This monograph offers a comprehensive study of the topos of the malmariée or the unhappily married woman within the thirteenth-century motet repertory, a vocal genre characterized by several different texts sounding simultaneously over a foundational Latin chant. Part I examines the malmariée motets from three vantage points: (1) in light of contemporaneous canonist views on marriage; (2) to what degree the French malmariée texts in the upper voices treat the messages inherent in the underlying Latin chant through parody and/or allegory; and (3) interactions among upper-voice texts that invite additional interpretations focused on gender issues.
Part II investigates the transmission profile of the motets, as well as of their refrains, revealing not only intertextual refrain usage between the motets and other genres, but also a significant number of shared refrains between malmariée motets and other motets. Part II furthermore offers insights on the chronology of composition within a given intertextual refrain nexus, and examines how a refrain’s meaning can change in a new context. Finally, based on the transmission profile, Part II argues for a lively interest in the topos in the 1270s and 1280s, both through composition of new motets and compilation of earlier ones, with Paris and Arras playing a prominent role.
List of Music Examples
List of Manuscripts
List of Abbreviations
Manscripts
Other Abbreviations
Introduction
Marriage: Mutual Consent and Marital Debt
Portrayals of Marriage in Literature and Song
Part I. Malmariée Motets in Relationship to Their Tenors
1 Paschal Season Liturgy
2 Assumption Liturgy
3 Other Liturgical Tenors
4 French Tenors and French Text Only
Part II. Malmariée Motet Refrains within an Intertextual Nexus
5 Motet Refrains Shared with Other Genres
With a Song and a Romance or Narrative Poem
With One or More Songs
With a Narrative Poem
Concluding Remarks
6 Motet Refrains Shared with Other Motets
Mo 6, 233
Mo 5, 148
Mo 2, 23 and Mo 5, 142
Mo 2, 30
Conclusion
Contents
Transmission and Intertextuality
Appendix A: Tables 1–7
Appendix B: Texts and Translations of Motets 60, 62, and 67 from MS N(mo)
Bibliography
Index of Compositions
General Index
Biography
Dolores Pesce is Avis Blewett Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis, specializing in music of the Middle Ages and the late nineteenth century. Her books include The Affinities and Medieval Transposition; Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; Guido d’Arezzo’s Regule rithmice, Prologus in antiphonarium, and Epistola ad Michahelem: A Critical Text and Translation; and Liszt’s Final Decade.
