Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance

Orlando di Lasso
The Complete Motets 14
Sacrae cantiones for Four Voices (Munich, 1585)
Edited by David Crook
 

R 111	ISBN 0-89579-392-X	(1997) xxx+120 pp.	$52.00
	ISBN 978-0-89579-392-8 (13-digit)

In 1585 Adam Berg published thirty-two Lasso motets under the title Sacrae cantiones, all for four voices except the eight-voice "Stabat Mater dolorosa" that concludes the volume. Except for this piece and two others, all the motets in this volume are settings of offertories for the Mass, and most of them appear in a large manuscript of 1581-83 that contains a cycle of Lasso's offertory settings for Advent and Lent. The manuscript presents its contents in calendrical order, but Sacrae cantiones groups its contents by tonal type (though not so as to represent the modes in order), and it does not indicate that its contents are mostly offertories. The motets are beautiful examples of Lasso's writing on a modest scale, except for the expansive "Stabat Mater dolorosa."

Music Sample

Contents
Confitebor tibi, Domine
Domine convertere
Intende voci orationis meae
Improperium exspectavit cor meum
Eripe me de inimicis meis
Jubilate Deo omnis terra
Domine, fac mecum misericordiam
Benedictus es, Domine . . . in labiis
Domine, labia mea aperies
Populum humilem salvum facies, Domine
Precatus est Moyses in conspectu Domini
Super flumina Babylonis
Gressus meos dirige
Factus est Dominus firmamentum meum
Perfice gressus meos in semitis tuis
Custodi me, Domine
Confortamini, et jam nolite timere
Domine Deus salutis meae
Domine, in auxilium meum respice
Benedic anima mea Domino
Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion
Miserere mei Domine
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina
Domine, exaudi orationem meam
Exspectans exspectavi Dominum
Benedictus es, Domine . . . et respondebo
Benedicam Dominum, qui tribuit
Sperent in te omnes
Benedicte gentes Dominum
Dextera Domini fecit virtutem
Stabat Mater dolorosa