YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

150 PETER BERGQUIST
Confitebor tibi Domine, a8
Jam lucis orto sidere, a8
Decantabat populus Israel, a7
Estote ergo misericordes, a7
In te, Domine, speravi, a6
Timor et tremor, a6
Dixit Joseph undecim fratribus suis, a6
Verbum caro factum est, a6
Quam magnificata sunt opera tua, a6
Cognoscimus Domine, a5
Fili, quid fecisti nobis sic?, a5
Tibi laus, tibi gloria, a5
Confisus Domino tua pectora, a5
Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion, a4
Qui cupit exsolvi, a4
Amen, amen, dico vobis, a4
Quasi cedrus exaltata sum, a4
Table 3. Lasso motets first published in RISM 1564 1-5 .
How did the Nuremberg firm obtain Lasso’s music? We cannot say with assurance
how the new Lasso motets in the 1564 Thesaurus musicus were obtained, though the
dedication of the collection to Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, Lasso’s patron, suggests
that Lasso could have been the source for the first editions. The 1567 magnificats
seem most likely to have come directly from Lasso. As for the 1568 Selectissimae
cantiones, it is possible to identify most of Gerlach’s sources for its reprints with considerable
assurance. He seems to have copied his sources faithfully with little or no
editorial oversight. When the original was largely accurate, like the Lasso motet books
of Gardano and Le Roy and Ballard, Gerlach duplicated those accurate texts, retaining
also their few small errors. Gerlach’s text in fact followed that of Le Roy and Ballard’s
1564 and 1565 motet books so closely that I could use Gerlach with confidence to
supply the missing cantus parts of the French motet books, since no copy of that partbook
for either collection is known to survive.
The sources of the first editions in Selectissimae cantiones present a more difficult
problem. Whatever Gerlach’s source was for them, it was faulty. Wrong notes
and imprecise, even incorrect underlay can be found in almost every one of the new
motets in the two volumes. The first editions in the 1564 Thesaurus musicus are also
plagued by errors. The reasons for these problems are not entirely clear. It is possible
that Johann vom Berg’s death had a negative effect on quality control at the Berg and