ORLANDE DE LASSUS: SEPTEM PSALMI POENITENTIALES

MS MS 5570
MS Short Title ORLANDE DE LASSUS: SEPTEM PSALMI POENITENTIALES
Description 3 MSS in Latin and Italian on paper, Germany, originally 1559, 31+101+69 pp (complete) 23x34, 23x30 and 23x32 cm, ruled with 15, 12 and 12 staves, notated in 3, 2 and 2 systems of 5 staves each by 3 copyists ca 1825, for Soprano, Alto, Tenore, Vergans and Basso, with some MS annotations and amendments, apparently for performance.
Binding Germany ca 1825 paper boards with MS title label, all 3 MSS sewn together on 2 cords.
Context The autograph is lost. Lassus's employer, Duke Albrecht V of Bayern kept the Psalms for his private use, and had them copied into an elaborate two-volume MS illuminated by Hans Mielich, now in Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. The Duke forbade the publication and circulation of his MS, and it was only after his death that the Psalms were published in München by Adam Berg in 1584. It was not printed again until 1838 and 1843. It is mentioned by the copyist of the 3rd MS with Psalms V-VII that he has the 1584 edition as its source.
Provenance 1. Giov. E. Habert (ca 1825); 2. P. Sigismund (1878); 3. German private music collection (-2016); 4 4. Wendy Cruise Rare Books and Manuscripts, London, May 2016.
Commentary This MS is a rare example of the revival of Renaissance music in Germany in the first half of the 19th c. Lassus's VII Penitential Psalms of David ranks as one of the most famous collections of Psalm settings in the Renaissance. Orlando di Lasso (ca 1532-1594) is today considered to be the major Renaissance composer of the mature polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school, writing over 2,000 compositions, including 530 motets, 175 madrigals, 150 French chansons, 90 German Lieder, over 100 Magnificats and some 100 masses.
Place of origin Germany
Dates 1559 AD