The Chansons of Orlando di Lasso and Their Protestant Listeners

A study of how the secular lyrics of the French composer Orlando di Lasso were reworked by Protestant printers in the sixteenth century to convey new spiritual meanings. This book aims to enrich our understanding of the French secular music of Orlando di Lasso, using those songs as a means of understanding a particular community of Renaissance readers and the music books they created. Lasso's secular songs figured quite prominently in a number of collections of devotional songs issued by Protestant printers in the late sixteenth century. Lasso's profane lyrics were changed to convey spiritual meanings. This study uses theexample of such reworkings as a means of discovering how such a repertory was heard and understood by a particular community of listeners, and in so doing, it explores the history of these chansons in print, and the history of thespiritual attitudes that shaped their reception among the Huguenots. Richard Freedman is Associate Professor of Music at Haverford College.