The book ranges widely over French, English and Italian motets, mostly between the 1310s and the 1420s. About half the material is previously unpublished, the remaining chapters have been revised to varying degrees from previous publications and are now organised into Parts devoted to compositional techniques, Fauvel and Vitry, Machaut, the musician motets, English motets, Italian motets, music for popes and courts. Transcriptions of entire motets complement the musical analyses; many, too large in format for the printed book, are downloadable from the companion website. Some use a form of original notation, counted in original note values (usually the breve); others are in modern notation, so labelled, and measured in bars. Chapters vary in their technical demands, allowing readers to select or skip as appropriate. The five musician motets of Part IV (Chs. 15–21) praise over sixty musicians and range over many decades, each playing off its predecessors with citation, allusion and modelling. Motets of this period are individual conceptions, virtuosic creations of multi-layered words and music as tightly constructed as Chinese puzzles. Many chapters are devoted to individual motets, drawing on a multitude of new analytic directions and giving close attention to the detailed fit and juxtapositions of words and music. Verbal texts borrow musical techniques of repetition and recapitulation, words which may then be underlined musically by melodic or rhythmic ‘leitmotives’. Alliteration and onomatopoeia abound, and there is a wider range of ingenious word painting than has usually been recognised, including puns on number and structural joins. Segments of chant are often chosen for their musical characteristics (number, symmetries, cadencing opportunities, melodic qualities) as well as their textual suitability to the pre-compositional materia.
