A unique capacity of measured polyphony is to give precisely fixed places not only to musical notes, but also to individual words in relation to them and each other. The Motet in the Late Middle Ages offers innovative approaches to the equal partnership of music and texts in motets of the fourteenth century and beyond, showcasing the imaginative opportunities afforded by this literal kind of intertextuality, and yielding a very different narrative from the common complaint that different simultaneous texts make motets incomprehensible. As leading musicologist Margaret Bent asserts, they simply require a different approach to preparation and listening. In this book, Bent examines the words and music of motets from many different angles: foundational verbal quotations and pre-existent chant excerpts and their contexts, citations both of words and music from other compositions, function, dating, structure, theory, and number symbolism. Individual studies of these original creations tease out a range of strategies, ingenuity, playfulness, striking juxtapositions, and even subversion. Half of the thirty-two chapters consist of new material; the other half are substantially revised and updated versions of previously published articles and chapters, organized into seven Parts. With new analyses of text and music together, new datings, new attributions, and new hypotheses about origins and interrelationships, Bent uncovers little-explored dimensions, provides a window into the craft and thought processes of medieval composers, and opens up many directions for future work.

Stanford Lehmberg, a noted authority on the Tudor period, examines the impact of the Reformation on the cathedrals of England and Wales. Based largely on manuscript materials from the cathedral archives themselves, this book is the first attempt to draw together information for all twenty-nine of the cathedrals that existed in the Tudor period. The author scrutinizes the major changes that took place during this era in the institutional structure, personnel, endowments, liturgy, and music of the cathedral and shows how the cathedrals, unlike the monasteries that were dissolved by Henry VIII, succeeded in adapting successfully to the Reformation. Forty-two illustrations depict sixteenth-century changes in cathedral buildings. Narrative chapters trace the changes that occurred during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, "Bloody" Mary, and Elizabeth I. Analytical sections are devoted to cathedral finance and cathedral music. The changing lives of cathedral musicians are described in some detail, and even greater attention is paid to the cathedral clergy, whose living conditions changed markedly when they were allowed to marry. Using a variety of sources, including such physical remains as tombs and monuments, the concluding chapter discusses the role of cathedrals in English society. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.