The Cantiones Sacrae are the swansong of one of the masters of the motet, crowning his life’s work. In them Orlandus Lassus deploys with sovereign ease the essence of his art, which distinguishes him from, say, his contemporary Palestrina: the complex technique of vocal polyphony is employed in order to espouse the nuances of the text as closely as possible. In other words, here we have the ideal balance between 'head' and 'heart', the recurrent feature of most of the greatest masterpieces.
The Cantiones Sacrae are the swansong of one of the masters of the motet, crowning his life’s work. In them Orlandus Lassus deploys with sovereign ease the essence of his art, which distinguishes him from, say, his contemporary Palestrina: the complex technique of vocal polyphony is employed in order to espouse the nuances of the text as closely as possible. In other words, here we have the ideal balance between 'head' and 'heart', the recurrent feature of most of the greatest masterpieces.