Si bona suscepimus, Philippe Verdelot. Tallis Scholars. Peter Phillips, conductor

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Si bona suscepimus
Philippe Verdelot
(1480 to 1485–1530 to 1540)

In purely musical terms Philippe Verdelot’s Si bona suscepimus (published in 1526) is an ideal composition to parody, with its transparent melodic lines, clearly delineated sections and austere textures. The formal beauty of it is increased by a hidden repeat in the music, so that, although the phrases run continuously, the words ‘the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away’ are used as a refrain, giving the overall shape of ABCB (this incidentally is Verdelot’s repeat, not Job’s). from notes by Peter Phillips © 2000

Philippe Verdelot was the most important composer of Italian madrigals in the early 16th century and recognized as the greatest innovator of the genre.
A Frenchman, he occupied several important musical posts in Italy, including the Florentine posts of maestro di cappella at the Baptistry of S. Maria del Fiore and the great Duomo itself. In the mid 1520s, during his time in Florence, a set of part-books were assembled, probably under Verdelot’s supervision, for the court of Henry VIII.

First published: 1532 in Secundus liber cum quinque vocibus (Jacques Moderne), no. 18
Manuscript 1536 in Cappella Giulia MS XII.4, no. 32
2nd publication: 1537 in Novum et insigne opus musicum (Ott and Formschneider), Volume 1, no. 17
3rd publication: 1539 (August) in Cantiones quinque vocum selectissimae (Peter Schöffer), no. 24
4th publication:1539 (December) in Fior de mottetti secundus liber cum quinque vocibus (Antonio Gardano), no. 18
5th published: 1553 in Liber primus collectorum modulorum (Du Chemin & Goudimel), no. 2
6th publication: 1559 in Novum et insigne opus musicum (Berg and Neuber), Volume 2, no. 13
Manuscript 1563 in Cappella Sistina MS 38, no. 15
Manuscript 1854 in SANT Hs 1218, no. 69

Si bona suscepimus de manu Domini,
mala autem quare non sustineamus?
Nudus egressus sum de utero matris meae, et nudus revertar illuc.
Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est:
sit nomen Domini benedictum.

If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord,
why should we not endure bad things?
Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.
The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away: as it has pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord