Renaissance music. Other important composers of Renaissance motets include:

• Alexander Agricola
• Gilles Binchois
• Antoine Busnois
• William Byrd
• Johannes Vodnianus Campanus
• Loyset Compère
• Josquin des Prez
• John Dunstaple
• Antoine de Févin
• Francisco Guerrero
• Nicolas Gombert
• Heinrich Isaac
• Pierre de La Rue
• Orlando di Lasso
• Cristóbal de Morales
• Jean Mouton
• Jacob Obrecht
• Johannes Ockeghem
• Martin Peerson
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Thomas Tallis
• John Taverner
• Robert Carver
• Tomás Luis de Victoria

In the latter part of the 16th century, Giovanni Gabrieli and other composers developed a new style, the polychoral motet, in which two or more choirs of singers (or instruments) alternated. This style of motet was sometimes called the Venetian motet to distinguish it from the Netherlands or Flemish motet written elsewhere.

Baroque motets[link]

The name "motet" was preserved in Baroque music, especially in France, where the word was applied to two distinct, and very different, genres: petits motets, sacred choral or chamber compositions whose only accompaniment was a basso continuo; and grands motets, which included massed choirs and instruments up to and including a full orchestra. Jean-Baptiste Lully was an important composer of this sort of motet. Lully's motets often included parts for soloists as well as choirs; they were longer, including multiple movements in which different soloist, choral, or instrumental forces were employed. Lully's motets also continued the Renaissance tradition of semi-secular Latin motets in works such as Plaude Laetare Gallia, written to celebrate the baptism of King Louis XIV's son; its text by Pierre Perrin begins:

Plaude laetare Gallia

Rore caelesti rigantur lilia,

Sacro Delphinus fonte lavatur

Et christianus Christo dicatur.

(Rejoice and sing, France: the lily is bathed with heavenly dew. The Dauphin is bathed in the sacred font, and the Christian is dedicated to Christ.)

In Germany, too, pieces called motets were written in the new musical languages of the Baroque. Heinrich Schütz wrote many motets in a series of publications called Symphoniae sacrae, some in Latin and some in German.

Johann Sebastian Bach also wrote six surviving works he called motets; Bach's motets were relatively long pieces in German on sacred themes for choir and basso continuo, thought to have been written as training pieces for the members of his choir school. Bach's motets are:

• BWV 225 Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (1726)
• BWV 226 Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf (1729)
• BWV 227 Jesu, meine Freude (?)
• BWV 228 Fürchte dich nicht (?)
• BWV 229 Komm, Jesu, komm! (1730 ?)
• BWV 230 Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden (?)

There is also a cantata that is classified, in its entirety, as a motet.

• BWV 118 O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (1736–37?)

The motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren (BWV 231) is spurious; it is part of a cantata by Telemann.

The motet since Bach[link]

Later 18th-century composers wrote few motets, although Mozart's well-known Ave verum corpus (K. 618) is in this genre.

In the 19th century German composers continued to write motets occasionally, notably Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms (in German) and Anton Bruckner (in Latin). French composers of motets included Camille Saint-Saëns, and César Franck. Similar compositions in the English language are called anthems, but some later English composers, such as Charles Villiers Stanford, wrote motets in Latin. The majority of these compositions are a cappella, but some are accompanied by organ, for example Edward Elgar's three motets Op. 2.

In the 20th century, composers of motets have often consciously imitated earlier styles. Examples include works by Richard Strauss, Maurice Duruflé, Francis Poulenc, Charles Villiers Stanford, Edmund Rubbra, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennox Berkeley, Morten Lauridsen, Edward Elgar, Hugo Distler, Ernst Krenek, and Michael Finnissy.

External Resources[link]

Motet online database

Sources[link]

• Margaret Bent (1997). "The late-medieval motet", Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816540-4.
• The Development of the motet
• Blanche Gangwere, Music History During the Renaissance Period, 1520–1550. Westport, Connecticut, Praeger Publishers. 2004.

