Search

The collection HAN Cod. 9814 in the Austrian National Library contains the motet Angelus Domini a23 attributed to the composer Alexander Utendal (after 1530–1581), copied by the scribe Georg Khues (fl.1579–1621) apparently as a gift for Emperor Matthias (1557–1619) on his 60th birthday on 24 February 1617. Although the very unusual scoring of the composition, with 23 voices in four choirs, immediately raises doubts, the attribution of the work to Utendal has not been questioned in the literature so far. After a thorough compositional and textual analysis, the present study will suggest that Angelus Domini was not written by Utendal, but by a representative of the Venetian polychoral school around 1600. Furthermore, the compositional device of two low voices in unison in tutti sections, used in Angelus Dominus a23 , is taken as a reference point to place the motet in the vicinity of similar works known to have been written by composers active at the court of Ferdinand II (1578–1637) in Graz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinions remain divided on the date of Illibata Dei virgo nutrix , the motet with the famous acrostic spelling the name Josquin des Prez. Some writers see it as a product of the composer's years at the papal chapel, 1489–94; others would move its origin considerably earlier, even to 1466–75. The only real foothold we have comes from a Vatican copy made in the mid-1490s. Advocates for an early date see the music as particularly close to the works of Du Fay, Busnoys and Johannes Regis; those supporting a Roman origin point to a trend there during Josquin's tenure towards similarly 'archaic' motets. In both instances, the writers have sought a context in the music of other composers. The present study turns the focus inward to seek a context within the development of Josquin himself. Despite the uncertainty that scholars find in Josquin chronology at every turn, careful analysis of compositional procedure offers a way of breaking the apparent logjam over what everyone recognizes as one of the most significant works of its era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes and evaluates some newly identified polyphonic phenomena in Josquin's most securely attributed works for five and six voices. By examining some characteristic touches of Josquin's hand, it aims to shed new light on the later style of this celebrated yet enigmatic composer, and contributes to the debate about what makes Josquin sound like Josquin. Specifically, it looks at how Josquin sometimes interlocked passages of canon and stretto fuga against bass motion along the chain of 5ths, and then evolved this aspect of craft to the point where it contributes to the perceived tonality, modality and form of individual works. Extracts from nine pieces by Josquin are examined: five motets, three chansons, and the Credo of the Missa De beata virgine. Closest attention is paid to passages from Pater noster , Nimphes napées , Preter rerum seriem , Douleur me bat and Plaine de deuil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Netherlandish composer Adrian Willaert (c.1490-1562), who held the maestro di cappella post at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice for much of the mid-16th century, composed three motets that set excerpts from the Latin text of Virgil's epic Aeneid three secular Latin-texted pieces provide a series of examples of musical humanism in practice. Willaert's O socii, Dulces exuviae a 3, and Dulces exuviae a 4 are case studies both for the ways that Renaissance-era composers engaged directly with humanism through their compositions, and for the varied motives that could lead a composer at this time to set this ancient Roman text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of En la España Medieval is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The 1597 inventory of manuscripts of Philip II of Spain lists, among its many entries, a music book opening with a six-voice motet Salve Jesu by Pierre de la Rue. Unfortunately this manuscript no longer exists, and as the motet could not be located in any of the Alamire manuscripts or in other sources containing La Rue's works, it figures as a lost composition in lists of La Rue's works. This article argues that the motet may not be lost, but is rather preserved as an anonymous work in one of the manuscripts of Johannes Heugel. The six-voice Salve Jhesu in manuscript 91 of the former State Library at Kassel, which sets part of a well-known text that was long attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, is clearly a work from the early 16th century and shows interesting parallels with La Rue's six-voice motet Pater de caelis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No fewer than twenty motets have been attributed to Philippe de Vitry. But since so few of these motets have been assigned to the composer in fourteenth-century sources, scholars have relied upon other means of attribution: citations of motet titles in treatises and literary documents, internal evidence from poetic texts, transmission of motet poetry without music, and examination of rhythmic, structural, and various other stylistic properties. Analysis of sonority, however, strongly suggests that many of these motets cannot be the work of the same composer. Consequently, I argue that a systematic examination of sonority usage and patterns must be regarded as an essential analytical tool when tackling the thorny issue of motet attribution. Analysis of selected motets attributed to Vitry reveals recurring patterns of sonority usage, but also numerous anomalies, which in turn raise many interesting questions. For example, if the motets associated with Enguerran de Marigny (Aman, Garrit, Tribum, and Floret) were composed more or less contemporaneously with--and specifically for--the compilation of Fauvel, then my findings suggest that Vitry is not the composer of all of these motets. In sum, I demonstrate that analysis of sonority can both support and, conversely, attenuate a Vitry motet attribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Musicologia is the property of Sociedad Espanola de Musicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Peter Philips (1560/61-1628) was among the first English composers to embrace the musical style of the Italianate Baroque. His Paradisus sacris cantionibus consitus, printed during his final year at the Brussels court of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, is a large collection of accompanied monodies, duets and trios, a number of them lavishly ornamented. Some of the texts he sets in this book are drawn from the common stock of post-Tridentine devotion, but others are lengthy eucharistic meditations, unusual and at times rather overwrought. Most of these latter texts can in fact be traced to a devotional book ( Hebdomada eucharistica) published a decade earlier in Brussels by one of Philips's fellow English-speaking exiles at the archducal court, the chaplain and theologian Richard Stanihurst. Philips's musical settings, dedicated to Albert and Isabella's almoner Francis de Rye, took shape in an intense atmosphere of Baroque eucharistic piety - in the company of works such as Rubens' formidable tapestries on the Triumph of the Eucharist, commissioned by Isabella herself, and other elaborate architectural and cultural projects. In this paper, I explore the context of the 1628 Paradisus, the court culture which incited a proudly English composer (as he identified himself on all his title pages) to identify so strongly with the European Counter-Reformation. I also reconsider the place of Philips and his music in the community of English-speaking Catholic expatriates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on "Prophetiae Sibyllarum," a collection of motets composed by Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus. Each motet is titled after a particular sibylline prophetess such as Persica, Libyca and Delphica. According to the author, the work has exceeded the normal level of chromaticism practiced by Lassus. An overview of the life of the composer, a brief history of the prophetic tradition in which "Prophetiae Sibyllarum" is based and an analysis of the poetry of the composition are provided.

