Ferrabosco's style may have been tame and conservative by the standards of a Marenzio or a Luzzaschi, but it was harmonious with English taste.

But this prestigious post, the highest honour available to an English musician, was quickly revoked on the grounds that it had been promised to Ferrabosco's son.

One of Josquin's early motets, Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo, suggests a direct connection with Louis XI, who was king during this time.

Indeed his motets for five voices seem to have been used by the next generation, including Loyset Compère, Gaspar van Weerbeke, Josquin, and Jacob Obrecht as models for their own work.

Here he composed a large number of motets and other sacred music, which, being brought to the notice of Pope Urban VIII, obtained for him an appointment in the choir of the Sistine Chapel at Rome with the contralto role.

Among the musical compositions of Allegri were two volumes of concerti for five voices, published in 1618 and 1619 ; two volumes of motets for six voices, published in 1621 ; an edition of four-part sinfonia ; five masses, two settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, as well as numerous motets which were not published in his lifetime.

Many secular motets are known as " ceremonial motets " Characteristic of ceremonial motets was a clarity of diction, for the audience was not presumed to be familiar already with the text ( as would have been true with Latin hymns ) and also a clear articulation of formal structure, for example a setting apart of successive portions of text with sharp contrasts of texture or rhythm.

Lully's motets often included parts for soloists as well as choirs ; they were longer, including multiple movements in which different soloist, choral, or instrumental forces were employed.

Johann Sebastian Bach also wrote six surviving works he called motets ; Bach's motets were relatively long pieces in German on sacred themes for choir and basso continuo, thought to have been written as training pieces for the members of his choir school.

The majority of these compositions are a cappella, but some are accompanied by organ, for example Edward Elgar's three motets Op.

Principal liturgical forms which endured throughout the entire Renaissance period were masses and motets, with some other developments towards the end, especially as composers of sacred music began to adopt secular forms ( such as the madrigal ) for their own designs.

Throughout the era, hundreds of masses and motets ( as well as various other forms ) were composed for a cappella choir, though there is some dispute over the role of instruments during certain periods and in certain areas.

Telemann wrote choral cantatas for Frankfurt ( later published in solo versions as the Harmonische Gottesdienst ) and Graupner cycles for Darmstadt, but Johann Sebastian Bach ( 1685 – 1750 ) made a truly monumental contribution: his obituary mentions five complete cycles of his cantatas, of which three, comprising some 200 works, are known today, in addition to motets.

Anton Bruckner (; ) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets.

There are 17 motets each by Tallis and Byrd, one for each year of the Queen's reign.

Also belonging to the more archaic stratum of motets is Libera me Domine ( a5 ), a cantus firmus setting of the ninth responsory at Matins for the Office for the Dead, which takes its point of departure from the setting by Robert Parsons, while Miserere mihi ( a6 ), a setting of a Compline antiphon often used by Tudor composers for didactic cantus firmus exercises, incorporates a four-in-two canon.

Some of Byrd's most popular motets were actually written as a type of correspondence to a friend and fellow composer, Philippe de Monte.

Two exceptional large-scale psalm motets, Ad Dominum cum tribularer ( a8 ) and Domine quis habitabit ( a9 ), are Byrd's contribution to a genre cultivated by Robert White and Robert Parsons.

Byrd's contribution to the Cantiones also includes compositions in a more forward-looking manner which point the way forwards to his motets of the 1580s.

Byrd's commitment to the Catholic cause found expression in his motets, of which he composed about 50 between 1575 and 1591.

Thirty-seven of Byrd's motets were published in two sets of Cantiones sacrae, which appeared in 1589 and 1591.

A special feature of the four-part and five-part Masses is Byrd's treatment of the Agnus Dei, which employ the technique which Byrd had previously applied to the petitionary clauses from the motets of the 1589 and 1591 Cantiones sacrae.

The second stage in Byrd's programme of liturgical polyphony is formed by the Gradualia, two cycles of motets containing 109 items and published in 1605 and 1607.

Byrd's small output of church anthems ranges in style from relatively sober early examples ( O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our queen ( a6 ) and How long shall mine enemies ( a5 ) ) to other, evidently late works such as Sing joyfully ( a6 ) which is close in style to the English motets of Byrd's 1611 set, discussed below.

Byrd's set includes two consort fantasias ( a4 and a6 ) as well as eleven English motets, most of them setting prose texts from the Bible.

