The Complete Motets 4

The firm of Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard in Paris was by far the most prolific publisher of Lasso's music in his lifetime. From 1559 on they included his music in their chanson books, but their first publication devoted entirely to Lasso was the Primus liber concentuum sacrorum of 1564 for five and six voices, followed in 1565 by the Modulorum . . . 4-10 vocum secundum volumen.

Most of the 1564 book was reprinted from Lasso's 1556 and 1562 motet books, but it included three first editions, and twenty-one of the twenty-five motets in the 1565 book were new. With only a few exceptions, the texts of these motets are sacred, many from psalms or psalm verses, including "Laudate Dominum de caelis," the setting of Psalms 148 and 150 that also concludes Lasso's cycle of the Penitential Psalms.

In "Laudate Dominum" and two other pieces in this volume, Lasso produced motets that are more than twice as long as any he had previously composed. These grand pieces contrast with intimate music such as the expressive setting of "Tristis est anima mea."