Notes[link]

Paul Mealor
Paul Mealor (photograph credit: Jillian Bain Christie)
Born	(1975-11-25) 25 November 1975 (age 36) St Asaph, Denbighshire, North Wales
Residence	Aberdeen, Scotland
Nationality	Welsh
Education	University of York, Royal Danish Academy of Music
Occupation	Composer
Website
paulmealor.com

Professor Paul Mealor BA, PhD, FRSA (born 25 November 1975) is a Welsh composer. Described by the New York Times as "one of the most important composers to have emerged in Welsh choral music since William Mathias",^[1] Mealor’s motets, songs and cycles have been performed, broadcast and recorded by artists around the world. He composed the song "Wherever You Are", based on letters to and from troops serving in Afghanistan, and sung by the military wives choir created by Gareth Malone. In the 2012 Classic FM Hall of Fame, he was voted the 'nation's favorite living composer' and succeeded in achieving the highest placing of any new entry in the history of the Hall of Fame with his ‘'Wherever You Are’’ charting at No 5.

Biography[link]

Born in St Asaph, Denbighshire, North Wales, Mealor studied composition privately with John Pickard and read music at the University of York (1994–2002). He then studied composition with Nicola LeFanu, and in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Hans Abrahamsen (1998–99).

Since 2003, he has been teaching at the University of Aberdeen, where he is currently Professor of Composition and has held visiting professorships in composition at institutions in Scandinavia and the United States.^[2] He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and since 2011 has been published by Novello (part of MusicSales). Also in 2011, he signed to Decca Records. His first album for Decca, 'A Tender Light' - a collection of sacred choral anthems - spent six weeks at No 1 of the Classical charts.

On 29 April 2011, Mealor's motet, a setting of Ubi Caritas et Amor, was premièred at the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William of Wales with Miss Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, by the Choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty's Chapel Royal conducted by James O'Donnell.^[3][4]

In 2011, Mealor was commissioned to write the music for "Wherever You Are", a song compiled from letters written between the wives and partners of British Army military personnel deployed on active service in the Afghanistan War as part of the BBC Two television series The Choir: Military Wives.^[5] The single, released on 19 December 2011, became the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart and raised money for military charities.^[6]

Selected works[link]

