The Complete Motets 17

This volume contains twenty-six motets that first appeared in printed anthologies or manuscripts between 1555 and 1569. The most famous of these sources is Lasso's so-called "Opus 1," the collection of madrigals, villanesche, chansons, and motets published in Antwerp in 1555.

The texts in this edition are almost equally divided between sacred and secular subjects, in settings for from four to six voices. This volume, like all others in the series, publishes the original texts of the secular motets rather than the bowdlerized contrafacta that often appeared in the old collected edition.

Among the notable pieces in the volume are the chromatic "Alma Nemes," the playful "S, U, su, P, E, R, per," the settings of classical texts such as "Dulces exuviae," and the drinking songs, including "Deus, qui bonum vinum creasti." The settings of religious texts are no less accomplished, from the small-scale four-voice pieces to the more expansive hymn-motets. Some of the motets first published in Italy may be among Lasso's earliest surviving compositions.