![Carmina Chromatico](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Carmina_Chromatico.jpg)
''Prophetiae Sibyllarum'' ("Sibylline
Prophecies
In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...
" or "
Sibyl
The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.
The sibyls prophesied at holy sites.
A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local traditi ...
line Oracles") are a series of twelve
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s by the
Franco-Flemish
The designation Franco-Flemish School, also called Netherlandish School, Burgundian School, Low Countries School, Flemish School, Dutch School, or Northern School, refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphony, polyphonic vocal music com ...
composer
Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palest ...
. The works are known for their extremely
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
idiom.
History
This cycle of motets is said to have been given as a personal gift to
Albrecht V. of Bavaria, Lassus' employer, after his arrival in Munich. By the time he had begun work in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, Lassus had already enjoyed great success in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
as a composer for Costantino Castrioto, and was looking to make a new name for himself. The motets were first published in 1600, after Lassus' death in 1594, by his son Rudolph. There remains, however, a small amount of disagreement over the dates of the original
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
. Boetticher suggests the date to be around 1550–52, during Lassus' time in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, while
Alfred Einstein
Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for b ...
prefers a date between 1555 and 1560, by which time Lassus could have seen depictions of the sibyls in places like the
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...
in Rome, and in the Borgia Apartments of the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
.
Analyses
Crook (1998) claims that the introduction, "Carmina Chromatico", has become, "probably the most
analyzed piece of
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century '' ars nova'', the Tr ...
by any composer in any genre," since
Lowinsky's 1961 discussion of the prelude's "
triadic atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...
". This can be understood by studying the Prologue to the cycle. The texture remains triadic, typical of the polyphony of that time, but modulates so often that the listener quickly loses the original tonal center. Lowinsky's discussion has led to other quandaries on the topic of the
tonal coherence of the prologue.
William J. Mitchell
William John Mitchell (15 December 1944 – 11 June 2010) was an Australian-born author, educator, architect and urban designer, best known for leading the integration of architectural and related design arts practice with computing and other t ...
, takes issue with
Lowinsky's conclusion and suggests that "perhaps the erosion of any stable tonal center is less the fault of Lasso, who seems to have made a splendid effort, than of the analysis which is indeed atonal." These debates are ultimately built on the question of theorists' license to analyze the piece through our modern lens of
tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is call ...
and
atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...
.
Poems
The ''Prophetiae Sibyllarum'' text is made up of one three-line prologue and twelve six-line
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s. All of the poems are in
dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable, ...
. The prophecies, each told by a different
prophetess
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
, tell of the coming of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
. Given the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
's fascination with
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
and
antiquity it is no surprise that Lassus would choose these prophecies as his text. The extremely chromatic setting of this text points toward Lassus' interactions with
Cipriano de Rore
Cipriano de Rore (occasionally Cypriano) (1515 or 1516 – between 11 and 20 September 1565) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in Italy. Not only was he a central representative of the generation of Franco-Flemish composer ...
and
Nicola Vicentino
Nicola Vicentino (1511 – 1575 or 1576) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most progressive musicians of the age, inventing, among other things, a microtonal keyboard.
Life
Little is known of hi ...
, both known for their experiments with chromaticism, during his time at
St. John Lateran
The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...
. Lowinsky also speculates that "rendering the Sibylline prophecies in chromatic style, the young genius probably implied that chromaticism was the music of the future."
Prologue
:''Carmina chromatico quae audis modulata tenore,''
:''Haec sunt illa quibus nostrae olim arcana salutis''
:''Bis senae intrepido cecinerunt ore Sibyllae.''
:Polyphonic songs which you hear with a chromatic tenor,
:these are they, in which our twice-six sibyls once
:sang with fearless mouth the secrets of salvation.
:
I. Sibylla Persica
:''Virgine matre satus, pando residebit asello''
:''Iucundus princeps, unus qui ferre salutem''
:''Rite queat lapsis; tamen illis forte diebus''
:''Multi multa ferent, immensi facta laboris.''
:''Solo sed satis est oracula prodere verbo:''
:''Ille Deus casta nascetur virgine magnus.''
:The son of a virgin mother shall sit on a crook-backed ass,
:the joyful prince, the only one who can rightly bring
:salvation to the fallen; but it will happen in those days that
:many shall tell many prophecies of great labor.