• Wherever You Are (for choir, 2011), is a song compiled from letters written between the wives and partners of British Army military personnel deployed on active service in the Afghanistan War as part of the BBC Two television series The Choir: Military Wives.^[5] The single, released on 19 December 2011, became the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart and raised money for military charities.^[6]
• Ubi Caritas et Amor (for choir – SATB with divisi, 2011) 4 min. Commissioned by Prince William for his 2011 Royal Wedding. A revised setting of Mealor's Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (2010).^[3][7] Premiered at Westminster Abbey 29 April 2011 by the Choir of Westminster Abbey and The Choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace; Conducted by James O’Donnell.^[8]
• Stabat Mater (2009) (New version for Choir, Harp and String Orchestra, 2010) 25 min. Premiered by the St Andrews Chorus and Heisenberg Ensemble; Conducted by Michael Downes, St Andrews, November 2010.
• A Spotless Rose (2010) (SATB with divisi) 4 min. A Christmas Carol, Part of 'Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal'
• Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (2010) (SATB with divisi) 12 min. Commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial Trust and first performed by the combined choirs of St Salvator's (St Andrews) Chapel Choir, University of Aberdeen Chamber Choir and Edinburgh University Chamber Choir; Conducted by Michael Bawtree in Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, October 2010.
• She Walks in Beauty (2010) (SATB with divisi) 4 min. A new setting of a text by Lord Byron, written for Octavoce.
• Sanctuary Haunts (2009) (SATB with divisi) 13 min. Written for Polyphony (choir) and Stephen Layton and due for first performance in February 2010.
• Locus Iste (2009) (Part of 'Sanctuary Haunts') (SATB with divisi) 6 min. Written for the Chapel Choir of King's College, Aberdeen and recorded by them on 'Christmas from Aberdeen' (KCL 2009).
• Stabat Mater (2009) (SATB & Piano) 25 min. Recorded on CD, Mealor: Stabat Mater (Campion Cameo Label).
• Between Eternity and Time (2008) (Soprano & Piano). Duration: 8 Mins. Three Settings of Emily Dickinson commissioned by Irene Drummond and Alasdair Beatson (with funds provided by the Scottish Arts Council) and due for first performance at King's College Chapel, Aberdeen, 6 November 2008.
• Rising of The Sixfold Sun (1998–2001) (Full Orchestra). Duration: 15 Minutes First performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, St David's Hall, Cardiff, February 2001 conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
• Liturgy of Fire (2006) (Symphonic Wind Ensemble). 10 Min. Commissioned and first performed by the New York University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Christian Wilhjelm at the Frederick Loewe Theatre, 35 W. 4th Street, New York on 6 December 2006.
• Let Fall the Windows of Mine Eyes (2007–08) (SATB) 7 Min. Commissioned by the Voices of Shakespeare Festival (Brecon) and first performed by Con Anima on 12 July 2008 at the Living Willow Theatre, Brecon [1].
• And Profoundest Midnight Shroud The Serene Lights of Heaven (2002) (16 Part A-Cappella Choir) 8 Min. Text: Rilke & Shelley (English). Commissioned by & First performed by York Vocal Index (directed by John Potter) at the Sir Jack Lyons Hall, York, May 2002. Further performance at Canterbury Cathedral by the Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and during their tour of Finland, 2003.
• The Shadows of Dreams (2007) (Soprano, Cello & Piano) 10 min. First performed by Sarah Leonard (Soprano), Ian Mitchell (Clarinet) and Huw Watkins (Piano), Elphinstone Hall, Aberdeen, 20 April 2008.
• Aurora Lucis Rutilat (2006) (Organ) 5 Min. Composed for Roger Williams (organist) and first performed by him at King's College, Cambridge, February 2007
• De Profundis (2005) (Organ) 12 Min. Commissioned by George Chittenden and first performed by him at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 6 August 2005.
• Borderlands (2003–04) (Piano Trio) 8 Min. First performed by the Chagall Trio at the University of Manchester, recorded for commercial CD, 'Borderlands' (Campion Cameo Label)[2]
• Elegy for a Play of Shadows (2001) 7 Min. (Version 1: Cor Anglais Solo with Harp. Version 2: Cor Anglais Solo with Five Instruments). Version 1: First performed by Eamonn O'Dwyer at Sir Jack Lyons Hall, York. Version 2: First performed by the Britten Sinfonia, Canterbury, November 2001 conducted by Nicholas Cleobury.
• Hidden Arias (2001) (Solo Oboe). 5 Min. First performed by Melinda Maxwell at Dartington Hall, August 2001.

Discography[link]

Madrigali: Fire & Roses (Divine Art DDA 25094) due for release late 2011 - Con Anima Chamber Choir directed by Paul Mealor. Includes Mealor's 'Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal' and Morten Lauridsen's 'Madrigali' and 'Chanson Éloignée'.

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (Divine Art DDS 29002) digital-only EP, pre-release taken from Madrigali: Fire and Roses - Con Anima Chamber Choir directed by Paul Mealor

Mealor: Stabat Mater (Campion Cameo 2083) – Irene Drummond (soprano); Drew Tulloch (piano) Con Anima Chamber Choir/Paul Mealor. All Mealor CD including: Stabat Mater; Let Fall the Windows of Mine Eyes; Between Eternity and Time; Beata es, Virgo Maria; Lux Benigna; Ave

Borderlands (Campion Cameo 2053) – Chagall Trio. Includes Mealor’s ‘Borderlands’ alongside music by John Pickard, Camden Reeves and Philip Grange

