Please note that it may be necessary to change between CD's 1 and 2 in order to play the examples.
Lassus set a series of seven penitential psalms, and a laudate dominum, in 1570, at the commission of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria. The psalms were commissioned, supposedly, because the Duke was concerned about having an overly frivolous court (Brown, p 306), but whether these pieces helped solve the problem by actually instructing the court, or were simply symbolic of the Duke's being a pious person, it is not clear. The seven penitential psalms were a standard group of psalms used in rites of penitence in the Catholic church, so it is not surprising to find them in a group set to music; one would expect the music of the psalms to in some way unify the group, but, upon closer inspection it doesn't particularly.
The series is made up of "Domine ne in furore tuo," (psalm 6), "Beati quorum remisae sunt iniquites," (psalm 31), "Domine ne in furore tuo...quoniam," (psalm 37), "Miserere mei Deus," (psalm 50), "Domine exaudi orationem meam," (psalm 101), "De profundis clamavi," (psalm 129), and "Domine exaudi orationem meam...auribis percipe," (psalm 142). Following the psalms, Lassus has included a Laudate Dominum, presumably to finish off the series on a happy note, so as not to leave the listeners feeling miserable.
On the large scale, I would have expected to find some progression in the separate texts of the psalms, beginning with praise of God, and lamenting man's sin, continuing with descriptions of the misery of the sinful man doing penance, pleas for God's forgiveness, ending with glorification of God and His mercy, and the blessedness of the forgiven man. While parts of this can be seen, and an arch could be drawn over the pieces, I think it would be reading into the text too much. ne can find praise, lamentation, misery, forgiveness, in the psalms, in that order, but because the texts all cover very similar ideas, one could find the exact reverse nearly as easily. Almost all of the psalms say nearly the same thing, with slightly different emphasis, man is sinful, God is good, man suffers, suffering is horrible, pleas for God to listen, not to desert the sinner, and the greatness of forgiveness. Although there is not a progression, this is a unifying theme, and were one of the pieces outside of this group it would clearly not fit, particularly to the listeners of the time, who most likely knew the penitential psalms. The psalms are also tied together by having the same text at the end of each one, "Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto./Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper:/ et in secula secolorum. Amen." ("Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning and now and always: and throughout the ages. Amen.") (To hear any of the different Glorias please click on the appropriate link: Gloria1, Gloria2, Gloria3, Please insert CD 2 for Gloria4, Gloria5, Glora6, Gloria7) This is a standard phrase from religious texts, often used as an ending for readings and rites.
One might also expect an overall musical, stylistic unification, but that is not easily found either. While they all sound relatively similar, I have a hard time saying they are any more similar than any sacred pieces, set to music by Lassus, all written consecutively would sound. They have several different moods, differing densities of sounds, amounts of counterpoint, and musical motives.
The first and third psalm begin with the same text, "Domine ne furore tuo arguas me: neque in ira tua corripias me," (CD1: Psalm 1, Psalm 3) (pages 7 and 45 in our score) and one might expect to find similar music accompanying these words. Interestingly enough, the music is similar in the choice of words to ornament, such as "arguas me" (punish me), and the entrances of the different voices are similar in the beginnings of both parts. Unfortunately, however, if one looks at the beginings of most of the psalms, they are arguably just as similar, two voices entering first, followed by the others, a smooth vocal line with one important word from the first line emphasized. One could argue that, in the first case, it is unification, similar treatment of the same words in different places, or one could argue that by having many of the beginnings be very similar that is, in itself, regardless of text, a unifying feature.
In wondering just how important the text actually is in holding the psalms together as a group, we must wonder how important the text is in relation to the music, and even how important the text actually is. To understand this we must look at the intentions with which the music was written. Because the Penitential Psalms were commissioned by the Duke, and Duke Albrecht V was Lassus' patron, it seems safe to regard Lassus' compositional intentions as the same as the reason's for which the Duke commissioned the work. There are many reasons he might have ordered Lassus to compose this work; he may have been feeling very pious, and wanted to do penance, or at least have the psalms set to music and performed in place of any actual penance (he was nobility, after all, and therefore penance for him could be more symbolic than an actual act of penance). He may have loved Lassus' compositions a great deal, and wanted something for him to set, and the Penitential Psalms seemed like a good choice. It was the time of major reform and strife within the Christian religious worlds, between the Protestant groups, the Reformation, and the Catholic church's Counter-reformation, leaders may have had to make it clear where they stood, and it may have been to reaffirm his loyalty to the traditions of the Catholic church that Albrecht commissioned the psalms. Most likely it was a combination of all of these reasons.
If it were purely for musical patronage that Albrecht ordered Lassus to write the music for the psalms, then the words would not have been as important, although one could not completely garble words from sacred sources, they would not have had to be quite as intelligible. Were it for either religious purposes, or appearance of piety, the words would have been very important, sources of the time, from Luther, Calvin, to bishops agreed that music was powerful, and in order to use the power for sacred purposes the words must be clear, and easy to understand. If the words were difficult to understand people might forget the sacred nature and purpose of the text and be caught up in the sounds as sensual pleasures, which would be sinful. (Taruskin and Weiss, pp 100-111 and 135-143) Lassus' Penitential Psalms seem to fall somewhere in between these two cases. In some cases the parts are so canonic it is difficult to follow the text, in other cases the text is sung slowly and very clearly. For example, the first psalm take quite a while to sing each set of two lines, and in the fifth psalm, when the text is, "Non avertas faciem tuam a me: in quacunque die tribulor inclina ad me aurem tuam," (CD 2) (`Do not turn your face from me: on the day when I am troubled incline your ear to me") (measure 17 of Psalm 5) the voices drop to only two, and they are very easy to understand. It seems then that there were some places where it wasn't important to have the words perfectly clear, the listeners were most likely familiar with the text, but in some parts, for emphasis, the text was made very distinct.
Despite the ambiguity as to Duke Albrecht's true piety in ordering the works, the music is conclusively sacred; the psalms are from rites of penance, and they all end with "Glory be to the Father...Amen." Using that indicates it was most definitely intended as a sacred piece. However, the Laudate at the end keeps the audience from feeling sinful and miserable at the conclusion of the performance by ending happily, indicating that although the music may have been meant to edify, it was also meant to entertain. Ths is not necessarily a contradiction; by combining the sacred and secular it shows an incorporation of the sacred into affairs not isolated to the church.
Most likely, Albrecht V was enjoyed Lassus' work, and wanted more pieces, particularly reservata pieces, which have a certain status attached to them, may very well have had true religious intentions, and found it beneficial politically to emphasize his loyalty to the traditions of the Catholic church. The music, then, is meant as a combination of simply beautiful music and sacred music, and is held together by the unity of the psalms as an independent group, but otherwise is not musically very specifically connected.
Bibliography:
Berquist, Peter, "The Seven Penitential Psalms and Laudate Dominum de Caelis," A-R Editions, Madison, WI. 1990.
Brown, Howard M, "Music in the Renaissance" Prentice Hall, Inc. NJ, 1976.
Hilliard Ensemble, "Penitential Psalms," EMI. 1987. (Haverford Library MCD 100)
Lassus, Orlando di, "Penitential Psalms and Laudate Dominum," 1570.
Taruskin, Richard and Peter Weiss, "Music in the Westren World," Schirmer Books, NY, NY. 1984.