PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA (b. Palestrina, Italy 1525; d. Rome, 2 Feb 1594. )
Palestrina took his name from the city of his birth, which he left by the age of twelve to become a chorister at thebasilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. Not a great deal is known of his early studies, but by 1551 he had progressed from being a church organist to maestro of the choir of St. Peter's in Rome.
In gratitude for his promotion he composed a mass which he dedicated to Pope Julius III. In response Julius moved him to the Sistine Chapel, where he remained until the accession, in 1555, of Pope Paul VI. Subsequently he returned to Santa Maria Maggiore, this time as maestro.
He continued to compose church music, which became known throughout Europe. In 1571 he was again employed at St. Peter's, where he began work on revision of the papal collection of the chants for the proper of the mass. This work was not completed, perhaps because of the series of illnesses to which he and his family succombed at this time.
In 1580 his wife died in an epidemic and Palestrina considered entering the priesthood. Instead he married the widow of a furrier and continued to compose.
His years in the employment of the church were dogged by constant money troubles. Despite these and other family concerns, his output was vast. He wrote over a hundred masses, a hundred and forty motets, for four to ten voices, as well as other sacred music,including hymns and psalms. Besides works written for the church, he also produced nearly a hundred madrigals.
The Council of Trent, which had been held between 1554 and 1563 had considered, amongst other religious matters, the position of church music. Its determination was that the material sung in church should be intelligible - primo le parole e poi la musica (first the word and then the music.) It was also concerned to make a clear division between sacred and secular music.
Palestrina, who owed his living to the church, was careful to fall in line with establishment thinking. Nevertheless, he based much of his music on popular forms and, unlike some of his contemporaries, was as content to write polyphony as plainsong. He is unique in having brought together two great musical styles of his time, one Germanic and the other Italian, thus summing up the religious music of the Renaissance.