Christmas favourites from Aberdeen (KCL 2009) – Chapel Choir of King’s College, Aberdeen/ Roger Williams (organist). Includes Mealor’s ‘Locus Iste’

A Tender Light (Decca Classics) 14 November 2011 - Tenebrae Choir & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nigel Short.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• University of Aberdeen, Dept. of Music
• Con Anima
• Paul Mealor's YouTube channel

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Janet Cardiff
Born	March 15, 1957 (1957-03-15) Brussels, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Field	audio art, installation art
Training	Queen's University, University of Alberta
Works	Paradise Institute, 2001, with George Bures Miller
Awards	National Gallery of Canada Millennium Prize

Janet Cardiff (born 15 March 1957) is a Canadian installation artist. Born in Brussels, Ontario in 1957 Cardiff studied at Queen's University (BFA) where she graduated in 1980. She also studied at the University of Alberta (MVA)and graduated in 1983. She works in collaboration with her partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff and Miller currently live and work in Berlin. Janet Cardiff first gained international notoriety for her audio walks in 1995.

Solo works[link]

Cardiff's installations and walking pieces are often audio-based. She has been included in exhibitions such as: Present Tense, Nine Artists in the Nineties, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, NowHere, Louisiana Museum, Denmark, The Museum as Muse, Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie International '99/00, the Tate Modern Opening Exhibition as well as a project commissioned by Artangel in London. This project ("The Missing Voice (Case Study B)") was commissioned in 1999 and continues to run.^[1] It is an audio tour that leaves from the Whitechapel Library, next to the Whitechapel tube stop and snakes its way through London's East End, weaving fictional narrative with descriptions about the actual landscape. Cardiff represented Canada at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1998, and at the 6th Istanbul Biennial in 1999 with her partner George Bures Miller.

In her Forty Part Motet she placed 40 speakers in 8 groups, each speaker playing a recording of one voice singing Thomas Tallis' Spem in alium, enabling the audience to walk through the space and "sample" individual voices of the polyphonic vocal music. This work is now part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.^[2] and of Inhotim in Brumadinho, Brazil. A recent mid-career retrospective, Janet Cardiff: A Survey of Works, Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller, opened at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, Queens, in 2001 and has travelled to Montréal, Oslo, and Turin. Exhibitions in 2006 include Good Vibrations–Le arti visive e il Rock, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Anticipation, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and Sonic Presence, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway.

In 2005, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution commissioned and exhibited Cardiff's work "Words Drawn in Water".^[3]

In Real Time (1999) was the very first video walk that Cardiff created. It took place in the library of the Carnegie Museum of Art and begins with the participant donning a pair of headphones attached to a small video camera. Upon playback Cardiff says to watch the screen and follow along with what we see and hear for approximately 18 minutes. This piece relies on the discrepancies between what is seen on the video monitor and what is actually occurring in the library.

Work with George Bures Miller[link]

Cardiff and Bures Miller represented Canada at the 49th Venice Biennale with Paradise Institute (2001), a 16-seat movie theatre where viewers watched a film, becoming entangled as witnesses to a possible crime played out in the real world audience and on the screen. The artists won La Biennale di Venezia Special Award at Venice, presented to Canadian artists for the first time and the Benesse Prize, recognizing artists who break new artistic ground with an experimental and pioneering spirit. Cardiff and Bures Miller have recently had exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Alberta (2010), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2008) the Miami Art Museum (2007) Vancouver Art Gallery (2005), Luhring Augustine, New York (2004), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2003), Art Gallery of Ontario (2002), National Gallery of Canada (2002) and Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario (2000).

See also[link]

• Rideau Street Chapel

References[link]

External links[link]

• Janet Cardiff and George Miller
• The Fruitmarket Gallery.
• Luhring Augustine Gallery.
• thecanadianencyclopedia.com
• Words Drawn in Water
• the-artists.org
• Tate Liverpool
• artfacts.net
• "Creating Worlds" Excerpt of profile from ascent magazine
• KultureFlash Interview (01/2003)