Motets for Saint Cecilia, 1540–1610

Beginning in the sixteenth century, many of Europe’s greatest musicians as well as many whom we know less well wrote motets in honor of Saint Cecilia. The trend started in the north: until the 1560s, composers of Cecilian motets were mostly active in northern France and the Netherlands. The present anthology, a companion to the editor’s recently published book, Saint Cecilia in the Renaissance: The Emergence of a Musical Icon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022), includes works that have not yet been published in modern editions or that have been published in performing editions or in critical editions that have not circulated widely. The motets range chronologically from 1542 to 1610, geographically from Antwerp and Paris to Prague and Rome, and in number of voices from four to sixteen. The anthology includes several polychoral works and two so-called “picture motets,” miniature motets written for (and preserved in) engravings that show Cecilia making music with angels.