:But it is enough for the oracles to bring forth with a single word:
:That great God shall be born of a chaste virgin.
:
II. Sibylla Libyca
:''Ecce dies venient, quo aeternus tempore princeps,''
:''Irradians sata laeta, viris sua crimina tollet,''
:''Lumine clarescet cuius synagoga recenti:''
:''Sordida qui solus reserabit labra reorum,''
:''Aequus erit cunctis, gremio rex membra reclinet''
:''Reginae mundi, sanctus, per saecula vivus.''
:Behold the days will come, at which time the immortal prince,
:sowing abundant crops, shall take away their crimes from men,
:whose synagogue will shine with new light;
:he alone shall open the soiled lips of the accused,
:he shall be just to all; let the king, holy, living for all ages,
:recline his limbs in the bosom of the queen of the world.
:
III. Sibylla Delphica
:''Non tarde veniet, tacita sed mente tenendum''
:''Hoc opus; hoc memori semper qui corde reponet,''
:''Huius pertentant cur gaudia magna prophetae''
:''Eximii, qui virginea conceptus ab alvo''
:''Prodibit, sine contactu maris, omnia vincit''
:''Hoc naturae opera: at fecit, qui cuncta gubernat''
:He shall not come slowly (but this work must be held with
:quiet thought), he who will ever store this in a mindful heart,
:why his prophets may announce great joys of this
:exalted one, who shall come forth conceived from the
:virginal womb without taint of man. This conquers all
:the works of nature: yet he has done this who governs all things.
:
IV. Sibylla Cimmeria
:''In teneris annis facie praesignis, honore''
:''Militiae aeternae regem sacra virgo cibabit''
:''Lacte suo; per quem gaudebunt pectore summo''
:''Omnia, et Eoo lucebit sidus ab orbe''
:''Mirificum; sua dona Magi cum laude ferentes,''
:''Obiicient puero myrrham, aurum, thura Sabaea.''
:In her tender years, distinguished with beauty, in honor
:the holy virgin will feed the king of the eternal host
:with her milk; through whom all things will rejoice
:with uplifted heart, and in the east will shine
:a marvelous star: Magi bringing their gifts with praise
:shall present to the child myrrh, gold, Sabaean frankincense.
:
V. Sibylla Samia
:''Ecce dies, nigras quae tollet laeta tenebras,''
:''Mox veniet, solvens nodosa volumina vatum''
:''Gentis Judaeae, referent ut carmina plebis.''
:''Hunc poterent clarum vivorum tangere regem,''
:''Humano quem virgo sinu inviolata fovebit.''
:''Annuit hoc coelum, rutilantia sidera monstrant.''
:Behold, the joyful day which shall lift the black darkness
:will soon come and unravel the knotty writings of the prophets
:of the Judean tribe, as the people's songs tell.
:They shall be able to touch this glorious ruler of the living,
:whom an unstained virgin will nurture at a human breast.
:This the heavens promise, this the glowing stars show.
:
VI. Sibylla Cumana
:''Iam mea certa manent, et vera, novissima verba''
:''Ultima venturi quod erant oracula regis,''
:''Qui toti veniens mundo cum pace, placebit,''
:''Ut voluit, nostra vestitus carne decenter,''
:''In cunctis humilis, castam pro matre puellam''
:''Deliget, haec alias forma praecesserit omnes.''
:Now my most recent words shall remain certain and true,
:because they were the last oracles of the king to come,
:Who, coming for the whole world with peace, shall be pleased,
:as he intended, to be clothed fitly in our flesh,
:humble in all things. He shall choose a chaste maiden for his
:mother; she shall exceed all others in beauty.
:
VII. Sibylla Hellaspontica
:''Dum meditor quondam vidi decorare puellam,''
:''Eximio, castam quod se servaret, honore,''
:''Munera digna suo, et divino numine visa,''
:''Quae sobolem multo pareret splendore micantem:''
:''Progenies summi, speciosa et vera Tonantis,''
:''Pacifica mundum qui sub ditione gubernet.''
