One of the recognized triumvirate of Renaissance master composers (along with Josquin and Byrd), Orlandus Lassus’ greatest contribution aside from a prolific output, was the creation of a new musical style. After absorbing the Flemish compositional style, Lassus spent time in Italy and familiarized himself with the warmer and more humanistic Italian style of composition. He merged that style with the cool, clean lines of the Flemish style to create an altogether new style. The Italian influence was strong enough to cause him to change his name to the Italian form Orlando di Lasso.

Lassus “Ola! O che bon echo”
 - Live Performance
Members Temple University Concert Choir
Robert L. Edwards - 1973

 

“Ola! O che bon echo!” is a playful and sarcastic echo song. In one sense, it is not representative of his style, because remarkably no two of his works resemble each other. The only exception is his consistent use of word painting, which in this “echo song” is obvious. One of my distinguished professors, musicologist Paul Boepple wrote: “Of [Lassus’ 2,000 compositions], 760 were written for Saints, and the rest for sinners and connoisseurs.”  This is one of the latter.