Motets constitute the most important polyphonic genre of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Moreover, these compositions are intrinsically involved in the early development of polyphony. This volume - the first to be devotedexclusively to medieval motets - aims to provide a comprehensive guide to them, from a number of different disciplines and perspectives. It addresses crucial matters such as how the motet developed; the rich interplay of musical,poetic, and intertextual modes of meaning specific to the genre; and the changing social and historical circumstances surrounding motets in medieval France, England, and Italy. It also seeks to question many traditional assumptions and received opinions in the area. The first part of the book considers core concepts in motet scholarship: issues of genre, relationships between the motet and other musico-poetic forms, tenor organization, isorhythm, notational development, social functions, and manuscript layout. This is followed by a series of individual case studies which look in detail at a variety of specific pieces, compositional techniques, collections, and subgenres. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction: Approaching Medieval Motets - Jared C. Hartt The Genre(s) of Medieval Motets - Elizabeth Eva Leach Origins and Interactions: Clausula, Motet, Conductus - Catherine Bradley Tracing the Tenor in Medieval Motets - Alice V. Clark Isorhythm - Lawrence Earp Notations - Karen Desmond Thirteenth-Century Motet Functions: Views through the Lens of the Portare Motet Family - Dolores Pesce A Prism of its Time: Social Functions of the Motet in Fourteenth-Century France - Jacques Boogaart Motets, Manuscript Culture, Mise-en-page - John Haines and Stefan Udell Clerics, Courtiers, and the Vernacular Two-Voice Motet: The Case of Fines amouretes/Fiat and the Roman de la poire - Jennifer Saltzstein When Words Converge and Meanings Diverge: Counterexamples to Polytextuality in the Thirteenth-Century Motet - Suzannah Clark Motets in Chansonniers and the Other Culture of the French Thirteenth-Century Motet - Gaël Saint-Cricq Building a Motet around Quoted Material: Textual and Muscial Structure in Motets Based on Monophonic Songs - Matthew P. Thomson The Duet Motet in England: Genre, Tonal Coherence, Reconstruction - Jared C. Hartt Materia Matters: Reconstructing Colla/Bona - Anna Zayaruznaya Machaut's Motet 10 and its Interconnections - Margaret Bent A Motet Conceived in Troubled Times: Machaut's Motet 22 - Sarah Fuller A Motet Ahead of its Time? The Curious Case of Portio nature/Ida capillorum - Emily Zazulia Bibliography of Works Cited