Editing Motet (section)

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[[File:Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf.JPEG|thumb|250px|The first page from the [[manuscript]] of [[J. S. Bach]]'s [[Baroque music]] era motet, entitled ''[[Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226|Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf]]'' (BWV226)]]
{{short description|Vocal musical composition in Western classical music}}
In [[Western classical music]], a '''motet''' is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high [[medieval music]] to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent [[polyphonic]] forms of [[Renaissance music]]. According to the English [[musicologist]] [[Margaret Bent]], "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond.<ref name=bent>Margaret Bent, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=_UmMn1EgB7IC&pg=PA114 The Late-Medieval Motet]" in ''Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music'', edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows, 114–19 ([[Berkeley, California]]: University of California Press, 1992): 114. {{ISBN|9780520210813}}.</ref> The late 13th-century theorist [[Johannes de Grocheo]] believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".<ref>Johannes de Grocheio, ''Ars Musice'', edited and translated by Constant J. Mews, John N. Crossley, Catherine Jeffreys, Leigh McKinnon, and Carol J. Williams; TEAMS Varia (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2011): 85 [section 19.2]. {{ISBN|9781580441643}} (cloth); {{ISBN|9781580441650}} (pbk).</ref>