Cicli di mottetti tra Quattro e Cinquecento: funzione, performance, e disegno compositivo nel contesto di pratiche musico-liturgiche e devozionali / Motet Cycles in the Late Fifteenth/Early Sixteenth-Century: Function, Performance, and Compositional Design in the Context of Musico-Liturgical and Devotional Practices

Abstract

In late fifteenth-century Europe, motets (Latin-texted polyphonic compositions with predominantly sacred-devotional subjects) began to be gathered in “cycles” and to be copied as such in manuscripts. The project, started at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland) in September 2014 and finished in Dezember 2017, focused on late fifteenth-century motet cycles, exploring a broad range of issues, from the choice of texts and the compositional strategies to the performing contexts. The results of the project includes, besides a comprehensive catalogue of the cycles, abundant new data regarding the conception, performance, reception, and transmission of this fascinating repertoire.