What’s in a motet? Alongside the word ‘madrigal’, this particular moniker for vocal polyphony might conjure up all manner of early music stereotypes of singers in pointy shoes or Elizabethan collars. On this Sunday’s Vox Nostra, Vlad dispels any misconceptions about this long-lived genre, and takes a ‘grande tour du motette’ across the centuries, from the origins of the motet in the Western medieval practice of organum, to the high medieval motets of Philippe de Vitry. The Renaissance has a plethora of excellent examples of motets, and Vlad will surely dip into several of those before going onwards to the Baroque motets of Lully, Delalande, Schütz, Hassler and even J.S. Bach. Multiple motets and probably more than a few madrigals this morning on Vox Nostra!
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 6th June, 7am-10am