arunchandra1954 <arunchandra1954@gmail.com> wrote:

in an article "Music and Society" (1938) Elie Siegmeister writes of motets (perhaps written by Machaut, perhaps by Perotinus) in which three distinct texts are simultaneously performed. As a (theoretical?) example,
Siegmeister suggests that one voice might be a Gregorian chant, the second
a "courtly ornamented troubador melody" and the third "a bawdy love song
of popular origin".

Does anyone know of such a motet?

The Codex Bamberg contains 100 such motets from the 13th century. There
is a modern edition by Pierre Aubry, "Cent Motets du XIIIe Siècle" which
is still available from Amazon or other sellers of used books.

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Hi folks,

in an article "Music and Society" (1938) Elie Siegmeister writes of motets (perhaps written by Machaut, perhaps by Perotinus) in which three distinct texts are simultaneously performed. As a (theoretical?) example, Siegmeister suggests that one voice
might be a Gregorian chant, the second a "courtly ornamented troubador melody" and the third "a bawdy love song of popular origin".

Does anyone know of such a motet?

I'm interested, as I would like to perform such a motet with my ensemble.

Thanks very much,

Arun Chandra

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On Friday, August 5, 2016 at 6:41:20 AM UTC-7, Hans Rijnbout wrote:

arunchandra1954 wrote:

in an article "Music and Society" (1938) Elie Siegmeister writes of motets (perhaps written by Machaut, perhaps by Perotinus) in which three distinct texts are simultaneously performed. As a (theoretical?) example, Siegmeister suggests that one voice might be a Gregorian chant, the second a "courtly ornamented troubador melody" and the third "a bawdy love song
of popular origin".

Does anyone know of such a motet?

The Codex Bamberg contains 100 such motets from the 13th century. There
is a modern edition by Pierre Aubry, "Cent Motets du XIIIe Siècle" which
is still available from Amazon or other sellers of used books.

Thank you, Hans, I will look this up. --- arun

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In article <1mrilw5.gf82ob1lsz886N%jrijnb@xs4all.nl>,
Hans Rijnbout <jrijnb@xs4all.nl> wrote:

The Codex Bamberg contains 100 such motets from the 13th century.

As an additional note, such works are not "theoretical" at all.
Polytextuality was a basic feature of the Ars Antigua motet, a genre
that emerged from the polyphonic clausulae (closing formula) of
long works by Perotin, et al. So Perotin did not write such music
(that we know), but his immediate successors did. If you want to
hear this progression, Rene Clemencic has a recording on Stradivarius
that illustrates it well. (There is also a recording on Stradivarious
devoted specifically to the Bamberg Codex by Luigi Taglioni.)

With the Ars Nova, the explicit change in notation & priorities
that is associated with Philippe de Vitry c.1300, polytextual motets
were already the norm & continued, with some of the ideas penetrating
other forms, such as mass movements & songs more generally. This
is the context for Machaut, who wrote many polytextual motets, as
well as polytextual ballades. These pieces are widely available.
The polytextual style continued well into the 15th century,
particularly in what has come to be called the motet-chanson, usually
a sacred-secular mixture (which was not formulaic in the 13th century
Ars Antigua), such as in Ockeghem's famous _Mort tu as navre_ setting
on the death of Binchois... a piece perhaps foretold by Andrieu's
ballade on the death of Machaut....

Anyway, just a bit more context....

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