Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance

Orlando di Lasso
The Complete Motets 1
Il primo libro de mottetti a cinque & a sei voci (1556)
Edited by James Erb

R 114	ISBN 0-89579-415-2	(1998) xxxv+116 pp.	$57.00
	ISBN 978-0-89579-415-4 (13-digit)

The Antwerp motet book of 1556 is Lasso's first publication that includes only his own motets, and it contributed greatly to the composer's renown. It includes five pieces addressed to exalted personages such as Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, Archbishop of Arras; Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury; and the emperor Charles V. The other motets are on religious texts, among them "Gustate et videte," which continued to be used in Munich's Corpus Christi processions into the 1580s. Lasso oversaw the production of his new book during his brief residence in Antwerp, but he may have composed some of the pieces in Italy before 1555, especially those that appear to be modeled on settings of the same texts by earlier composers. Among them is the famous "Fremuit spiritus Jesu," in which Lasso set out to surpass the setting by Clemens in affective power.

Music Sample

Contents

1. Delitiae Phoebi
2. Peccavi, quid faciam tibi
3. Stet quicunque volet potens
4. Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum
5. Heu mihi, Domine
6. Si ambulavero in medio
7. Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam
8. Gustate et videte
9. Mirabile mysterium
10. Te spectant, Reginalde, poli
11. Domine, probasti me
12. Dominus scit cogitationes hominum
13. Fremuit spiritus Jesu
14. Heroum soboles
15. Si qua tibi obtulerint
16. Creator omnium, Deus
17. Da pacem, Domine