Cantus firmus in sacred and secular compositions

A cantus firmus (“fixed song”) is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.  The earliest polyphonic compositions almost always involved a cantus firmus,  typically a Gregorian chant but could be any preexisting melody used in a new composition.  The cantus firmus  first appeared in the  in the top voice. Around  1100,  the cantus firmus typically appeared in the lowest-sounding voice. Later, the cantus firmus appeared in the tenor voice  The  notes were of longer duration  (from the Latin verb ‘tenere’, to hold)., around which more florid lines either  instrumental and/or vocal, were composed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantus_firmus

edited by Robert Ford

In classical music, a motet is a highly varied choral musical composition. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music.

According to Margaret Bent, “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 Grocheo, who believed that the motet was “not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts.”

Etymology

Describing the motet can be difficult as a number of  kinds of songs in various time periods have been called motet. The following information re the  derivation of the word “motet”  perhaps helps us understand the genre.   In the early twentieth century,  the word motet was generally believed to come from the Latin movere, (“to move”). However  a derivation from the French mot (“word” or “phrase”), had also been suggested. If the word is from Latin, the name describes the movement of the different voices against one another. Today, however, the French etymology is favored by reference books, as the word “motet” in thirteenth-century French had the sense of “little word.”

Medieval Motets

The earliest motets arose in the thirteenth century from the organum tradition exemplified in the Notre Dame school of Léonin and Pérotin. The motet probably arose from the addition of text to the long melismatic passages of organum. 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.

Renaissance Motets

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 motet, the Renaissance composers of the motet generally abandoned the use of a repeated figure as a cantus firmus in favor of. a polyphonic musical setting –  sometimes in imitative counterpoint for chorus of a Latin text, usually sacred but 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.

Imitation    source:    https://courses.lumenlearning.com/vccs-tcc-mus121-1/wp-admin/post.php?post=97&action=edit

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. Religious compositions in vernacular languages were often called madrigali spirituali, “spiritual madrigals.”

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, Giovanni Gabrieli and other composers developed a new style, the polychoral motet  (See Sonatra pian forte above), 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.

Ave Maria by Josquin

Composition

The work was composed during Josquin’s service at the North Italian court at Milan. Several modern theorists have applied the concept of syntactic imitation to describe the lucid relationship between the text and Josquin’s musical setting. Each phrase corresponds to a line of text, cleverly exposed through points of imitation. Structural articulations often resolve on cadences, where voices arrive at the unison (same note).

The opening section provides clear imitation of each phrase, in the style of litany,  dramatically echoing  from the highest to lowest voice, almost resembling Gregorian chant. While the phrases are identical in length, the counterpoint’s turbidity increases, climaxing where all four voices sing together. This climax turns to an imperfect, deceptive cadence, symbolizing the permeative difficulty of Mother Mary’s influence.

While the regularity of imitation initially articulates the phrases, the middle verses exemplify the articulation from contrasts in texture. Duets alternate between voices and often break off into trios. The lines are punctuated by structural cadences, presenting the text in a temporary repose. Josquin locates each of these structural cadences in progressions of increasing power, placing the strongest, most perfect cadence for the very end of each line. The unity of musical sound, representing the spiritual unity of prayer, completes the act of worship which has been the rhetorical goal of the text. The final lines are sung in homophony, 4’35” as if the four, once separate voices have aligned under the grace of God.

Lyrics

“Ave Maria … Virgo serena” is a motet composed by Josquin des Prez. It is regarded as Josquin’s most famous motet and one of the most famous pieces of the 15th century. The piece rose to extreme popularity in the 16th century, even appearing at the head of the first volume of motets ever printed. Its revolutionary open style featuring early imitative counterpoint and two-voice parts has added to its acclaim as one of the most influential compositions of its era.

Listen to Ave Maria by Josquin (video below)   Click on the full screen and see the parts illustrated  graphically on the screen. The work contains   polyphonic and homophonic sections though mostly poplyphonic.  Hear the polyphonic  texture at the beginning as the parts enter in imitation.  At 3:04 texture changes to homophonic until 3:26 at which time it becomes polyphonic again with imitation. At 4:35  it again becomes homophonic  to the end of the work.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/vccs-tcc-mus121-1/chapter/motet-e/

With the above in mind let’s listen to a few motets from the middle ages and Renaissance.

Listen to just the first selection by Palestrina for the imitation . The description of “sacred madrigal” (above) seems to fit this composition.