The chorale motet was a type of musical composition in mostly
Protestant parts of Europe, principally Germany, and mainly during the 16th century. It involved setting a
chorale melody and text as a
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
.
Stylistically chorale motets were similar at first to motets composed in
Catholic countries, and made use of the full range of techniques of
Franco-Flemish polyphony. In the earlier period, the chorale was typically used as a
cantus firmus, fairly easy to hear, with other lines either weaving in and out
contrapuntally
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
around it, or following along in the same rhythm in an entirely
homophonic style. Later in the century, especially around 1600, the successive verses of the chorale were used to begin
imitative sections in a
fugal
In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...
style. Shortly after 1600 the form began to disappear, overtaken by newer forms based on
Italian (especially
Venetian
Venetian often means from or related to:
* Venice, a city in Italy
* Veneto, a region of Italy
* Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area
Venetian and the like may also refer to:
* Venetian language, a Romance language s ...
) models: the
chorale concerto, and later the
chorale cantata. The chorale cantata was to become the most substantial of the descendants of the chorale motet, and eventually culminated in the
work of J.S. Bach.
Composers of early chorale motets included