The Complete Motets 14

In 1585 Adam Berg published thirty-two Lasso motets under the title Sacrae cantiones, all for four voices except the eight-voice "Stabat Mater dolorosa" that concludes the volume. Except for this piece and two others, all the motets in this volume are settings of offertories for the Mass, and most of them appear in a large manuscript of 1581-83 that contains a cycle of Lasso's offertory settings for Advent and Lent.

The manuscript presents its contents in calendrical order, but Sacrae cantiones groups its contents by tonal type (though not so as to represent the modes in order), and it does not indicate that its contents are mostly offertories. The motets are beautiful examples of Lasso's writing on a modest scale, except for the expansive "Stabat Mater dolorosa."