Lamentabatur Jacob, the story of Jacob’s grief at the taking into captivity of his sons Joseph and Benjamin, was set most famously by the Spaniard Cristóbal de Morales, member of the Sistine Chapel choir during the 1540s. To judge from the musical qualities of Regnart’s setting, it would seem likely that he knew the motet by Morales, since Regnart uses a similar chromatic melody at the opening of his setting. Later, Regnart takes the unusual step of setting the phrase ‘ducto pro alimoniis’ (‘taken as surety’) in triple time and homophony, with funereal effect.
from notes by Stephen Rice © 2007
