ABSTRACT

It is a musicological truism that the generic classification of a work, group of works, or repertory is fundamental to its interpretation and critique. Ernest Sanders defined rondeau motets as 'motets with upper voices shaped like rondeaux' whose tenors 'are bent to fit the form of the motetus with its reiterations and recurrences of phrases'. Anderson and Françon started from the same premiss in that they shared the concept of a 'regular' rondeau structure in the thirteenth century from which all other presentations are simply 'deviations'. Rondeau motets from Artois exhibit coherent characteristics of both style and technique which mark them off sharply from other works that have previously been considered rondeaux or rondeau motets. one systematic element in Gennrich's nomenclature is the use of the term 'Rondeau-Motette' to apply solely to the two-part compositions copied in the manuscripts Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 12615 and fr. 844.