Orlando di Lassus’ Readings from the Prophet Job

Here is an interesting discovery via the YouTube suggestion algorithm: a polyphonic setting of the Matins lessons for the Office of the Dead, composed by Orlando di Lassus (1532-94), and published in 1565. Very little information about them is to be found on the internet, but the channel on which this video is hosted has a note that they were composed perhaps as much ten years earlier, when he was only 23. In 1556, Di Lassus began working at the court of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, and would stay there for the rest of his life. A friend of mine who is very knowledgeable about the music of this period tells me that the Bavarian ducal chapel already had an anonymous complete polyphonic setting of the Matins and Lauds of the Dead from around 1550, with settings of the antiphons, faux-bourdons versions of the psalms, and responsories, but not the lessons so perhaps this work was put together in its published form to complete the Office. (In the 1580s, Di Lassus composed a second version of the same texts.) If anyone knows more about these, and specifically, about how they would have been used liturgically, perhaps you could explain more about them in the combox.  

The lessons are divided into two or three parts.

1. chapter 7, 16-21 (2 parts)

2. 10, 1-7 (3 parts)

3. 10, 8-12 (2 parts)

4. 13, 22-28 (2 parts)

5. 14, 1-6 (3 parts)

6. 14, 13-16 (2 parts)

7. 17, 1-3; 11-16 (3 parts)

8. 19, 20-27 (3 parts)

9. 10, 18-22 (2 parts)

He also did a setting of the seven Penitential Psalms, which make for especially appropriate listening in the Lenten season. Before the Tridentine reform, these were said on every ferial day of Lent in the Divine Office according to most Uses of the Roman Rite. The breviary of St Pius V reduced the obligation to all ferial Fridays, and the reform of Pope Clement VIII (1602) reduced it further to just the Fridays of Lent; the obligation was then completely cancelled by St Pius X. 

Durandus on the Offertory Super Flumina Babylonis

Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered thee, o Zion. (The Offertory chant of the 20th Sunday after Pentecost.)

The bodily captivity (of which the Offertory speaks) signifies our spiritual captivity; the return from captivity is the forgiveness of sins. ... Therefore, lest we return to a similar captivity, and be shut out of the wedding feast (in last week’s Gospel, Matthew 22, 1-14), Paul warns us in the Epistle, “See to it that ye walk with care, not as the unwise, but as the wise.” The Introit Omnia quae fecisti is the voice of Daniel remembering that past captivity, and ascribing it to the judgment of God; likewise, in the Offertory, we weep over that captivity, but in the Gradual Oculi omnium, we give thanks (for deliverance from it). - William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 6.137 in fine.

This text has also been used by some of finest composers of liturgical polyphony, including Palestrina,

Orlando de Lassus (an historical recording from 1961),

and Victoria, who was having a particularly good day when he wrote this.

Music for First Vespers of the Exaltation of the Cross

O Crux, splendidior cunctis astris, mundo celebris, hominibus multum amabilis, sanctior universis: quae sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi: dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera: salva praesentem catervam in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam. (Antiphon of the Magnificat at First Vespers of the Exaltation of the Cross.)

“O Cross, more splendid than all the stars, renowned in the world, much beloved of all men, holier than all things, who only were worthy to bear the Price of the world: o sweet wood, that bearest the sweet nails, the sweet burdens; save the present company, gathered this day in praise of thee.”

This is not, of course, the Gregorian version of this text for use as an antiphon, but a polyphonic motet made from it by the Netherlandish composer Adrian Willaert, (ca. 1490-1562), and sung by the ensemble Henry’s Eight. (They are named for King Henry VIII, the founder of Trinity College, Cambridge, where they originally formed in 1992.)

Here is another version, by Orlando de Lassus (1530-94).

The Exaltation of the Cross also provides an opportunity to sing once again at Vespers the famous Passiontide hymn Vexilla Regis, one of the masterpieces of the 6th century writer St Venantius Fortunatus. Here the ensemble AdOriente (which is correct Italian, not Latin) alternates the classic Gregorian melody with an unnamed polyphonic setting.

