Hyperion Records

Libera me, Domine is a reconstruction of the full responsorium that follows the ninth lesson at Matins of the Dead, also used as the responsory at the Absolution after the Mass for the Dead. Such a rendition after Requiem Mass would have been performed next to the catafalque after the customary homily, a panegyric for the departed, had been delivered by the celebrant.

Lobo’s polyphonic settings of appropriate sections of the responsorial chant and its verses survive in a manuscript still in the Toledo Cathedral archives (Libro de coro No 24). To revive it, one needs plainchant of the period. Fortunately, we have these sections in the margin of a manuscript, originally from Lerma in the province of Burgos, now in the library of the Hispanic Society of America. This states that it follows the canto llano (plainchant) of El Escorial according to the Use of Toledo. Lobo was master of the music at Toledo from 1593 to 1604. Our reconstruction has the chant and polyphony put together in responsorial form, with its verses and repeats.

from notes by Bruno Turner © 1998