How music grew, from prehistoric times to the present day

by Marion Bauer; Ethel R. Peyser

One of the last of the Netherland school was Jan Sweelinck (1562–1621), the greatest organist of his time. He had so many pupils from every country in Europe, that he became the founder of a very famous school of organists. Among them were Scheidt, Reinken of whom the story is told that Bach as a young boy walked miles to hear him play, and Buxtehude, a Dane, who was one of the greatest of the time of Bach. Sweelinck perfected the Organ Fugue which Bach later made more beautiful than any other composer. Sweelinck’s talent and work were so deeply appreciated in his home, Amsterdam, that the merchants of that city gave him a generous income for his old age. A splendid thing to have done!

The Great Lassus

The greatest composer of this Netherland school was Orlandus Lassus, or Orlando di Lasso, or Roland de Lattre, take your choice! He was born in Mons, Belgium, some time between 1520 and 1532. When he was a child he had such a beautiful voice that he was kidnapped three times from the school where he lived with the other choristers. The third time he stayed with the Governor of Sicily, Ferdinand Gonzague, and went from Sicily to Milan, then to Naples and then to Rome where he became director of the choir of one of the most celebrated churches. After this he went to England and to France and finally returned to Antwerp. In 1557 he was invited to the court of the Duke of Bavaria in Munich to direct the chamber music. There he married a lady of the court and had two daughters and four sons, who were musicians. Later he was made master of the chapel, and the men who lived at that time said he was an inspiring choir director, a great composer, and was deeply reverenced and loved. The Duke was a splendid helper and patron of music, and encouraged him to make their choir of ninety men one of the finest in the world. Their lives were made so pleasant that a book, published in 1568, says, “had the Heavenly Choir been suddenly dismissed, it would straightway have made for the court of Munich, there to find peace and retirement!”

Lassus used wind and brass instruments to accompany the voices which were kept quite separate from the strings. At a banquet, the wind instruments were heard during the early courses, then the strings directed by someone else, then, during the dessert, Lassus would direct the singing of the choir. So “chamber music” appears at this point in the growth of music.

At the Duke’s suggestion, Lassus wrote music for seven Penitential Psalms which were sung to the unhappy King, Charles IX, after the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s eve.

He wrote secular music as well as sacred and showed a keen sense of humor in several of his secular pieces.

Soon after 1574, he wrote a set of twenty-four pieces for two parts: twelve have words and are vocal duets, and the other twelve are without words, to be played on instruments. The two groups are exactly alike in form which shows that many of the motets and madrigals for voices were often played on instruments alone.

The Hymn to St. John from which Guido d’Arezzo took the names of the scale degrees, was made into a beautiful composition by Lassus; the tenor sings a cantus firmus of the tones of the scales, around which are woven many parts in counterpoint.

One festival day there was a violent storm in Munich, and orders were given that the usual procession from the Church through the town should not take place, but should be held inside the Church. As the head of the procession reached the porch of the Church, and the choir started a motet by Lassus, the sun suddenly came out and the procession went on as usual through the town. This was looked upon as a miracle, and whenever fine weather was wanted very much, this motet was chosen! This story does not tell whether the miracle always worked!

In Lassus’ later church music, he simplified the complicated contrapuntal style, perhaps because he lived in the country where Luther had introduced the chorale. (Page [166].) Even though Lassus wrote masses and motets for the Catholic Church, he must have heard these new hymns, and was unknowingly influenced by them.