There is no single definition of the medieval motet which can encompass a full array of this heterogeneous musical genre. Whereas scholars frequently describe and understand thirteenth- and fourteenth-century motets as polyphonic compositions that borrow pre-existing melodies as tenors, such description – despite being appropriate for the genre at large – fails to account for the existing corpus of surviving monophonic motets. This is not the only dichotomy that one encounters in the mare magnum of medieval motets, for Latin and vernacular, devotional and secular, and poly- and mono-textual are some of the most outstanding contrasting characteristics that coexist within the number of compositions representing this diverse genre.

A Critical Companion to Medieval Motets makes sure that such variety is acknowledged from its very outset: it is a critical companion to medieval motets rather than to the motet. Distancing itself from the traditional narrative that sees motets exclusively as polyphonic compositions based on melodic excerpts borrowed from plainchant, this exceptional volume covers a repertory that spans the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on both sides of the English Channel, and confronts the reader with questions regarding origin, genre, function, composition and notation, to name but a few. The volume as a whole provides an overview of the motet as a genre typified by the plurality of both textual and compositional facets, whereas its chapters address specific issues that arise from certain portions of the repertory and individual compositions. It is undoubtedly intended as a companion for scholars, but also provides reading material which may stimulate productive discussions in graduate classes and seminars. In this respect, the brief glossary included at the end of the book (pp. 373–6) will be a useful tool for those less familiar with the terminology used to discuss medieval motets.

Comprising seventeen chapters, the book is divided into two sections: the first eight chapters focus on central topics such as genre, function, manuscript layout and notation, while the remaining nine concentrate on selected case studies which are thoroughly examined using a wide range of approaches. In the first chapter Elizabeth Eva Leach provides a fascinating investigation of the collection of motetus texts copied in the early fourteenth-century chansonnier Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 308. This collection also displays concordances with sources of both polyphonic motets and monophonic motets entés. Leach considers whether the motetus parts preserved in Douce 308 might have originally been earlier monophonic melodies that now survive only in the context of polyphonic motets. She thus cautiously questions the exclusive role of clausulae in paving the way for thirteenth-century motets, suggesting the possibility that what we perceive as a stable genre (the motet) may have actually been the result of complex processes of generic hybridisation involving secular monodies rather than a linear descent from the clausula. The following chapter, by Catherine Bradley, is also focused on issues of origins and generic interactions. Bradley questions the traditional view in which all thirteenth-century motets were derived from pre-existing clausulae, some of which, as she has already convincingly demonstrated in her previous work,Footnote ¹ may instead be transcriptions of French motets stripped of their texts. Emphasising the differences between a monotextual three-part motet, Homo quam sit pura / Latus, and its related clausula (both copied in the ars antiqua manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Pluteo 29.1), she also questions whether motets depended on clausulae to impart rhythmic information. The piece selected by Bradley is moreover atypical, with its monotextuality and poetic regularity, prompting a brief investigation of the interactions and intersections between motet and clausula. Bradley recognises a generic flexibility of thirteenth-century musical creations, which is otherwise partly concealed by tidy manuscript organisation.

In Chapter 3, Alice Clark reviews the variety and changing functions of the tenor, both chronologically and geographically. Regardless of whether the tenor is the first voice to be arranged in the compositional procedure or not, Clark emphasises its sonic individuality in the polyphonic construction. She also highlights the different approaches used in the selection and rhythmic organisation of tenors in France, England and Italy. Lawrence Earp embarks on a discussion of the term ‘isorhythm’ and its various interpretations, a review of scholarly standpoints such as Ludwig's and Besseler's, and invites readers to understand the ars nova motet beyond the concept of isoperiodicity, which is only one of the many musical parameters at work in late medieval motets. In her chapter about notation, Karen Desmond explores the chronological alterations of rhythmic written representation in medieval motets. She highlights the ambiguity and flexibility of cum littera notation found in early sources such as manuscript W₂ (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 1099) Helmst., and addresses the increasing precision of later practices in relation to changing aesthetics.

Thirteenth-century motet functions are the focus of Dolores Pesce's contribution. Concentrating on a family of motets based on the chant segment portare, Pesce shows how these motets may have functioned as exegetical and allegorical creations by combining the sacred chant tradition of the Church with vernacular texts and refrains, yet without setting a clear boundary between Marian devotion and courtly love. Similarly, Jacques Boogaart's chapter aims at investigating the social function of motets in the fourteenth century. In Boogaart's view, such pieces derive their political, moral and celebratory functions from the thirteenth-century conductus, although he deems the former more challenging to understand than the latter, and concludes that the motet was possibly aimed at restricted circles of highly educated laymen. In the following chapter John Haines and Stefan Udell provide an excursus on the manuscript sources of medieval motets, examining the ways in which the mise en page changed with time and contextualising the production of motet collections within a process of secularisation of manuscript culture in general.

