Orlando di Lasso: Magnificat

Orlando di Lasso: Magnificat
Die Singphoniker
cpo 777 957-2

Following their well-received 2012 release: Hymnus, die Singphoniker return to Lasso (Lassus) with a new programme. Lasso wrote over 100 Magnificat settings largely on the alternatim principle: odd verses of plainsong and even verses of polyphony. Here, we have six where the polyphonic verses reference (parody) existing madrigals and hymns by other composers rather than the plainsong tone of the odd verses. Each Magnificat setting is preceded by its model, allowing listeners to hear such borrowing in operation and highlighting how the exemplars are changed and often quite substantially rewritten in the process. Contemporary listeners would certainly have recognized such secular music reworked into sacred and musicologist, David Crook, has explained that this process exemplifies a desire to elevate secular music through repurposing it for a liturgical function.

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