ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the distinctive musical idiom of Juan de Anchieta’s motets in their cultural context, beginning with the Passion motets in the Segovia manuscript. Anchieta’s motets are thus a characteristic example of the hybridization of cultural expression in court circles in which indigenous elements were combined with artistic techniques imported from northern European, and, in particular, Flanders. The texts of the motets securely attributed to Anchieta in the Segovia manuscript all relate to the Passion; these are Domine Jesu Christe qui hora, Virgo et mater, and O bone Jesu. In Anchieta’s motets, the “tutti” passages add to the rhetorical effect by highlighting key phrases. The musical phrasing often overlaps and is much more continuous than in the Passiontide texts, and there is a fluidity and spaciousness about Congratulamini mihi omnes that is distinct from his other motets; possibly, this reflects a liturgical rather than a devotional use.