The article discusses composer Felix Mendelssohn's Grand Tour, particularly the time he spent in Italy. The author highlights the concept of transcendence in music composed by Mendelssohn as the result of his experiences and discusses the influence of Italian painting on Mendelssohn. Motets he composed for the nuns at Trinità dei Monti and other works are suggested to have been inspired by his Roman surroundings.

Jubilate Deo has long been regarded as a work exemplifying Josquin's late psalm-motet style. More recently, however, doubts have been raised regarding Josquin's authorship. A fresh examination of the motet and its transmission shows these doubts to be well grounded. An analysis of the motet's source situation shows Jubilate Deo to be one of the many psaim-motets that first appear in, and owe their ascription to Josquin entirely to mid-16th-century German sources and that the only independent ascription of the motet to Josquin is found in Petreius's rather untrustworthy Totnus secundus psalmorum of 1539. While the piece displays characteristics that remind one of authentic psalm-motets by Josquin, it also shows clear traits that cannot easily be reconciled with his style. More importantly, and more decisively in determining the authorship question, are places in the prima pars of Jubilate Deo where imitative entries taken from motets attributed to Josquin seem to have been reused. These borrowings suggest that Jubilate Deo must be ranked among the growing number of imitation-motets: works by minor composers, hard at work learning their craft from the prince of Renaissance composers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights some of the musical works that can be attributed to French composer and poet Philippe de Vitry. It presents three remarks by 14th century authors and three rubrics in musical manuscripts ascribe six motets to de Vitry. It says that out of these presenations, one is said to have been cited in the Ars nova treatise, which records a teaching tradition originating in Vitry. Meanwhile, the remaining five motets used in the Ars nova as illustrations of the new notational practice have also been assumed to be by Vitry himself while several others have been attributed to the latter by modern scholars on account of their style.

