Egidius de Pusieux; 1342), or even 18:12:10:5:9:10 (Salve virgo/Vita via by Billart; ca.
1400). Strict isorhythmic taleae appear in all voices after ca. 1350.
As in the 13th-century motet, triplum and motetus declaim different poems. Strophic
patterns in the poetry are often reflected in the isorhythmic layout, with a new strophe
beginning at the same point in each succeeding talea. Most 14th-century isorhythmic
motets have Latin texts; the many French-texted motets of Machaut are exceptions,
polyphonic settings of courtly poetry written before the consolidation of the fixed forms
and the development of polyphonic chansons ca. 1340. Otherwise, motets often served as
political or polemical works, perhaps celebrating a pope (Vitry’s Petre
Clemens/Lugentium siccentur) or a king (Royllart’s Rex Karole), excoriating venal
officials at the French court (Vitry’s Garrit gallus/In nova fert), or lamenting conditions
during the Hundred Years’ War (Machaut’s Tu qui gregem/Plange regni respublica).
Early 15th-century isorhythmic motets by Franco-Burgundian composers, such as
Johannes Carmen, Nicholas Grenon, and Guillaume Dufay, and the forty anonymous
isorhythmic motets in the Cypriot-French codex (Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, J.II.9),
continue many of the style traits established in the late 14th century. Royllart’s Rex
Karole (ca. 1375) served as a compositional model for some of these later works;
dramatic rhythmic changes in the upper voices (hocket, rhythmic sequences, mensuration
changes, etc.) articulate the midpoint or end of each tenor talea.
During the 1420s and 1430s, the isorhythmic motet absorbed foreign stylistic
influences. Some works written in Italy by Dufay and by his Franco-Burgundian
contemporaries display the influence of Italian motets (e.g., Johannes Brassart’s Ave
Maria), while the latest isorhythmic works by Dufay, Brassart, and Johannes de Sarto
adopted English features.
Unlike motets of the preceding century, 15th-century works written in France,
Burgundy, and at the French court of the Lusignan in Cyprus are almost exclusively
sacred in character, mostly on texts venerating the Virgin. Excluding motets that Dufay
and his contemporaries wrote for Italian patrons, there are few overt political or
occasional references in these works. By ca. 1450, the isorhythmic motet had effectively
disappeared as an independent genre, but its structural principles exerted a continuing
influence upon late 15th-century motets and upon the increasingly prominent tenor Mass.
Lawrence Earp/J.Michael Allsen
[See also: ARS NOVA; BRASSART, JOHANNES; CYCLIC MASS; DUFAY,
GUILLAUME; FAUVEL, LIVRES DE; HOCKET; MACHAUT, GUILLAUME DE;
MOTET (13TH CENTURY); PHILIPPE DE VITRY]
Allsen, J.Michael. Style and Intertextuality in the Isorhythmic Motet 1400–1440. Diss. University
of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1992 [9231671].
Bent, Margaret. “The Late-Medieval Motet.” In Companion to Medieval and Renaissance Music,
ed. Tess Knighton and David Fallows. New York: Schirmer, 1992, pp. 114–19.
Fallows, David. Dufay. London: Dent, 1982, pp. 103–23.
Günther, Ursula. “The 14th-Century Motet and Its Development.” Musica Disciplina 12(1958):27–
58.
Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel. Compositional Techniques in the Four-Part Isorhythmic Motets of
Philippe de Vitry and His Contemporaries. 2 vols. New York: Garland, 1989.
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