A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Motetus

by William Smyth Rockstro

MOTETUS. A name given, in the infancy of Polyphonic Music, to a middle part, written for the Voice which was afterwards called Medius, or Altus. The term was constantly used, in this sense, in the 13th and 14th centuries, and probably, still earlier.

[ W. S. R. ]