Copyright of Musicology of Lithuania / Lietuvos muzikologija is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Music & Theatre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on music composer Richard Dering and his few-voice "concertato" motets. It states that the complete source of Dering's few-voice motets is John Playford's "Cantica Sacra ad duas & tres voces...authore Ricardo Deringo." A further eight motets attributed to Dering also appeared in Playford's "Cantica Sacra...Composed by Mr. Richard Dering, Dr. Christoph: Gibbons. Dr. Benjamin Rogers. Mr. Matt: Locke and Others. The Second Sett." The stylistic features of Dering's few-voice concertato motets are summarized as imitative sections contrast with homophonic writings; contraptual sections are characterized by the interplay of short, rhythmic motifs; standard harmonic formulae are utilized in a tonal framework; and the voices are supported by a basso continuo part.

The 350th anniversary of the birth of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726) is a stimulus for a reassessment of the grands motets of the most influential composer for the chapel of Louis XIV and Louis XV after the court moved to Versailles in 1682. Lalande's interest in Italian music, notably that of Corelli, and his passion for continuous revision, are noted in the context of other, Parisian centres of interest in Italian style. Extracts from Lalande's late motets illustrate how ultramontane influences allied to formal, harmonic and contrapuntal skills of a high order produced works which were to dominate the repertory both of the chapel and the Paris Concert spirituel for some 50 years after the composer's death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antun Dobronić worked as a composer, music writer and critic, choir-master and organist in the field of musica sacra, but also as a melographer, researcher and collector of folk tunes, and, finally, as a teacher. As a composer he wrote a small number of works distinguished by diverse genres of music: he composed masses, motets, solo songs, a vocal-orchestral suite, and stage music (incidental music for a mystery play). According to the performing ensemble, he composed piano, vocal-solo and choral compositions - and larger vocal-instrumental compositions. Dobronić's rather small sacred opus encompasses original compositions and arrangements and harmonisations of church vernacular tunes. His sacred works can also be viewed according to their purpose and/or to their connection to the content and characteristics of religious texts (as church, liturgical and generally spiritual compositions), but also according to their diverse range and artistic values. According to scope, he set to music both more complex and longer works (Slavenska misa u East Bl. Djevice Marije od Račića u Jelsi [Slavic Mass in hon. B. Mariae Virg. of Račić in Jelsa], Misa za mrtve [Mass for the Dead], Prikazanje od poroda Jezusova / Betlehemska zvijezda [Mystery of the Birth of Jesus / The Star of Bethlehem], Stabat Mater, and Motet), as well as shorter compositions such as church songs, arrangements and harmonisations of tunes. The relative presence/absence of some sacred compositions in performing practice - then and now - points to the atmosphere that contributed to their poor or improved reception; and that was also the consequence of the fact that only a small number of Dobronić 's works were published (among the sacred works: Slavenska misa u East Gospe od Račić u Jelsi [Slavic Mass in hon. Of Our Lady of Račić in Jelsa] and Seoske božićne popijevke iz Međimurja [Rural Christmas Songs from Međimurje]). Among other themes presented in his ca 750 articles, studies, essays, critiques, papers, and polemics, Dobronić, being a musician engaged with equal intensity in music-writing, journalistic and critical work, also touched on those connected with church music issues. He collaborated and published in almost all professional and musical journals (Sv. Cecilija, Glazbeni vjesnik, Muzika, Zvuk, Ćirilometodski vjesnik, Vienac, Kulisa, Narodni učitelj, Hrvatska pozornica, Glazbeni i kazalipni vjesnik) as well as in Novosti, Narodni list, Narodne novine, Jutarnji list, Gospodarstvo, Hrvatski krugoval, Jugoslovenska reč etc. As a teacher he used to be a promoter of church music in many places; singing societies and amateur-choirs, in which he worked as choirmaster and organist, were founded through his efforts. In the end, as the melographer he collected and classified a series of manuscript collections of vocal and instrumental traditional material, including church tunes collected in Jelsa during 1938 and 1946. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses Orlande de Lassus' high-quality edition of the complete motets (CM). Revision of Lassus' motets after his death in 1594 by his son; Impact of the new layout on the people's understanding and appreciation of Lassus, the motet composer; Organization of CM in three sequences.