Jennifer Saltzstein introduces the first case study of the volume: the thirteenth-century motet Fines amouretes / Fiat. This motet contains a refrain, which is also found in Thibaut's Roman de la poire and may have in turn been a quotation from another motet. Saltzstein uses the case of Fines amouretes / Fiat to argue that Old French motets may have been widely known in their time, and could have been less intellectual, exegetical and allegorical than previously thought. Her view thus seems to contradict those expressed in previous chapters by Pesce and Boogaart. In Chapter 10, Suzannah Clark examines two polytextual thirteenth-century motets for three and four voices, focusing on isolated episodes of monotextuality, that is, portions where the different texts converge on the same vowel, syllable or word. Such convergences, Clark argues, emphasise the heterogeneous nature of the pieces and thus play a fundamental role in the interplay and coexistence of different layers within a motet (e.g. Latin and vernacular, and sacred and secular). In the subsequent chapter, Gaël Saint-Cricq explores the repertory of thirteenth-century motets transmitted in non-Parisian chansonniers. Saint-Cricq notes that these motets are absent from surviving Parisian collections, and may therefore represent the musical productions of distinct local traditions. Saint-Cricq engages with both polyphonic rondeau-motets and monophonic motets entés, and advocates for the inclusion of motets in local trouvère musical practices. Matthew Thomson's contribution is a perfect complement to Saint-Cricq's chapter: Thomson discusses three motets, all of which make use of a stanza taken from a monophonic song, and examines the different ways the ‘otherness’ of the quoted material provides the basis around which the other parts are constructed. In Chapter 13, Jared Hartt scrutinises the English motet. Focusing on three case studies, he outlines the differences between the Insular motet and its continental counterpart. In the former, Latin texts, sacred topics and tonal coherence tend to dominate.

Anna Zayaruznaya attempts to reconstruct the compositional process of Philippe de Vitry's motet Colla / Bona and demonstrates how this piece was created starting from two upper-voice texts and a strategy to combine them, rather than taking shape from its tenor. This, as the contributor observes, contrasts with what medieval theorists typically say about compositional procedures of motets, and Zayaruznaya invites scholars to use their analytical skills in order to unveil the materia of medieval motets. As a complement to Zayaruznaya's work, Margaret Bent's chapter focuses on Guillaume de Machaut's motet Hareu! hareu! le feu / Helas! ou sera pris confors / Obediens usque ad mortem. Bent examines the integration of motives derived from the tenor in the upper parts of the motet. She argues that Machaut may have chosen his chant segment because of musical qualities that could serve both his contrapuntal construction and interplay between music and words. She thus invites scholars to rethink the overuse of isorhythm in motet analysis in favour of more comprehensive approaches that take textual and musical intricacies of fourteenth-century motets into consideration. Sarah Fuller undertakes the analysis of another of Machaut's motets, Tu qui gregem / Plange regni respublica / Apprehende aram et scutum / Contratenor, composed in the aftermath of the French defeat at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Fuller shows how, in this motet, the coexistence of stable and unstable elements via rhythmic and tonal variation perfectly matches the concerns and expectations expressed in the text. In the final chapter, Emily Zazulia considers the dating of the motet Portio nature / Ida capillorum / Contratenor / Ante thronum trinitatis. Whereas Suzanne Clercx and Richard Hoppin proposed the year 1342 as a possible date for its composition, Zazulia summarises that Ursula Günther suggested that the piece might be at least two decades older, due to its stylistic features. Zazulia uses this case study in order to emphasise the necessity of seeing narratives of stylistic evolution in fourteenth-century motets in a critical perspective.

Overall, A Critical Companion to Medieval Motets offers an impressive breadth of topics relating to thirteenth- and fourteenth-century motets, and each of its chapters provides the reader with thought-provoking discussions. Nevertheless, there are some minor issues. Bradley's examination of the interchange between motet, conductus and clausula, for instance, appears to be slightly cursory and almost results in a mere list of pieces characterised by generic ambiguity. Furthermore, it was surprising to note the absence of any mention of Manfred Bukofzer's work on interrelations between conductus and clausula.Footnote ² Despite being dated, Bukofzer's work can hardly be disregarded in any discussion on generic intermingling of thirteenth-century polyphonic music, especially considering that Bukofzer mentioned many of the compositions addressed by Bradley, who furthermore did not take into account more recent literature that deals with very similar themes.Footnote ³ I also found problematic Boogaart's assumption that ‘a conductus was far easier to understand and more rhetorically straightforward, therefore appealing to a large audience’ (p. 156) when compared with a fourteenth-century motet. Whereas polytextuality in the case of motets certainly provides a layer of complexity foreign to the conductus, the conductus itself could very often employ texts which required a substantial knowledge of patristic writings and biblical exegesis to be fully understood, and whose intelligibility may at times be overwhelmed by impressively long melsimas (caudae). Moreover, when Boogaart states that a quotation from Lucan's Bellum civile in the text of the motet he discusses (Scariotis falsitas / Jure quod in opere / Superne matris gaudia) ‘was intended for persons with knowledge of classical Latin literature’ (p. 156), he seems to imply that such knowledge would not be required for the proper comprehension of a conductus. One only need read the line Tityre tu patule in the conductus Isayas cecinit to realise that this is certainly not the case. Moreover, the conductus repertory is so wide-ranging in terms of both musical and textual features that any specific conclusion about its function and audience is an imprecise generalisation.

However, these very few drawbacks in what is otherwise an excellent volume can provide further stimuli for scholarly reflection, as well as classroom discussion. A Critical Companion to Medieval Motets is a comprehensive book at the forefront of motet scholarship and it will be a valuable addition to the bookshelf of the medieval musicologist.