Orlande de Lassus

The most important Franco-Flemish composer of his generation, Orlande de Lassus was born in Mons – in what is today Belgium – and sang as a choirboy in the city's church of St Nicholas. He travelled widely in Italy in the service of the Mantuan general and viceroy Ferrante Gonzaga, imbibing a love of Italian music and visiting Palermo, Milan, Naples and, finally, Rome. There he was appointed maestro di cappella at St John Lateran in 1553. By 1556 we find him in Munich, at the court of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, where, after singing in the choir, he became maestro di cappella in 1563, retaining the post until his death. He left Munich only rarely for diplomatic visits to Flanders, Italy and Vienna, where he was regularly received by the emperor. Fêted throughout much of Europe, Lassus was handsomely rewarded by many of the courts that he visited, receiving patents of nobility and the title of Knight of the Golden Spur, the latter bestowed by Pope Gregory XIII. In turn, he maintained friendly relations with many royal courts of the time, not least with France and Saxony. Although invited to contribute to many royal celebrations, he slowly withdrew from public life and, from around 1575, devoted himself increasingly to composition and, principally, to sacred music. An undisputed master of the motet and the penitential psalm, Lassus strove for perfection in all the he did, and though his masses may lack the dimensions of those of Palestrina, he had no equal in the field of the secular motet, which reached new heights in his hands.