Orlande de Lassus

Lassus's music is extraordinarily varied—he could write strict, Netherlandish counterpoint or homophonic Italian madrigals, austere motets or ribald chansons. His text-setting is vivid and expressive, using chromaticism and word-painting more freely than Palestrina. He had a gift for capturing every emotion and style, from the sacred to the profane, and his music shows genuine understanding of French, Italian, and German musical idioms.

Trained in the Franco-Flemish polyphonic tradition but absorbed Italian and German styles through extensive travels as a young man. He was influenced by Willaert, whose madrigals he knew, and by the literary culture surrounding him at the Bavarian court. His students and admirers spread his influence across Europe, though he founded no specific school—his versatility made him hard to imitate.

Traveled widely as a young man—Italy, England, France—absorbing styles before settling at the Bavarian court in Munich (1556), where he remained for nearly forty years. His output was prodigious throughout his career, though later works show increasing introspection and chromaticism. His final years brought psychological disturbances and increasingly dark, penitential works, though his craftsmanship never faltered.

As a choirboy, Lassus had such a beautiful voice that he was allegedly kidnapped three times by talent scouts wanting to hire him for their chapels. The third time, his parents finally let him go, beginning the peripatetic career that took him across Europe and exposed him to the many styles he would master.

Lassus wrote a cycle of bawdy, irreverent, and sometimes obscene Italian villanelle—party songs about cuckolded husbands, drunkenness, and bodily functions—that show a ribald humor completely at odds with his reputation as a sacred music master, proving he could write for every occasion and audience.

Lassus is regularly programmed by early music vocal ensembles, though less frequently than Palestrina or Byrd. His music appears on concerts exploring Renaissance polyphony's diversity. Recent years have seen increased interest in his secular works and late chromatic experiments. He's evergreen within early music but deserves wider recognition given his quality and variety.