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Essay Plan

A) Discuss the Development of the Motet by making explicit use of the works analysed during this course

INTRODUCTION
In this essay I will be discussing how the musical form of the ‘Motet’ developed from the early music of the church, to become a secular music style. I will first touch on musical styles which came before, and also the composers, and their influences.

Origins: The Plainchant
Although orignating in Jewish and Pagan church centres, (Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and Constantine), by the 4th Century, two distinct families of liturgies and music had been developed- ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western (Latin)’.
Plainchant, refers in particular to the Western family of holy rites, and would have been one of the original forms of song/rite used in early Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches.
There were several different styles of Latin Plainchant which existed alongside each other, till the mid 8th Century(Ambrosian, Gallican, Mozarabic, Gregorian, and Old Roman)

However, around this period, due political and liturgical unification of the Christian Church, one particular style of chant, came to be used as standard by the church, for use in the Roman Liturgy, the ‘Gregorian’ Chant (example figure 1 below)

(Figure 1)

Originally the Gregorian chant was probably so named to honor the contemporary Pope Gregory II but later lore attributed the authorship of chant to his more famous predecessor Gregory the Great. Gregory was portrayed dictating plainchant inspired by a dove representing the Holy Spirit, giving Gregorian chant the stamp of holy authority. Gregory's authorship is popularly accepted as fact to this day.
There are any number of stories and legends associated with Gregory. There are paintings showing a bird singing chants into his ear as he wrote them down and there are stories of his sending out missionaries with...