The ‘votive antiphon’ among other sacred textual forms

Abstract

Abstract Alongside settings of liturgical texts effected in manners strictly consistent with liturgical performance, there survive large numbers of early vocal pieces engaging Latin words of a religious or devotional nature all commonly subsumed together, both then and now, under the ‘catch-all’ term of ‘motet’. These, however, encompassed a remarkably diverse range of textual content, each destined for a distinct performance occasion and purpose no less likely to have been domestic than ecclesiastical; and these textual types, in turn, possess potential to have been reflected in corresponding distinctions of musical style and texture. Except in isolated instances, modern scholarship has paid only limited attention to these diversities of text and function, with the result that many musical works are classified together with little examination of the criteria by which compositional distinctions apparent between them might be explained. This article examines the category of ‘votive antiphon’ alongside other categories of Latin composition, and reflects upon the need to ask, of any such piece, the question ‘what was it for?’.