06/2019: New book published: Motet Cycles between Devotion and Liturgy

Our new book Motet Cycles Between Devotion and Liturgy has been published by Schwabe Verlag. Click here to view it on the publisher’s website.

This book explores the corpus of motet cycles composed and disseminated in manuscript and printed sources of polyphony ca. 1470–ca. 1510, including works by Loyset Compère, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and Franchinus Gaffurius. In doing so, it tackles some of the most essential and stimulating issues of late medieval and Renaissance music, clustering around the role of sacred polyphony in the interaction between devotion and liturgy. The different chapters, organized in four sections, cover topics ranging from the relationship between ritual and cycles to the “shape and sound of prayer texts”, revisit the problematic association between Milan, motetti missales and Josquin, and offer a series of case studies approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. By addressing issues of textual and musical design, function, and performance, the book illuminates this fascinating repertory and the rich devotional and cultural context in which it flourished.

Contributors: Clare Bokulich, Felix Diergarten, Eva Ferro, Daniele V. Filippi, Marco Gozzi, Andrew Kirkman, Robert Nosow, Agnese Pavanello, Joshua Rifkin, Francesco Rocco Rossi, Fañch Thoraval, Hana Vlhová-Wörner.