Abstract
The genre of motet for a single voice of the baroque and pre-classical eras has been little investigated. Bukofzer mentions only its origins in a brief paragraph; Abraham admittedly has half a page in his Concise Oxford History of Music, putting it quickly into context; but Fellerer's ample Geschichte der katholischen Kirchenmusik (Kassel, 1976) treats it only sketchily and even Finscher's article on the motet in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart mentions it only in passing, the more important discussion being devoted to the motet in the stile antico, perhaps not surprisingly, since that was what the term really implied in Germany during Bach's lifetime. But everyone knows at least one solo motet, Mozart's Exsultate jubilate (K. 158a); most people will know a piece in a similar tradition, Bach's Jauchzet Gott (BVW 51), significantly included among the cantatas; to which may be added a work which some of us feel is finer than either, Handel's Silete venti. In monographs on the various composers, these pieces usually get short shrift, being considered either a-typical or at least of minor importance. This paper will attempt to provide a background to these works.
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