Lasso: Christmas Motets

Featuring

Weser-Renaissance Bremen
Orlando di Lasso

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Composer Biography

Orlando di Lasso composed the largest part of his massive oeuvre, including hundreds of Latin motets and numerous Italian madrigals, French chansons, and German songs, while serving Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria in Munich from 1556 until his death in 1594.

Historical Context

The sibyls, female figures who prophesy in ecstasy, have been described since Greek antiquity and were later interpreted in Roman times as foretelling the coming of Christ, particularly in Vergil's Fourth Eclogue.

Compositional Technique

In "Prophetiae Sibyllarum," Orlando di Lasso departs from his usual polyphonic, imitative style, using a four-part, mostly homophonic and syllabic setting, but employs a chromatic tonal system that was just being explored for modern music in the mid-16th century.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Orlando di Lasso's works were considered "exempla" or exemplary learning pieces by subsequent generations of composers, and he was known as the "prince de musiciens."

Composer Biography

Orlando di Lasso's extraordinary talent was discovered in childhood; Ferdinando Gonzaga, the Viceroy of Sicily, took him to Sicily, Milan, and Naples.

Composition History

Orlando di Lasso's "Prophetiae Sibyllarum" is a unique work in music history, with its subject matter—the oracles of the sibyls—and experiments with the chromatic mode being as mysterious as its compositional context.