Guillaume Dufay was a transitional figure in this regard ; he wrote one of the last important motets in the medieval, isorhythmic style, Nuper rosarum flores ( 1436 ), written to commemorate the completion of Filippo Brunelleschi's dome in the Cathedral of Florence.

He wrote a Te Deum, settings of five Psalms ( including Psalm 150 in the 1890s ), about forty motets ( among them three settings of both Christus factus est pro nobis and Ave Maria ), and at least seven Masses.

Some of them show the influence of the motets of Alfonso Ferrabosco I ( 1543 – 1588 ), a Bolognese musician who worked in the Tudor court at intervals between 1562 and 1578.

He wrote masses, motets, songs ( in French, German and Italian ), and instrumental music.

By far the most fruitful period of his life for publishing music was the period between 1501 and 1509, during which he published the three volumes of chansons ( the Odhecaton being the first ), 16 books of masses, five books of motets, 11 anthologies of frottole and six books of music for lute.

Vespers is composed around several Biblical texts that are traditionally used as part of the liturgy for several Marian feasts in the Roman Catholic church: the introductory Deus in adjutorium ( Psalm 69 ), five Psalm settings, sacred motets ( called “ concerti ”) between the Psalms, a traditional Hymn, a setting of the Magnificat text and the concluding Benedicamus Domino.

Surviving reliably-attributed works include some 14 masses ( including a Requiem mass ), an isolated Credo ( Credo sine nomine ), 5 motets, a motet-chanson ( a deploration on the death of Binchois ), and 21 chansons.

In his lifetime, Dufay wrote seven complete masses, 28 individual Mass movements, 15 settings of chant used in Mass Propers, three Magnificats, two Benedicamus Domino settings, 15 antiphon settings ( 6 are Marian antiphons ), 27 hymns, 22 motets ( 13 are isorhythmic ) and 87 chansons.

Of the works attributed to him only about fifty survive, among which are two complete masses, three sets of connected mass sections, fourteen individual mass sections, twelve complete isorhythmic motets ( including the famous one which combines the hymn Veni creator spiritus and the sequence Veni sancte spiritus, and the less well-known Albanus roseo rutilat mentioned above ), as well as twenty-seven separate settings of various liturgical texts, including three Magnificats and seven settings of Marian antiphons, such as Alma redemptoris Mater and Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae.

Stylistically these motets are similar to his madrigals, and he published them throughout his career ; occasionally they appeared in collections of madrigals, such as in his posthumous Fifth Book for five voices ( 1566 ), and he also included some in a collection of motets for five voices published in 1545.

Choral works put on CD include the 1766 Messa per San Marco ( 2007 ), a cantata, L ' oracolo del Vaticano, to words by Goldoni ( 2004 ), and motets ( 2001 ).

His seven vocal cycles and two collections — Les Chansons des Roses ( Rilke ), Mid-Winter Songs ( Graves ), A Winter Come ( Moss ), Madrigali: Six " FireSongs " on Italian Renaissance Poems, Nocturnes ( Rilke, Neruda and Agee ), Cuatro Canciones ( Lorca ), Four Madrigals on Renaissance Texts, Five Songs on American Poems ( Moss, Witt, Gioia and Agee ) and Lux Aeterna — his series of sacred a cappella motets ( O Magnum Mysterium, Ave Maria, O Nata Lux, Ubi Caritas et Amor, and Ave Dulcissima Maria ) and numerous instrumental works are featured regularly in concert by distinguished artists and ensembles throughout the world.

Some of his motets and hymns are still sung in Catholic and Anglican churches today: the ( Anglican ) " English Hymnal " included eight musical settings by Webbe, and " Liturgical Hymns Old and New " ( 1999 ) widely used today in English Catholic churches also includes eight of his works, including popular settings of " O Salutaris Hostia " and " Tantum Ergo " for the Catholic service of Benediction.

Of his many works, Whitehead was particularly proud of his anthem Alleluia, Sing to Jesus with organ accompaniment ; the anthems Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem, Now God Be with Us, and O Light Beyond Our Utmost Light ; and the short motets Bread of the World, Grant Us Grace, and Almighty God, Whose Glory.

They include three motets which employ the old-fashioned cantus firmus technique as well as the most famous item in the 1589 collection, Ne irascaris Domine the second part of which is closely modelled on Philip van Wilder's popular Aspice Domine.

His motets In te Domine speravi and Ego sum pastor bonus were the first Polish musical compositions to be published abroad.