Works from the Liber missarum (Antwerp, 1621) of the Portuguese composer Duarte Lobo (c. 1565-1646) became established in the repertory of 'ancient music' cultivated in eighteenth-century England. In particular, the motet Audivi vocem de caelo enjoyed considerable and long-lasting popularity, indicated by numerous manuscript copies, published editions, and records of performances. Such familiarity with Lobo's works probably stemmed from a copy of the Liber missarum presented to the Bodleian Library in 1659, and later consulted by William Walond senior and Henry Needler. Perhaps thanks to Needler, Lobo's music entered the repertory of the Academy of Ancient Music. Other manuscript copies of Lobo's works are by John Immyns, founder of the Madrigal Society; Audivi vocem featured in the Society's repertory well into the nineteenth century. In 1827 Vincent Novello published an edition of Audivi vocem, and further editions appeared in Paris and England during the 1840s. Aspects of how the piece was performed can be established from manuscript annotations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Norwegian researcher reports on his doctoral work on the composer Henry Du Mont (ca 1610–84). When Skaadel began his work, in 1995, Du Mont was hardly known in Norway, and few recordings or modern scores were available. Fortunately Du Mont enjoyed royal patronage at the French chapel royal, which meant that his works were published by the royal printer, Robert Ballard, and preserved in Parisian libraries such at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. This allowed research into Du Mont's Cantica Sacra (1652, 2nd edition 1662), Airs à quatre parties (1663), Motets à deux voix (1668) and Moteta a II.III et IV. parties, all published by Ballard; as well as some works that survive only in manuscript, such as the motet Media vita in morte sumus (currently in Uppsala, Sweden), and various works in the Brossard Collection at the BnF. Some Marian motets now in the Brussels Conservatoire seem beyond the limits of Du Mont's recognized style, and are not by the composer. An interesting feature of Du Mont's works is that certain motets from the 1652 Cantica borrow their texts, forms and melodic motives from Netherlandish or Belgian models by such composers as Sweelinck, Peter Philips or Leonard de Hodemont, and their music from Italian composers such as Giovanni Rovetta or Gasparo Casati. Furthermore, Du Mont's Jubilemus exultemus is based on a motet by Hodemont that in turn uses as a model a madrigal from Monteverdi's Seventh Book. This is surprising, since the three composers did not know each other, and suggests wide dissemination of their publications. A copy of Hodemont's Armonia recreatione in the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève has an ex libris notice ‘Ad usum H. a Monte’, which suggests that Du Mont once owned it. It is also possible that he owned several other prints now in F-Psg. Although the computer, and, especially, electronic communication between computers, along with the availability of microfilms, has somewhat simplified some aspects of research, today's researcher may still need to use ‘real’ copies of material from libraries, along with a notebook and pencil. If libraries disappear, our collective memory goes with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores German classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach's music compositional practice. It examines the terminology used including colores, figurae, motet style, and varietas. It defines Bach's preambula and inventions and discusses the importance of style in music making such as in the High Baroque music.

This article presents a biography of composer William Byrd. He was born in 1543 and died in 1623. In his mid-twenties, he served as organist and choirmaster of Lincoln Cathedral. He was named a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1572. He published three collections of Latin motets, one in 1575 and two in 1589 and 1591. Some of his music was banned in England in the anti-Catholic conflict following the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.

The article offers information on acquisitions of the American Organ Archives' collection including photographs, stereoviews, picture postcards, recital leaflets. It also offers information on Pierre-Joseph Amédée Tremblay, a Canadian organist, who established Orphéon de Saint-Joseph, a choral society in 1892. As a composer, Tremblay has been known for his output including masses, motets, and organ works.

Focuses on a book dealing with composer William Byrd's Latin motets. Works from so-called 'middle period' of Byrd; Diversity of the motets; Reconstruction work by Byrd scholars, Warwick Edwards, Joseph Kerman and Philip Brett.

Provides evidence corroborating Professor Brian Trowell's identification of John Aleyn as the composer of a motet in the 14th century. Celebration of the achievements of musicians in the text of the triplum; Estimate on the motet's date of composition; Implications of Aleyn's withdrawal as chaplain of the Chapel Royal of Edward III.