Lamentations Of The Renaissance

The heartrending words of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah have at all times inspired a multitude of musical settings imprinted with a characteristic mixture of pain and hope. It would be wrong to imagine that these famous biblical poems written after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 A.D., with rhythmic verse after verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, were exclusive specialities of the Baroque period. Renaissance composers did not have to wait for the 17th French century Leçons de Ténèbres before consecrating all their art to these Lamentations - an art marked by an extraordinary personal involvement.