Orlando di Lasso, Orlandus Lassus

Orlande de Lassus, Roland de Lassus, Roland Delattre

"Divin Orlande" - Divine Orlando
"Princeps Musicorum" - The Prince of Music

Born 1532 in Mons in the province of Hainau, Flanders (Now Belgium). Died 1594 June 14 in Munich.

One of the most prolific, versatile, and universal composers of the late Renaissance, Lassus wrote over 2000 works in all Latin, French, Italian and German vocal genres known in his time. These include 530 motets, 175 Italian madrigals and villanellas, 150 French chansons, and 90 German lieder.

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Biography

Information about his early years is scanty. Some uncorroborated stories have survived, including that he sang as a choir boy at the church of St Nicolas and that he was kidnapped three times by Italian agents because of the singular beauty of his singing voice. At the age of 12 he left the Low Countries with Ferrante Gonzaga (of the Mantuan Court) and went to Mantua, Sicily, and later Milan (from 1547 to 1549). While in Milan he made the acquaintance of the madrigalist Hoste da Reggio, an influence which was formative on his early musical style.

He then worked as a singer and a composer for Constantino Castrioto in Naples in the early 1550s, and his first works are presumed to date from this time. Next he moved to Rome, where he worked for the Archduke of Florence, who maintained a household there; and in 1553, he became maestro di cappella (chorus leader) of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, a spectacularly prestigious post for a man only 21 years old. He stayed for only a year, leaving to visit his ill parents, but on return to Mons his parents had died. Palestrina took this post a year later, in 1555

No solid evidence survives for his whereabouts in 1554, but there are contemporary claims that he traveled in France and England. In 1555 he returned to the Low Countries and had his early works including madrigals, villanesche, chansons, and motets published in Antwerp (1555-1556). At the same time his first book of five-part madrigals had been published in Venice. It is certain that some works were composed years before which suggests that Lasso waited until he had amassed quite a collection before he started publishing. Indeed the Prophetiae Sibyllarum, a collection of highly chromatic latin texts may date from his early years due to a manuscript containing Lasso's portrait at the age of twenty eight.

In 1556 he travelled to Munich and joined the court of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria as a tenor in the chapel choir. The Duke was consciously attempting to create a musical establishment on par with the major centers in Italy and hence seeking to "netherlandize" the chapel. Surprisingly his position as tenor and not maestro di capella continued for some years, perhaps due to religio-political tensions within the court. In 1558 he married Regina Wäckinger, the daughter of a maid of honor of the Duchess; they were to have two sons, Ferdinand (b c1560) and Rudolph (b c1563) both of whom became composers. In 1563 Lassus was appointed maestro di cappella, a position he retained for the rest of his life, interspersed by journeys at ducal behest.

Lassus's duties included writing polyphonic masses, magnificat settings and motets for the religious services. The Duke's love of musical display and funding generosity meant that Lassus also wrote much secular music for state visits, banquets (Tafelmusik), hunting parties and other special occassions. Indeed in 1569 at the wedding of Wilhelm V and Reneé of Lorraine he even perfomed as a "magnifico" in an Italian comedia dell'arte! Finally, Lassus supervised the musical education of the choirboys, the copying of manuscripts and perhaps the collection of printed music for the ducal library.

By the 1560s Lassus had become quite famous. Printers in Nuremberg and Paris were issuing both individual works and collected volumes. Composers too began to go to Munich to study with him. Andrea Gabrieli went there in 1562, and possibly remained in the chapel for a year; Giovanni Gabrieli also possibly studied with him in the 1570s. His renown had spread outside of strictly musical circles, for in 1570 Emperor Maximilian II conferred nobility upon him. In 1571 and 1573 the king of France, Charles IX, invited him to visit. In 1574 Pope Gregory XIII made him a knight of the Golden Spur, a rare honour for a composer. Some of these kings and aristocrats attempted to woo him away from Munich with more attractive offers, but Lassus was evidently more interested in the stability of his position, and the splendid performance opportunities of Albrecht's court, than in financial gain. "I do not want to leave my house, my garden, and the other good things in Munich," he wrote to the Duke of Saxony in 1580, upon receiving an offer for a position in Dresden. He had also become firm friends with the Duke and his heir, the future Wilhelm V (Oddly enough on the accession of Wilhelm V in 1579 the ducal chapel was much reduced in size.).

Extant letters from this time between Lasso and Wilhelm portray Lasso as a cosmopolitan polyglot of immense wit, charm and warmth. Many interweave playful, half-macaronic Latin, Italian, French and German. A few are partly in doggerel verse, suggesting that Lassus wrote some of his own texts for occasional and humorous pieces. Some letters are entirely made up of musical
puns and jokes, mentioning other composers such as Rore, Clemens non Papa and Arcadelt, and referring jokingly to musical terms, as in the description of 'una baligia senza pause, coperta di passagi di molte cadenze fatte in falso bordone a misura di macaroni' ('a valise without rests, covered with passage-work of many cadences made from falsobordoni the size of macaroni'). Often he would finish with an amusing signature ("Orlando Lasso col cor non basso"; "Orlandissimo lassissimo, amorevolissimo"; "secretaire publique, Orlando magnifique").

In the late 1570s and 1580s Lassus made several visits to Italy, where he encountered the most modern styles and trends. In Ferrara, the center of avant-garde activity, he doubtless heard the madrigals being composed for the d'Este court; however his own style by deliberate choice remained conservative, indeed becoming more simple and more refined as he aged. In the 1590s his health began to decline, and he went to a doctor named Thomas Mermann for treatment of what was called "melancholia hypocondriaca".

He composed relatively little in these twighlight years until a final flare-up of two works of cosmic scope and profundity. Firstly the Lamentations of Jeremiah, then a few weeks before his death the Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St. Peter), which he dedicated to Pope Clement VIII. Lassus died in Munich, on June 14, 1594, the same day that his employer decided to dismiss him for economic reasons; he never saw the letter.

Lasso Itinerary (Main)

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Timeline