This plainchant Si bona suscepimus is an old Responsorium. There are about 138 Responsoria de Officium Defunctorum, Responds from Office of the Dead known and used during centuries in the Office of the Dead. They are all well ordered, this is number 87. One of the two corresponding Versicle from the Office of the Dead “ Nudus egressus” number 156 is even used by Jacobus Clement (1515-1556), Gombert (c.1495-c.1557), Phillip Verdelot ( 1480/85 – 1530/32), Lassus (1532-1594), Lechner (1553-1606) and Thomas Selle (1599-1663) did. But on the other hand Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612) and Claudin de Sermisy (1490-1562) used only the Respond version without the Versicle-part so did Constanzo Porta (1529-1601). The other Versicle is ‘In omnibus’. It is known the use of Responds and Versicles of the Office of the Dead vary per region all over Europe, see for instance the authors Knud Ottosen, Ruth Steiner and R-J Hesbert. This particularly Respond ‘Si bona suscepimus’ as a Respond out of the Office of the Dead is used and found in the series of Deventer Holland and preserved in the University of Amsterdam. Next to it the more general type (Respond-Type 25) to which this Respond ‘Si bona suscepimus’ belongs is spread in the area under the Ottonian and Salian emperors the counties of Lower Lorraine, of Flanders, Champgane and the northern part of Holland. The principal source is found before 1318 in Aachen, executed in Aix-la-Chapelle as we see in Knud Ottosen’s excellent book. In general the text is coming out of the Book Job. The choice of texts and the order in which they occur in the sources all around Europe vary according to local uses. This text setting is found in Deventer in a source out of 1516 and this Respond is sung at the end/closing of the third nocturne. Of course we know there is a plainchant sung at the first and second Sunday of September with nearly the same words, but this musically texture set by Zarlino convince us to conclude to a funeral Respond. This long setting of the motet Si bona suscepimus - consisting out of 148 bars - is written by Zarlino for five lower voices ATTTB. This motet is written in polyphonic imitative style with created imitative settings and lots of tempi changing. The Altus starts followed by Tenor II, Bassus, Tenor I and Tenor III in an imitative polyphonic style. All parts have an ascending semitone ( A&B a-bflat or all T d-eflat). Zarlino uses lots of syncopation and word-painting. Special word-painting at the word ‘Domino’ with ascending notes in Bars 50-54 and further at the words ‘placuit’ and ‘Domino’ with quavers in bars 58-59 respectively 73. The Verses starts in bar 81 in again polyphonic imitative style with an interesting descending line (a-f-d or d-bflat-a). According to Gregorian rite as from the words ‘Dominus dedit’ the Respond will be repeated from bar 105. The Tenor I and Tenor II have changed their music-lines in the repetition. We really don’t know why, perhaps it could be a mistake by the copyist. All the measures in the repetition are the same except the last two ones (Ms. 147-148).The ‘benedictum’ ends in Ms. 80 on A-Phrygian and ends easily in Ms.147-148 in D-Hypo. This Respond ‘Si bona suscepimus’ setting is published Moduli motecta vulgo noncupata liber primus, 5vv (Venice, 1549) [1549].

Officium Defunctorum ad Matutinum, tres Lectiones:
1. Lectio prima: Parce mihi Domine
2. Lectio secunda: Taedet animam meam vitae meae
3. Lectio tertia: Manus tuae Domine fecerunt me

Giosoffo Zarlino composed in motet-form at least three Lessons out of the Officium Defunctorium ad Matutinum, (Matins from the Office of the Dead) which have been published in the old Liber Usualis (edition 1936, pages 1785-1786). This Office of the Dead more specific these Lessons should be red (Ad Matutinum), in the morning prior to a Requiem Mass and the Burial. There are nine Lessons – out of the Book Job - in the Service of the Dead which were normally followed by each a Responsorium/Respond. These three Lessons were too full part of the Office of the Dead from the eleventh Century until the Second Vatican Council in 1965 were substantial revisions and alterations of the total Office in the Catholic Church have been made. Orlando di Lasso ( 1532-1594) is as far as we know the first South-Netherlandish composer who set all nine Lectiones in even two compositions/bundles together. See our comments in this Website. We found more see for instance Cristobal de Morales (c.1500- 1553), Estęvâo Brito ( c.1570-1641), Juan Vasquez (c.1500-c.1560) and Francesco Azopardi (1748-1809) who composed a Officium Defunctorium with Lessons but not only the nine Lessons. Here in this publication of 1563 we found three lessons (tribus lectionibus pro mortuis) set by the Italian Gioseffo Zarlino. We suppose the other six are lost or still to be discovered in the archives of the St. Mark at Venice. All three have been set for four lower male voices TTTB. They could be possibly sung at the Services at the St. Mark of Venice. The found three lessons consists out of Lectio Prima no. XIX in the publication Parce mihi Domine, consists out of 102 bars and is set in d. Lectio Secunda no. XX in the publication Taedet animam meam vitae meae, consists out of 119 bars and is set in E-Phrygian. Lectio Tertia no. XXI in the publication Manus tuae Domine fecerunt me, consists out of 89 bars and is set in F. All three lessons are set in homophonic polyphone style for male/equal voices and written for the Service but all set in the expression of the text. Interesting here is all three lessons were closed with a homophonic phrase “Blessed are the Dead who die in the Lord”! That does in our opinion mean those settings are used in the Services of the Dead.
These three lessons are separately and not as a bundle published in Mottetta di Cipriano de Rore et aliorum auctorum quatuor vocum parium cum tribus lectionibus pro mortuis Josepho Zarlino auctore Venezia MDLXIII.