Aspects of Trope in the Earliest Motets for the Assumption of the Virgin

Abstract

The feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, observed annually on 15 August, was the most important saint's feast in the liturgical calendar of Notre Dame of Paris in the Middle Ages. The eight texts that include the themes of Incarnation and Mary the Mother of God approach these ideas from several different directions. The Vespers responsory Styrps Yesse (O 16) takes an explanatory approach to the symbolism of Jesse's rod. In between, however, as Gordon Anderson interpreted it, the text urges the Virgin to intercede for the Jews if they show signs of conversion. Motet 665, Flos ascendit de radice, is also a first-mode piece that carefully tropes the chant at beginning and end. The most noteworthy finding of this study is that the earliest motets as tropes do not function in quite the same way as tropes themselves. Both motets are petitions with a somewhat votive character that seems appropriate for the processional commemoration of the Virgin.

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