Orlando Lasso is a renowned Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer. His artistic and musical heritage is so great that it is still not fully explored. The impact that it has had on the culture and art of all mankind is simply invaluable.
So, meet - Orlando Lasso (Orlando Lasso).
Childhood
The future talented composer was born in 1532 in the Walloon city of Mons (Belgium), where the primary language of the population was French.
Having a beautiful, well-posed voice, Orlando from childhood begins to sing in the church choir, delighting the ears of people of all ages and classes. In the same place, in the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, little Orlando Di Lasso gets acquainted with liturgical teachings, is imbued with a religious spirit and gets some idea of the musical art of that time. Such knowledge will subsequently have a huge impact on the life and work of a gifted child.
Thanks to his unusual colorful voice, Lasso Orlando received a unique fateful opportunity to break out of a small town and realize his creative abilities.
This happened when the boy was twelve years old. Ferrante I Gonzaga, earl and Sicilian viceroy, the illustrious commander of the Holy Roman Empire, drew attention to his sonorous beautiful chant. He offered the talented chorus a place as a singer in his chapel.
Lasso Orlando took advantage of the gift of fate. Together with his master, he travels to Italy, visits beautiful picturesque cities and is engaged in self-education. It was during this period that Lasso Orlando began to compose music in the style of Italian folklore and gained popularity among contemporaries.
Youth
At the age of seventeen, Orlando Lasso, whose biography and work is the subject of our article, goes to serve the famous Neapolitan philanthropist, Marquis della Tertzu, and continues to create talented and fruitful.
Lasso was not even twenty years old when he received a responsible and influential position as conductor of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The fact that such a young man was entrusted with such an important leadership post says a lot: the Lasso composer was appreciated by contemporaries.
The duties of the bandmaster included not only conducting the orchestra and choir, but also writing music dedicated to special occasions.
Three years later, the talented Orlando leaves his high-ranking place and leaves for his homeland. According to some reports, this is due to the illness of the mother.
The first printed works
After the death of his parents, Lasso Orlando moved to the Flemish Antwerp, where his talented works are published in one collection. In this, the young composer provides invaluable help and support to Tilman Suzato, a well-known composer and influential music publisher.
The huge collection includes small love-lyric works in the Italian style (madrigals), as well as stanza vocal works (French chansons) and works of polyphonic texture (Latin motets).
Promotion
At the age of twenty-four, Lasso Orlando, whose music became widely known outside his homeland, received a fateful invitation to the court of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V. Albrecht of Bavaria was famous for his good disposition and patronizing attitude to artists.
Initially, the composer served as a singer in the choir. He possessed a high tenor, took the so-called royal notes. But seven years later, the talented singer was entrusted with the seat of the court bandmaster.
He very zealously and zealously set to work. He created the necessary team of people with not only a beautiful voice, but also a musical ear. He carefully studied every singer or musician.
Very soon, the ducal choral orchestra became a highly professional musical ensemble, the fame of which went around the world, and Munich - the city in which it was located - became one of the most important musical centers in Europe.
Orlando Lasso, whose works were regularly performed in the Bavarian chapel, gradually becoming in demand in other parts of the world, began to engage in teaching activities. Thus, he consolidated his talent and his influence among art lovers, and also increased his capital.
Attitude towards the composer
In those days, great and talented musicians often became servants of the people in whose homes they served. But Lasso Orlando managed to avoid such an unenviable fate.
Endowed with a lively mind and a wonderful sense of humor, the famous composer was able to achieve a respectful, even respectful attitude on the part of the rich and nobles. Lasso was a good conversationalist: he knew how to listen carefully and insert an eloquent or witty word in time. With knowledge of various forms of art, Orlando was considered a great connoisseur and authoritative connoisseur. He could touch his heart with sincere speeches or funny jokes, next to him the others felt easy and at ease. Therefore, it is not surprising that already two years after arriving at the ducal court, the charming composer married the daughter of an influential lady and led an open social life, inviting Albrecht V. to personal receptions.
Last years
Acting as bandmaster, Lasso Orlando traveled extensively in Italy, France and England. He shared his work with other talented musicians, gathered new emotions and impressions on trips, and drew inspiration from them.
Once, he, already an experienced famous composer, was offered a place of honor in Dresden under the king of Saxony, but he refused this, as well as many other tempting invitations, because he did not want to destroy a well-established life and leave the courtyard, where he gained peace and prosperity.
It is said that at the end of his life, Lasso was blessed very generously and even in excess. The current duke (and this was the son of Albrecht - Wilhelm the Pious) relieved him of the duties of bandmaster for health reasons, allocated a considerable retirement benefit and presented a beautiful villa.
