CARMINA ANGLICA. English Latin conductus and motets of XIII-XIV cc.
New sounds of polyphonic music as well as gothic as a style we invented
on the continent, but soon (at the beginning of XIII c.) they can be
found in Britain. Many musical genres of that time (rondellus,
conductus, motet) were well known and popular on both the banks of the
English channel. But English versions were quite apart from French
originals and counterparts.
Motet in France in XIII c. usually had a melody taken from a Gregorian
chant in Latin in its tenor, while upper voices (motetus, triplum and
quite rare quadruplum) were often in French and dedicated to secular
subjects. English motet “Vide miser et iudica/Vide miser et
cogita/Wynter” turns this scheme upside down. Its tenor is in
Middle English and apparently secular, while upper voices are in Latin
and devotional and penitential by nature. Motet “Orbis pium
primordium/O bipertitum peccatum” is not a motet per se, but a
conductus-motet, something in between these two genres.
Musically English polyphony of XIII-XIV also differs for the
continental one. Less ornamental, more restrained and homogeneous. As
an architecture English gothic music has at least no less
Romanesque influence than its continental counterpart.
For more details please see the booklet article, written by Dr. Helen Deeming.
