Motet

In Western classical music, a motet is mainly the vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margaret Bent, "a portion of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the gradual 16th century in addition to beyond. The slow 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they score not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated as alive as of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".

Baroque examples

In Baroque music, especially in France where the motet was very important, there were two distinct, together with very different sort of motet: petits motets, sacred choral or chamber compositions whose only accompaniment was a basso continuo; and grands motets, which quoted massed choirs and instruments up to and including a full orchestra. Jean-Baptiste Lully was an important composer of this bracket of motet. Lully's motets often quoted parts for soloists as alive as choirs; they were longer, including combine 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 workings such(a) as Plaude Laetare Gallia, statement 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."

Henry Dumont grand & petits motets, Marc-Antoine Charpentier 206 different types of motets, Michel-Richard de La Lande 70 grands motets, Henry Desmarest 20 grands motets, François Couperin motets lost were also important composers. In Germany, too, pieces called motets were statement in the new musical languages of the Baroque. Heinrich Schütz wrote numerous motets in series of publications, for example three books of Symphoniae sacrae, some in Latin and some in German. Hans Leo Hassler composed motets such(a) as Dixit Maria, on which he also based a mass composition.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote working he called motets, relatively long pieces in German on sacred themes for choir and basso continuo, with instruments playing colla parte, several of them composed for funerals. Six motets certainly composed by Bach are:

The funeral cantata O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV 118 1736–37? is regarded as a motet. The motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren, BWV 231 is an arrangement of a movement from Bach's Cantata 28, and the authenticity of the arrangement is non certain. For a few more motets, such(a) as Ich lasse dich nicht, BWV Anh 159, Bach's authorship is debated.