The Dorset Rotulus: Contextualizing and Reconstructing the Early English Motet

The discovery of new music from the Middle Ages in England has shed new light on the knowledge of the medieval motet. The motets, which were preserved in numerous fragmentary sources, originated at the Benedictine monastery of Abbotsbury and include a seven-section motet on St Margaret, a unicum with extraordinary features addressed to the Virgin Mary and St Nicholas, and two motets on the Ascension and the Virgin Mary. This monograph offers a new evaluation of the richness of the English repertory in its own terms and provides complete performable transcriptions of three of the compositions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 418 pages
Publication date: 18 August 2021
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

The captivating revelation of fresh music from the Middle Ages unveils a wealth of insights into the realm of medieval motets. Originating in the thirteenth century, the Latin-texted motet in England and France emerged as the most significant and diverse polyphonic genre of the fourteenth century, boasting both captivating texts and a remarkable array of musical structures. While the motet in England played a pivotal role in the music-historical narrative of the early 1300s, it has often been overshadowed in modern scholarship, primarily due to its preservation in numerous but largely fragmentary sources. In 2017, a significant breakthrough occurred when substantial new fragments of medieval polyphony were unearthed. These fragments originated at the Benedictine monastery of Abbotsbury, a prominent institution situated atop Chesil Beach on Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The two leaves, once adorned with an imposing musical scroll, preserved substantial portions of four large-scale Latin-texted motets from early fourteenth-century England. This remarkable discovery brings to the forefront a previously unknown motet on St. Margaret, previously known only through fragmented snippets of two of its four voices. Additionally, the manuscript contains a unique unicum addressed to the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas, showcasing extraordinary features that further enrich our understanding of the English approach to the genre. When combined with the remaining motets, one on the Ascension and the other on the Virgin Mary, the Dorset motets expand our knowledge of how the English developed their distinct styles and techniques, forging them independently of the continental norms that had previously been used to judge and sometimes denigrate them. This book serves as an introduction to the manuscript and its provenance in Abbotsbury, contextualizes its motets within the broader corpus of late medieval music, and sheds light on the significance of this musical treasure.

Weight: 928g
Dimension: 176 x 246 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781783276189