Motets, vespers antiphons and the performance of the post-tridentine liturgy in Italy

Various scholars and performers perennially raise the question of whether the five motets in Monteverdi’s Vespro della beata Vergine of 1610 belong to a Marian Vespers service and should be included in performances of what are commonly called ‘The Monteverdi Vespers’. However, the question is of much broader scope, touching on the role of motets, published in large quantities in the post-Tridentine period, in the liturgy. This chapter demonstrates the near identity of the terms ‘motet’ and ‘antiphon’ on the part of sixteenth-century composers and publishers as well as the overlap of functions, where motets are actually Vespers psalm and Magnificat antiphons, or serve as expanded antiphons, or as substitutes for antiphons, in addition to their role in non-liturgical devotions. The use of non-canonical texts is also witnessed by repeated papal bans against them through the late seventeenth century.