The Complete Motets 9

This volume contains the first in the series of lavish choirbooks published by Adam Berg under the title Patrocinium musices. The first five books in the series, issued between 1573 and 1576, were devoted exclusively to religious music by Lasso and were subsidized by Wilhelm of Bavaria.

Patrocinium I includes twenty-one motets, seven each for four, five, and six voices. Lasso dedicated the book to Wilhelm in a long preface that glosses the illustrations in the title page and frontispiece, emphasizing the importance of music in the church, the role of worldly rulers as its protectors, and Wilhelm as a follower in the footsteps of his forebears. The motets set psalms, other biblical or liturgical texts, and religious poems.

Four motets are based on pre-existent cantus firmi, including the opening "Pater noster, qui es in caelis." The book closes with a six-voice "Agimus tibi gratias," in which Lasso pays tribute to a setting of that same text by Cipriano de Rore, following the course of events in Rore's motet in every detail.