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[German Version] (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando de Lassus; 1532 probably at Mons, Spanish Hainaut – Jun 14, 1594, Munich), Franco-Flemish composer. Taken into the service of Ferdinando Gonzaga, viceroy of Sicily, he came to Italy (Mantua, Genoa, Palermo, Naples, and Rome), where in 1553/1554 he was director of music for the Basilica of St. John Lateran. In 1554, however, he returned to his homeland. After a brief stay in England, he worked in Antwerp, where he published his first book of motets. From there he was summoned to Munich in 1556 by Duke Albrecht V of ¶ Bavaria, as a tenor and compose…

[German Version] (also the school of Notre Dame). According to an English music student in Paris at the end of the 13th century (Anonymous 4), Léonin was the most significant composer of organa ( optimus organista; Organum) in Paris in the period before 1200 (?). If he was an actual historical person, he might be identified with Leonius, a poet born c. 1135. Leonius appears to have earned a master's degree prior to 1179; by 1192 at the latest, he was a priest and a canon of Notre Dame. Probably he did not occupy the position of cantor or succentor. His major work is the Hystorie sacre gestas ab ori…

[German Version] (Lat. motetus, motellus, muteta, motecta, etc.; Ital. motetto; Fr. Motet; Ger. Motette), polyphonic musical genre for voices, sometimes with instruments. The form of the motet has varied considerably over the course of musical history. The term derives from French mot, “word.” The motet originated in the first half of the 13th century ( Ars Antiqua) when texts were added to the descant lines ( discantus or clausulae) of Notre-Dame organa (Organum). The texts were originally in Latin. As the genre moved out of its liturgical context, the motetus, triplum, and occasion…

[German Version] I. Sources in Antiquity – II. Early Church – III. Eastern Churches – IV. Western Churches – V. Present – VI. Legal Issues – VII. Church Music Training I. Sources in Antiquity There is one lone musical reference (Gen 4:21) in the earliest OT strata, suggesting a minor role for music in Israel before c. 1200 bce. With the migration into Canaan, Israelite music-making flourished as exemplified by evidence of dirges (2 Sam 1:19–27), war songs (Num 21:14f.), victory songs (Exod 15:1–18, 20), magical incantations …