Beschreibung:

Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594) Manuscript compilation of the seven Psalmi Davidis poenitentiales, n.p. [Germany], n.d. [1st half 19th century] A witness to the revival of interest in Renaissance music in 19th-century Germany, apparently once owned by the Austrian composer of sacred music Johannes Evangelista Habert. Three manuscripts bound together. Scored for five voices by three copyists in brown ink on two or three five-stave systems per page. Psalms I-II: 31 pages, 335 x 225mm; Psalms III-IV: 101 pages, 300 x 225mm ; Psalms V-VII : 69 pages, 315 x 225mm; paper ruled or printed with 12 or 14 staves, titles in Latin, text otherwise in Italian, scattered annotations throughout, apparently used for performance. 19th-century German binding, paper boards, manuscript label on front cover. Provenance: (1) ?Johannes Evangelista Habert (1833-1896), organist, writer and composer of sacred music; 19th-century inscription to front endleaf in a German hand recording that the manuscript passed from a ‘P Sigismund’ to ‘Giov E Habert’. (2) Wendy Cruise Rare Books and Manuscripts, London, May 2016. (3) Schøyen Collection, MS 5593. Orlande de Lassus was one of the most prolific and versatile of 16th-century composers, and in his time the best-known and most widely admired musician in Europe. His seven Penitential Psalms were written around 1559 for his employer, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, who kept them for his private use and forbad their circulation: they only published after his death, in 1584. Over 250 years later, new editions of the Penitential Psalms were published, appearing in 1838 and 1843.