The formation of musical art
The composer's work was greatly influenced by his trips abroad to Europe. Delving into the culture of different countries, he deeply reflected on its national characteristics and adopted what he considered the brightest and most successful achievement of that time in his works.
Lassot's humanistic worldview, which he reflected in many of his writings, was influenced by his communication with French Pleiadian poets such as Ronsard and de Baif.
Religious work
Most of Lasso's vocal works are church music, containing the composer's own verses or remade rhymes, borrowed quotes.
Here we should mention the author’s more than sixty masses, his requiem (a memorial or mourning oratorio) and four cycles of passions (vocal and dramatic compositions dedicated to the sufferings of Christ). The euphonic and burning church music of Orlando includes the works listed below:
- Offium of Holy Week is a special service, scheduled by the hour.
- More than one hundred magnificates based on the prayer (or praise) of Mary, the mother of Christ, taken from the Gospel of Luke, the first chapter.
- More than one hundred hymns - songs glorifying the biblical characters.
- Many other spiritual works (in the style of chanson or madrigal). It is also worth noting the talentedly executed chanson about the Jewess Susanna and the two vicious elders. The popular story for the work is taken from non-canonical, or apocryphal, sources.
- Church chants based on scripture passages.
- Hundreds of spiritual madrigals and motets, among which the cycle of seven-voice small compositions “Tears of St. Peter” and the collection “Repentant Psalms of David” are most known and significant.
Secular creativity
But Orlando Lasso did not limit his talent only to religious works. The music of the Renaissance would not be so beautiful, updated and majestic, if not for his exceptional, relevant and intense works. Among them, it is imperative to pay attention to the following:
- Over one hundred and fifty villanellas. Villanella is a rural song in a Neapolitan manner, characterized by lyric poetry with notes of comic and polyphonic music.
- About two hundred grouse. Moreska is a song and dance composition that fancifully depicts the Moors.
- Many canzon. Kantsona is a lyrical song of troubadours.
- Over a hundred and forty German old songs.
- About two hundred and fifty secular madrigals, chansons and faburdons.
- Almost five hundred motets. Motet is a vocal polyphonic work using a polyphonic warehouse. Such works of Lasso were intended for social life, for didactic or ceremonial purposes.
Humorous works
Lasso also wrote comic songs. For example, his table compositions (“Now you can rejoice” or “God, you made wine”) are filled with bright humorous colors and are easy to perceive. They set the audience in a positive way, relax and entertain, which is so necessary during feasts and festivities.
Mocking sounds are heard in the famous love serenade composed by Orlando, where the subtle humorous touch is how the German soldier distort Italian words.
Also, the great composer created a number of frivolous works, where in a careless playful form he described frivolous, windy or frivolous moments taken from everyday life.
Here it is necessary to mention his carefree foolish chanson about a secular lady, considering the nature of the marble statue; or villanella about the beautiful spindle, which is traded for testing. Moreover, the spindle here refers to a woman of easy virtue, selling her affection to others.
Among other humorous works, it is necessary, for objectivity, to pay attention to compositions of dubious content glorifying alcohol and drunkenness. Moreover, they were created as a mock imitation of serious church hymns.
Distinctive features of creativity
The music of the Renaissance would not be so bright and diverse, not so original and progressive, if not for the creative activity of Orlando Lasso.
Lasso's style is a harmonious combination of folk melodies and everyday scenes with sublime professional music and spiritual, instructive themes.
In his work, the great composer did not stop at just one storyline or one genre. Using different styles and compositions, Orlando wrote his works on secular and spiritual topics, and the world of his music was multifaceted and diverse. He could equally talentedly and realistically convey mournful motives and a humorous sound, subtle emotional feelings and passionate lustful desires, philosophical thoughts and obscene adventures.
Using folk melodies and folklore echoes, Lasso created compositions with complex and colorful melodies of a large range, a virtuoso change in timbre and vibration.
In his songs, the talented musician used extraneous sounds - street screams or family cues, gave them a unique dramatic character or dance role, which was some innovation for the musical art of that time.
Personal life
Orlando Lasso married at the age of twenty-nine years with a Bavarian court noble lady Regina Weckinger. It was a long marriage with many children. It is noteworthy that two of the sons of the great composer - Rudolph and Ferdinand - later became good musicians.
Death
Lasso Orlando died in Munich at the age of sixty-two. He was buried at the Franciscan church.
Immediately after his death, a magnificent monument of red marble was erected to him. The tombstone depicted the burial of Christ, as well as the deceased with the male descendants, and his widow with the female descendants.
A long laudatory epitaph and a family coat of arms of Lasso were engraved on the bas-relief.
Due to the riots that began in Bavaria in the 1800s, the fate of the tombstone is currently unknown.