:Once while I was reflecting, I saw him adorn a maiden
:with great honor (because she kept herself chaste);
:She seemed worthy through his gift and divine authority
:to give birth to a glorious offspring with great splendor:
:the beautiful and true child of the highest Thunderer,
:who would rule the world with peaceful authority.
:
VIII. Sibylla Phrygia
:''Ipsa Deum vidi summum, punire volentem''
:''Mundi homines stupidos, et pectora caeca, rebellis.''
:''Et quia sic nostram complerent crimina pellem,''
:''Virginis in corpus voluit demittere coelo''
:''Ipse Deus prolem, quam nunciet angelus almae''
:''Matri, quo miseros contracta sorde lavaret.''
:I myself saw the high God wishing to punish
:the stupid men of the earth and the blind heart of the rebel.
:And because crimes shall thus fill our skin,
:God himself wished to send from heaven into the body
:of a virgin his son, which the angel shall announce to the fostering
:mother, so that he may raise the wretches from the uncleanness they have
:contracted.
:
IX. Sibylla Europaea
:''Virginis aeternum veniet de corpore verbum''
:''Purum, qui valles et montes transiet altos.''
:''Ille volens etiam stellato missus Olympo,''
:''Edetur mundo pauper, qui cuncta silenti''
:''Rexerit imperio. Sic credo, et mente fatebor:''
:''Humano simul ac divino semine natus.''
:From the body of a virgin shall come forth the pure
:word eternal, who shall cross valleys and high mountains.
:He, willingly sent even from starry Olympus,
:will be sent into the world a pauper, who shall rule all creation
:with silent power. Thus I believe and shall acknowledge in my heart:
:He is the child of both divine and human seed.
:
X. Sibylla Tiburtina
:''Verax ipse Deus dedit haec mihi munia fandi,''
:''Carmine quod sanctam potui monstrare puellam,''
:''Concipiet quae Nazareis in finibus, illum,''
:''Quem sub carne Deum Bethlemica rura videbunt.''
:''O nimium felix, coelo dignissima mater,''
:''Quae tantam sacro lactabit ab ubere prolem.''
:The truthful God himself gave me these gifts of prophecy,
:that I might proclaim in song the holy virgin
:who shall conceive in Nazareth's bounds
:that God whom Bethlehem's lands shall see in the flesh.
:O most happy mother, worthy of Heaven,
:who shall nurse such a child from her holy breast.
:
XI. Sibylla Erythraea
:''Cerno Dei natum, qui se dimisit ab alto,''
:''Ultima felices referent cum tempora soles''
:''Hebraea quem virgo feret de stirpe decora,''
:''In terris multum teneris passurus ab annis,''
:''Magnus erit tamen hic divino carmine vates,''
:''Virgine matre satus, prudenti pectore verax.''
:I behold the son of God, who sent himself from on high,
:when the joyful days shall bring the last times.
:He whom the comely virgin shall bear from the Hebrew lineage,
:he who shall suffer much on earth from his tender years on,
:he shall nevertheless be here a great seer in godly prophecy,
:the son of a virgin mother, truthful and of a wise heart.
:
XII. Sibylla Agrippa
:''Summus erit sub carne satus, charissimus atque,''
:''Virginis et verae complebit viscera sanctum''
:''Verbum, consilio, sine noxa, spiritus almi.''
:''Despectus multis tamen ille, salutis amore,''
:''Arguet et nostra commissa piacula culpa.''
:''Cuius honos constans, et gloria certa manebit.''
:The highest and dearest shall be born in the flesh the son
:of the true virgin, and the holy word shall fill the womb
:of the maiden through the pure intention of the nurturing spirit;
:although contemptible to many, he, for love of our salvation,
:will censure the sins committed by our guilt;
:his honor shall remain constant and his glory certain.
[Bergquist, Peter, (Author). "The Poems of Orlando Di Lasso's Prophetiae Sibyllarum and Their Sources." Journal of the American Musicological Society 32.3 (1979): 516-38. RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.]
See also
*
Prophetiae Sibyllarum (Waterhouse)
Graham Waterhouse, cellist and composer especially of chamber music, has written a number of works for string quartet, three major works in several movements, several smaller works and compositions for a solo instrument (piccolo, oboe, bassoon, pi ...
References
External links
*
{{italic title
Compositions by Orlande de Lassus
Motets