Masters of Imitation

In the late 16th-century Orlande de Lassus was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was without doubt the most famous advocate of the technique of parody. This is when material is borrowed and reworked from another motet or chanson, sacred or secular, by the composer himself or someone else’s work. Our programme gives the listener a taste of this extraordinarily popular technique from the master himself, reworking his own pieces to parodies on another great master from almost a century earlier, Josquin des Pres. Moving onto the modern day, we have invited the extraordinarily inventive composer, Bob Chilcott, to write a sacred work parodying one of Lassus’s finest secular madrigals.

Maddalena Casulana (c. 1544 – c. 1590) was an Italian composer, lutenist and singer of the late Renaissance. She is the first female composer to have had a whole book of her music printed and published in the history of western music. Lassus is known to have conducted some of her works, making a nice link for inclusion of a Casulana madrigal in this programme.