What is Orlande de Lassus?
[[File:Orlande de Lassus.jpg|thumb|250px|Orlande de Lassus.]] '''Orlande de Lassus''' (whose name is also spelt '''Orlandus Lassus''', '''Orlando di Lasso''', '''Roland de Lassus''', or '''Roland Delattre''') (born [[Mons]], [[Hainaut (province)|Hainaut]], probably in 1532; died [[Munich]], 14 June 1594) was a [[France|Franco]]-[[Flanders|Flemish]] [[composer]] who lived in the last part of the [[Renaissance]]. Lassus and [[Giovanni da Palestrina|Palestrina]] are the two most famous composers of that time who were writing [[church music]] in a [[polyphony|polyphonic]] style. == Life == He was born in [[Mons]] in the province of [[Hainaut (province)|Hainaut]] in the [[Low Countries]] which is mostly what is today the south part of the [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]]. We know very little about his childhood. There is a story that, when he was a choirboy, he was [[abduction|abducted]] three times by another church who wanted him to sing in their [[choir]] because he had a beautiful [[voice]]. There is no [[proof]] that this story is true. At the age of twelve he left his country and went to [[Mantua]], [[Sicily]], and later to [[Milan]] in [[Italy]] and then to [[Naples]] where he worked until the early 1550s. Next he moved to Rome, where he worked for the Grand Duke of [[Tuscany]], who had a large household there. In 1553, he became ''[[maestro di cappella]]'' of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in [[Rome]]. This was an excellent job for a man who was only 21 years old. However, he only stayed there a year. Later, in 1555, Palestrina took that job. Lassus left Rome to go home to the [[Low Countries]] to see his [[parent]]s who were ill, but by the time he got home they were both dead. We are not sure what he did between then and 1554. He may have gone to [[France]] and [[England]]. In 1555 he returned to the [[Low Countries]] and had some of his first works published in [[Antwerp]]. In 1556 he joined the court of Duke Albert V of Bavaria who was very keen on music and was trying to make music in his co