Waelrant: Liber sextus sacrarum cantionum

Hubert Waelrant’s five- and six-part motets based on gospel texts about the life of Jesus Christ were published around 1558 as the last volume in the motet series issued by the Antwerp printing partners Waelrant and Jan de Laet. This edition of the Liber sextus acrarum cantionum is based on the sole surviving copy of the book now housed in the Statens musikbibliotek, Stockholm.

Waelrant’s musical style, unlike that of most of his Netherlandish contemporaries, reveals a number of Italian features, which he may have acquired through his contacts with the Venetian circle of composers influenced by Willaert and from the young Orlando de Lassus, who was then resident in Antwerp. The motets display an innovative declamatory style based on word rhythms, chordal textures, and chromatic harmonies for which Waelrant specified the necessary accidentals.