Introduction
All the most relevant composers of the late 16th century (from Palestrina to Byrd, from Guerrero to Lassus) composed and published motets, undoubtedly responding to the needs of both their employing institutions and the printing market. Likewise, they were surely receptive to contemporary shifts in spirituality and religious life (although the real extent of the Council of Trent's direct influence still needs to be determined). The sacred counterpart to the madrigal, the motet became a workshop for experimenting with text-tone relationships, form organisation, and rhetorical strategies. It often featured intriguing instances of imitatio and all sort of intertextual cross-references. Moreover, it proved a versatile medium suitable for fulfilling different functions in a wide array of contexts. This versatility also applied to the choice of texts.
In spite of all that, the post-Tridentine motet has been surprisingly neglected in recent scholarship, and many crucial questions remain unanswered. With this conference we aim to re-open the discussion on the immense corpus of polyphonic and polychoral motets produced and performed all over Europe in the period ca. 1560 to ca. 1610.
Keynote speakers
Invited speakers will include David Crook, Christian Leitmeir, Kerry McCarthy and Noel O'Regan. There will also be two discussion panels, one on the influence of the Council of Trent on the late-16th century motet (led by Noel O'Regan and Christian Leitmeir) and the other on performance practice (led by Owen Rees and with the participation of members of 'Galliarda' and 'The Willoughby Consort'.
For more information email Esperanza Rodriguez-Garcia, James Cook, Daniele V Filippi, and Juan Ruiz Jiménez at ptmotetconference@gmail.com.