This volume contains the first in the series of lavish choirbooks published by Adam Berg under the title Patrocinium musices. The first five books in the series, issued between 1573 and 1576, were devoted exclusively to religious music by Lasso and were subsidized by Wilhelm of Bavaria. Patrocinium I includes twenty-one motets, seven each for four, five, and six voices. Lasso dedicated the book to Wilhelm in a long preface that glosses the illustrations in the title page and frontispiece, emphasizing the importance of music in the church, the role of worldly rulers as its protectors, and Wilhelm as a follower in the footsteps of his forebears. The motets set psalms, other biblical or liturgical texts, and religious poems. Four motets are based on pre-existent cantus firmi, including the opening "Pater noster, qui es in caelis." The book closes with a six-voice "Agimus tibi gratias," in which Lasso pays tribute to a setting of that same text by Cipriano de Rore, following the course of events in Rore's motet in every detail.

Contents

1. Pater noster, qui es in caelis

2. Salve Regina misericordiae

3. Gaudent in caelis

4. Nos qui sumus in hoc mundo

5. Pulvis et umbra sumus

6. Lauda anima mea Dominum

7. Pauper sum ego

8. Exsurgat Deus

9. Misericordias Domini

10. Oculi omnium in te sperant

11. Domine clamavi ad te

12. Quis mihi det lacrimis

13. Martini festum celebremus

14. Exaudi Domine preces populorum

15. Media vita in morte sumus

16. Ante me non est formatus Deus

17. Confitemini Domino filii Israel

18. O gloriosa Domina . . . quae nec primam

19. In Deo salutare meum

20. Regnum mundi

21. Agimus tibi gratia