oa Word Setting in a Perfect Musical World: The Case of Obrecht’s Motets

Advocates of polyphony in Obrecht’s time consider music to be an art that has reached perfection in its own right. They offer virtually no grounds for supposing that the manner in which composers join words and notes bears on the esteem in which they are held. This is reflected in the casual (though not altogether unsystematic) manner in which words are underlaid to musical notation at the time. In this article I seek ways of understanding and evaluating Obrecht’s motets on the basis of their musical ideas alone, discarding anachronistic notions of text sensitivity.

In Parce domine, and other motets that adopt the text of their cantus firmi, words are arguably peripheral in the creative process, irrespective of whether their audible presence is required in performance. Even in Mille quingentis, where the setting of new text is demonstrable, the words prove transient in relation to a more fundamental musical idea and fail to circulate with the music. Laudemus nunc Dominum and Salve crux arbor vite adopt syllabic word-setting techniques from popular song, which according to Herbenus not only makes words more intelligible, but more fundamentally clarifies musical structure. By contrast, the music of Omnis spiritus and Benedicamus in laude employs the rhythms of intoned and melodic chanting, respectively. The so-called declamatory style of the former informs the Magnificat setting and Salve sancta facies to some extent, and is conspicuous in O preciosissime sanguis and Mater patris. However, if clarity of text expression in such cases is the objective it is routinely subverted in transmission, giving rise to the supposition that Obrecht regards text declamation essentially as a further device for enhancing musical expression. In Factor orbis, which has been likened to a sermon in structure, Obrecht’s music expresses by itself what preachers cannot. Similarly, in Inter preclarissimas virtutes and Quis numerare queat, it is the music, not the text, that expresses a personal petition and the art of rhetoric, respectively, while in Laudes Christo redemptori imitation and ostinato serve their own musical ends, rather than those of the words.

None of this in itself calls Obrecht’s literary credentials into question. However, it may help us understand his motivation for apparently switching from mass to motet composition in his maturity as driven by a desire to find new modes of musical rather than verbal expression.