The alternation of Gregorian and polyphony was a popular way of setting hymns especially in the Counter-Reformation, and some of the best examples are those of Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victória. This version is particularly interesting for two reasons; the melody of the Gregorian parts is quite different from the Roman one, and the text of the hymn is that used before it was revised by Pope Urban VIII, (given here with Spanish translation.)

In the Byzantine Rite, the Exaltation of the Cross is one of the few days on which the Trisagion, (“Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!”) is replaced at the Divine Liturgy by a different text: “We adore Thy Cross, o Lord, and we glorify Thy holy Resurrection.” (The Trisagion is sung between the kontakia, the variable hymns of the Sunday or Saint’s feast, and the Prokimen which introduces the Epistle.) The latter text is also sung on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, which is called the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, as seen here in the Orthodox cathedral of Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine.

Many texts from the Byzantine Rite have also been recast as motets; this setting of “We adore Thy Cross” is sung by the choir of the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, one the most important monasteries in Russia.

A Resource for Polyphonic Sacred Music in the Vernacular

Are you looking for authentic polyphony for the Mass in English? Perhaps you feel you have resorted to Tallis’ If Ye Love Me once too often? If so, then you should investigate the scores available at EnglishMotets.com.

This is a project created by Heath Morber, who has adapted music by de Victoria, di Lasso, and Palestrina to English translations of motets and liturgical texts including the Ordinary of the Mass. The complexity and difficulty of the arrangements vary, so there are some suitable for beginners and some for more experienced singers. There are arrangements are for two, three and four parts.

When he started this project, Heath had in mind Catholic musicians who wanted to expose their congregations to the beauty of Renaissance polyphony, and think that the vernacular may be a safe way to introduce this music to people in the pews who may balk at the use of Latin.

He already has already made over 200 pieces available, and is adding more month by month. At the moment he is asking for a one-time payment of just $30 in exchange for access to the full and expanding library of titles, as long the site and the internet exist.

Here are two samples from the site. First, Answer My Prayer, an STB three-part arrangement of Exaudi Me Domine by Orlando di Lasso:

The second is Whoever Follows Me, a two-part (TB or SA) arrangement of Qui Sequitur Me, also by Orlando di Lasso.

For more details, go to EnglishMotets.com.

Book Review: Bread from Heaven: English Eucharistic Motets

Heath Morber, the Director of Music at St. John's Catholic Chapel in Champaign, Illinois, recently published a most handy book of easy Eucharistic motets in English for 2 and 3 voices: Bread from Heaven. As anyone knows who has tried to run an amateur choir, it can be a great challenge (especially at an early morning Mass) having enough repertoire to do a respectable job with polyphony. Sometimes only the women show up; sometimes you'll have only one tenor or bass. Sometimes you have a men's schola and you'd like to teach them a TB or TBB motet -- but it has to be simple.

Unfortunately, the combination of simplicity and beauty has not been very successfully attained by most modern composers. It seems to have been an everyday gift with the likes of Palestrina, Lassus, and Josquin, who are the masters chosen by Morber. He has taken Latin motets or passages from Masses that were already written for 2 or 3 voices and carefully adapted them for English texts suitable for communion time. In all cases he provides us with multiple settings of each text, for a variety of different forces depending on the piece (e.g., SA, AT, TB, SAT, ATB, SAA, AAT, TBB). The adaptations are beautifully done and sing as well as if they had been originally designed as English mini-motets. Each motet features an English psalm-tone verse so that the motet can be repeated. At the back there is a complete text of Psalm 34(33) pointed in such a way that it will work with the psalm tones used in the motets. The result is a lovely meditation for communion that will cover any length of time.

This is the sort of resource the Ordinary Form needs, and it is a resource that most amateur choirs can readily make use of. Heath Morber has priced it at $10 so that multiple copies are not prohibitively expensive. Check it out here.

Samples: "You Gave Us Bread from Heaven" (SAB):

"Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord" (AT):

Photos from the book:

For more video samples, see here, and here, and here.