RenaissanceOrlando di Lasso
Roland de Lassus was born in Mons, Belgium, almost five hundred years ago.
Orlando di Lasso’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1532👶 Birth
Born in Mons
- 1540📚 Trainingage 8
Choirboy at St Nicholas, Mons; reportedly kidnapped three times for his voice
- 1543🌍 Meanwhile
Copernicus: the Earth goes round the Sun
- 1544🧳 Journeyage 12
Goes to Italy with Ferrante Gonzaga: Mantua, Sicily, Milan
- 1553🎩 Careerage 21
Chapel master of St John Lateran in Rome, aged 21
- 1555🎼 Workage 23
First publications in Antwerp
- 1555🌍 Meanwhile
Andrea Amati makes the earliest known violins in Cremona (c. 1555)
- 1558❤️ Private lifeage 26
Marries Regina Wäckinger
- 1563🎩 Careerage 31
Becomes chapel master in Munich
- 1570🏛️ Landmarkage 38
Ennobled by Emperor Maximilian II
- 1594🕯️ Deathage 62
Dies in Munich on 14 June
- 1594🎼 Workage 62
Completes the Tears of St Peter
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Roland de Lassus was born in Mons, Belgium, almost five hundred years ago. He sang so well that people say he was kidnapped three times by people who wanted him to sing for them!
As a teenager he went to Italy with a prince. At only twenty-one he became choirmaster of one of the greatest churches in Rome. Then he settled in Munich, in Germany, where he ran the duke’s music for almost forty years.
Lassus composed more than two thousand pieces in four languages! Very serious music for church, but also funny songs, like one about a soldier singing a serenade in Italian with a silly accent.
In his letters he made lots of jokes, mixing languages. He was a musician with a great sense of humour.
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