Motet-chanson

The motet-chanson was a specialized musical form of the Renaissance, developed in Milan during the 1470s and 1480s, which combined aspects of the contemporary motet and chanson. Many consisted of three voice parts, with the lowest voice, a tenor or a contra, singing a sacred text in Latin, drawn from chant, while the two upper voices sang a secular text in French. Some were written for four to five voices, with the bassus taking the Latin part. Generally, the French text was either a commentary on the Latin text or had some symbolic relation to it.