The Moderne Motet Anthologies and Girolamo Carli and Giulio Ciccarello.(Review)

The Moderne Motet Anthologies. Four-Voice Motets from the Motteti del Fiore Series. Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 9-10.) New York: Garland, 1998-99. [Pt. 1. Contents (with remarks), p. v-x; gen. introd., 1 p.; editorial procedures, p. xiii-xvii; vol. introd. p. xix-xxii; score, p. 1-301. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7909-4. $125. Pt. 2. Contents (with remarks), p. v-viii; gen. introd., 1 p.; editorial procedures, p. xi-xv; vol. introd., p. xvii-xx; score, p. 1-292. Cloth; acidfree paper. ISBN 0-8240-7910-8. $125.]

The Moderne Motet Anthologies. Five- and More-Voice Motets from the Motteti del Fiore Series, Part 1. Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 11.) New York: Garland, 1999. [Contents (with remarks), p. v-x; gen. introd., 1 p.; editorial procedures, p. xiii-xviii; vol. introd., p. xix-xxi; score, p. 1-293. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7911-6. $135.]

The Moderne Motet Anthologies. Five- and More-Voice Motets from the Motteti del Fiore Series, Part II and Motets from the Harmonidos Ariston. Tricolon, Ogdoameron. Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 12.) New York: Garland, 2000. [Contents (with remarks), p. v-vii; gen. introd., 1 p.; editorial procedures, p. xi-xiv; vol. introd., p. xv-xvii; 1 plate; score, p. 1-255. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7912-4. $135.]

Girolamo Carli. Motetti del Laberinto Libro primo a cinque Voci ... (Venice: Girolamo Scotto, 1554). Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 24.) New York: Garland, 1995. [Contents (with remarks), p. v-vi; gen. introd., p. vii; editorial procedures, p. ix-xii; vol. introd., p. xiii-xv; 3 plates; score, p. 1-217. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7924-8. $125.]

Giulio Ciccarello. Sacrae Cantiones Vulgo Motetta... (Venice: Scotto, 1568). Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 26.) New York: Garland, 1997. [Contents (with remarks), p. v-vi; gen. introd., p. vii; editorial procedures, p. ix-xi; vol. introd., p. xiii-xv; 1 plate; score, p. 1-156. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7926-4. $100.]

Cesare Tudino. Caesaris Tudini Canonici & Musici Cathedralis Ecclesiae Adriensis Mottetorum Quinque Vocibus Liber Primus (Venice: Vincenti, 1588). Edited by Richard Sherr. (Sixteenth-Century Motet, 29.) New York: Garland, 1997. [Gen. introd., p. vii; editorial procedures, p. ix-xi; vol. introd., p. xiii-xv; 1 plate; score, p. 1-171. Cloth; acid-free paper. ISBN 0-8240-7929-9. $125.]

When Lewis Lockwood encountered the first volumes of Richard Sherr's Sixteenth-Century Motet series nearly a decade ago, he had high praise for their scope and utility (see his informative review in Notes 49 [December 1992]: 784-88). Now complete, the series appears to have fulfilled its initial promise and could certainly keep anyone interested in the Renaissance motet busy for many years to come. Here readers will find thirty volumes of Latin-texted compositions for four, five, six, and seven voices, almost all of them never before issued in modern editions. Each of these volumes is devoted to music found in a particular print or manuscript that was prepared during the sixteenth century--books chosen both for their significance as "monuments" of the Renaissance motet and as texts that will help to complete our picture of music history during this period. Simply on account of the vast repertory that this series makes available to scholars and performers for the first time, the Sixteenth-Century Motet will c ertainly be an essential part of any serious music library, where it will stand beside its counterpart Garland projects, the Sixteenth-Century Chanson, the Sixteenth-Century Madrigal, and Italian Instrumental Music of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries.