Célébrons Sans Cesse: A Song History

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"Célébrons sans cesse" takes its title from a four-voice canon by the Renaissance composer Orlande de Lassus, whose French text praises the goodness of God; the match between the dulcimer round and Lassus's canon rests on that shared title.[1] The Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogues the piece as a polyphonic chanson in Middle French and dates it to 1576.[2] It was first printed that year in Geneva in Le thresor de musique, a collection of works mostly by Lassus, issued by Simon Goulart, that altered texts it described as lewd or profane.[3][4] The Choral Public Domain Library also lists a Latin version, "Musica est Dei donum optimi," which it describes as a contrafactum of the French canon and assigns to the same 1576 print; the sources consulted here do not settle which text came first, or whether the French words were among Goulart's alterations.[4][5]

Etching of men and boys singing together from a large book on a lectern in a church

Pieter de Jode II, Ten Men and Four Boys Singing in a Church, etching and engraving, 17th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Singers of the period, shown for their subject; it has no connection to the canon.

Adolf Sandberger edited the canon, for four equal voices, in volume 16 (1905) of the Breitkopf & Härtel complete edition of Lassus's works.[1] A Paris series of church music printed it in 1914 in a set of Lassus's Cantiques polyphoniques, and Jane A. Bernstein edited it for her 1987 Garland edition of Lassus chansons.[6][7] The vocal ensemble Stimmwerck recorded it as a canon on Susanne un jour, an album released on the Aeolus label in 2012.[8] Bernard Huijbers made a version after Lassus as a four-voice canon for choir and congregation with keyboard accompaniment, lowering it from F to E-flat to suit congregational singing.[9]

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Sources

  1. IMSLP: "Célébrons sans cesse, LV 573 (Lassus, Orlande de)".
  2. Bibliothèque nationale de France: authority record "Lassus, Roland de (1532-1594). [Célébrons sans cesse]".
  3. IMSLP: "List of works by Orlande de Lassus".
  4. Choral Public Domain Library: "Le thresor de musique (Orlando di Lasso)".
  5. Choral Public Domain Library: "Musica est Dei donum optimi (Orlando di Lasso)".
  6. Bibliothèque nationale de France: catalogue record for "Orlande de Lassus. Cantiques polyphoniques" (Paris: Librairie de l'art catholique, 1914).
  7. Bibliothèque nationale de France: catalogue record for Orlande de Lassus, "Chansons 107-145", ed. Jane A. Bernstein (Garland, 1987).
  8. Bibliothèque nationale de France: catalogue record for "Susanne un jour" (Stimmwerck, Aeolus, 2012).
  9. Saint John's University Archives and Special Collections: "Lieve boetseerder = Beloved Molder, 1972 - 1988".