The 18th Century Venetian motet: poetics of forgotten genre

Solo motet of the 18th century, which revival we are witnessing now, was an indispensable part of festive church services at the Venetian Ospedali. In spite of its remarkable popularity, the genre was sharply criticized by its contemporaries and later by musicologists. To verify the fairness of this criticism, we examined the relationship of this genre with Venetian performing practice and considered the ambiguity of the lyrics, while illustrating it by the analysis of the motet A rupe alpestri ad vallem by B. Galuppi. Venetian solo motet of the 18th century is discussed in the cultural context of the epoch.