[+] Elders, Willem. "Plainchant in the Motets, Hymns, and Magnificat of Josquin des Prez." In Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference held at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in New York City, 21-25 June 1971, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky in collaboration with Bonnie J. Blackburn, 522-42. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Gregorian chant was a rich source of inspiration for Josquin. About half of his motets (ca. 50 pieces) incorporate traditional Gregorian melodies. The chants used most often are antiphons and sequences. Eighteen different antiphons can be found in Josquin's antiphon motets, including the four great Marian antiphons, of which he uses Ave Maria three times and the others each twice. He incorporates nine sequences wholly or in part, using two of them twice, Inviolata and Victimae paschali laudes. The motets may be classed in six groups: groups I and II comprise motets in which the chant is clearly recognizable because its text differs from that of the motet and because it is treated as a cantus firmus in long note values (sometimes treated canonically as well); groups III through V comprise motets in which the text in all voices is that of the chant, whether it is treated canonically, as a migrant cantus firmus, or as a paraphrase; and group VI consists of fifteen motets which do not fit into any of the preceding groups.
Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s
Contributed by: Mirna Polzovic
