Orlando
di Lasso

Orlando di Lasso, Latin Orlandus Lassus, also called Roland De Lassus, (born 1530?, Mons, Spanish Hainaut—died June 14, 1594, Munich), Flemish composer whose music stands at the apex of the Franco-Netherlandish style that dominated European music of the Renaissance. As a child he was a choirboy at St. Nicholas in Mons and because of his beautiful voice was kidnapped three times for other choirs. He was taken into the service of Ferdinand of Gonzaga, general to Charles V, and travelled with the imperial army in its French campaign in 1544. He accompanied Gonzaga to Italy in 1544, where he remained for 10 years. From 1553 to 1554 he was chapelmaster of the papal church of St. John Lateran at Rome, a post later held by Palestrina. Following a sojourn in Antwerp (1555–56), he joined the court chapel of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria in Munich. In 1570 the Emperor Maximilian raised him to the nobility; and, when Lasso dedicated a collection of his masses (1574) to Pope Gregory XIII, he received the knighthood of the Golden Spur. Lasso was a master in the field of sacred music and was equally at home in secular composition. In the latter field his internationalism is striking, encompassing Italian, French, and German genres. His religious works have a particular emotional intensity. He took great care to mirror the meaning of his texts in his music, a trait that looked forward to the Baroque style of the early 17th century.