The cycle of motets - or sacred madrigals - which Michael Procter has entitled Melancholia: Aphorisms on Life and Death was printed posthumously in the great collection Magnum Opus Musicum edited by Lassus' sons and published in 1604. This is the first recording to present it as a single complete work. The 13 pieces are very different as regards their texts, yet all have in common a pithy, aphoristic style which seems to combine them. They are linked also by related 'keys' as shown below. I have had the benefit of discussions with the great Lassus authority Prof. Peter Bergquist in Oregon, who agrees that the pieces form a linked cycle; he has also helped greatly with the identification of such texts as can be identified. I differ, however, from his opinion that these pieces were somehow excluded from the last publication in Lassus' lifetime, the Sacrae Cantiones printed in Graz in 1594, the year of his death. In that collection, itself organised in order of Modes, the pieces would have been separated from each other and the cyclic unity lost. It seems likely that the pieces were composed parallel to the great Lagrime di San Pietro, forming a further, even more personal commentary - and perhaps light relief for the elderly composer.