Lasso's motets: a case study in different layers of tonal type problematic nature

Following the assumptions and methodology of Mangani & Sabaino's essay published in "Acta Musicologica” (80, 2008/2, pp. 231-250), the paper examines the modal plan and implications of four books of motets by Orlando di Lasso, two modally- and two non modally-ordered (including the famous motet “Si bona suscepimus”). The examination shows that Lasso ‘stretches’ the tonal types at least in four ways: (1) by broadening the spectrum of their typical cadence degrees; (2) by inserting some melodic, contrapuntal and cadential gestures related more to the rhetorical than to the modal order; (3) by reaching a ‘regular’ modal cadential goal ‘irregularly’ (or even ‘non-cadentially’), and (4) by lessening the difference between the authentic and the plagal version of the modes ending on the same finalis that a particular tonal type is supposed to represent. Therefore - and more generally -, the paper ends reasserting that the very idea of ‘tonal type’ is not so plain and unproblematic as it may seem, as the types do not behave univocally with respect to modal representation.