: a polyphonic choral composition on a sacred text usually without instrumental accompaniment
Examples of motet in a Sentence
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Repetition with fidelity led, with the aid of print, to longer organized forms such as the motet, a vocal music composition, and the conductus, a Latin song with a rhythmic structure.
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Lynn Whidden, Scientific American, 26 July 2024
According to Francisco, the composers represented no less than 30 print collections of solo songs, cantatas, motets, polyphonic works, settings for psalms and masses, a magnificat, a vespers service, a dozen sonatas, and scores for nine operas and other staged works.
—Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
In Alium, the famous 40-part motet.
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2021
In between the driving turbulence of its first movement and an unremittingly grim passacaglia as its final movement was an adaptation of a medieval form—the isorhythmic motet—in which searing gestures alternated with passages of ethereal tranquility.
—Walter Simmons, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021
See all Example Sentences for motet 
Lynn Whidden, Scientific American, 26 July 2024
According to Francisco, the composers represented no less than 30 print collections of solo songs, cantatas, motets, polyphonic works, settings for psalms and masses, a magnificat, a vespers service, a dozen sonatas, and scores for nine operas and other staged works.
—Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
In Alium, the famous 40-part motet.
—Corey Seymour, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2021
In between the driving turbulence of its first movement and an unremittingly grim passacaglia as its final movement was an adaptation of a medieval form—the isorhythmic motet—in which searing gestures alternated with passages of ethereal tranquility.
—Walter Simmons, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021
See all Example Sentences for motet
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“Motet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motet. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
motet
noun
mo·tet
mō-ˈtet 
: a form of church music to be sung by several voices usually without accompanying instruments and with several melodies woven together
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