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PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA (15...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 628 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA (1526-1594) , See also:Italian composer, was See also:born in Palestrina (the See also:ancient See also:Praeneste) at the See also:foot of the See also:Sabine mountains, in 1526. The various versions of his name make an interesting See also:record. He appears as Palestina, Pellestrino, Gio. Palestina, Gianetto Palestrina, Gianetto da Palestrina, Gian Pierl. de Palestrina, Joh. Petrus Aloisius, Jo. Petraloys, Gianetto, Giov. Prenestini, Joannes Praenestinus, Joannes Petraloysius Prenestinus. Palestrina seems to have been at See also:Rome from 1540 to 1544, when he studied possibly under Gaudio Mell, but not under See also:Goudimel as has erroneously been assumed. On the 12th of See also:June 1547 he married Lucrezia de Goris. In 1551, by favour of See also:Pope See also:Julius III., he was elected Magister Cappellae and Magister Puerorum at the Cappella Giulia, S. Pietro in Vaticano, with a See also:salary of six scudi per See also:month, and a See also:house. Three years later he published his First See also:Book of Masses, dedicated to Pope Julius III., and beginning with the missa " Ecce sacerdos See also:magnus." On the 13th of See also:January 1555, Palestrina was enrolled, by command of Pope Julius III., among the singers of the Cappella Sistina.

This See also:

honour involved the resignation of his See also:office at the Cappella Giulia, which was accordingly bestowed upon his friend See also:Animuccia. But the legality of the new See also:appointment was disputed on the ground that Palestrina was married, and the See also:father of four See also:children, his wife, Lucrezia, being still alive; and, though, for the moment, the pope's will was See also:law, the See also:case assumed a different complexion after his See also:death, which took See also:place only five See also:weeks afterwards. The next pope, See also:Marcellus II., was succeeded after a reign of 23 days, by See also:Paul IV.; and within less than a See also:year (See also:July 30, 1555) that stern reformer dismissed Palestrina, together with two other married singers, A. Ferrabosco and See also:Bari, with a consolatory See also:pension of six scudi per month to each. This cruel disappointment caused Palestrina a dangerous illness; but in See also:October 1555 he was appointed See also:maestro di cappella at the Lateran, without forfeiting his pension; and in See also:February 156r he exchanged this preferment for a similar one, with an See also:allowance of 16 scudi per month, at See also:Santa Maria See also:Maggiore. Palestrina remained in office at this celebrated See also:basilica for ten years, and to this See also:period is assigned an important See also:chapter in the See also:history of See also:music. Many circumstantial details of this chapter are undoubtedly legends, due to the pious See also:imagination of See also:Baini and others. In 1562 the See also:council of See also:Trent censured the prevalent See also:style of ecclesiastical music with extreme severity. In 1564 Pope See also:Pius IV. commissioned eight cardinals to investigate the causes of complaint; and these proved to be so well founded that it was seriously proposed to forbid the use of all music in the services of the. See also:Church, except unisonous and unaccompanied See also:plain-See also:chant. In these circumstances Palestrina is said to have been invited by two of the most active members of the See also:commission to come to the See also:rescue. He accordingly submitted three masses to See also:Cardinal Carlo See also:Borromeo for approval.

These were privately rehearsed, in presence of the commissioners, at the See also:

palace of Cardinal Vitellozzi; and the See also:judges were unanimous in deciding that the third See also:mass fulfilled, in the highest possible degree, all the conditions demanded. The private trial took place in June 1565, and on the 19th of that month the mass was publicly sung at the Sistine See also:Chapel, in presence of Pope Pius IV., who compared its music to that heard by St See also:John in his See also:vision of the New See also:Jerusalem. Parvi transcribed it, for the library of the See also:choir, in characters of extraordinary See also:size and beauty; and Palestrina was appointed by the pope composer to the Sistine Chapel, an office created expressly in his honour and confirmed to him by seven later pontiffs, though with the very insufficient honorarium of three scudi per month, in addition to the six which formed his pension. In 1567 this mass was printed in Palestrina's See also:Liber See also:secundus inissarum. The See also:volume was dedicated to See also:Philip II. of See also:Spain, but the mass was called the Missa Papae Marcelli. This See also:title, clearly given in honour of the See also:short-lived pope Marcellus II.,has given rise to an absurd See also:story, told by Pellegrini and others, to the effect that the mass was composed by Pope Marcellus I., martyred See also:early in the 4th See also:century, and was only discovered by Palestrina. Of course in the 4th century such music was inconceivable. The Missa Papae Marcelli is now almost certainly known to have been composed in 1562, two years before Paul IV.'s commission. Its ineffable beauty had often been described in glowing terms by those who heard it in the Sistine Chapel, but it was only first heard in See also:England in 1882, when the See also:Bach choir, consisting of 200 unaccompanied voices, sang it at St See also:James's See also:Hall, under the direction of Mr See also:Otto See also:Goldschmidt. Upon the death of Animuccia in 1571 Palestrina was re-elected to his appointment at the Cappella Giulia. He also succeeded Animuccia as maestro di cappella at the See also:oratory of Philip See also:Neri; but these appointments were far from lucrative, and he still remained a very poor See also:man. A See also:letter of thanks for See also:loo scudi, written on the 21st of See also:March 1579 to the See also:duke of See also:Mantua, illustrates this situation.

In 158o he was much distressed by the death of his wife; and the loss of three promising sons, Angelo, Ridolfo and Silla, See also:

left him with one See also:child only—Iginoa very unworthy descendant. In February 1581 he married the See also:rich widow See also:Virginia Dormuli. In 1586 Pope See also:Sixtus V. wished to appoint him maestro to the pontifical choir, as successor to See also:Antonio Boccapadule, then about to resign, and commissioned Boccapadule to prepare the choir for the See also:change. Boccapadule, however, managed so clumsily that Palestrina was accused of having meanly plotted for his own See also:advancement. The Pope was very angry, and punished the calumniators very severely; but Palestrina lost the appointment. These troubles, however, did not hinder his See also:work, which he continued without intermission until the 2nd of February 1594, when he breathed his last in the arms of his friend, Filippo Neri. (W. S. R.) In the articles, Music, See also:COUNTERPOINT, CONTRAPUNTAL FORMS, See also:HARMONY, MASS, See also:MOTET, and that portion of See also:INSTRUMENTATION which deals with vocal music, the reader will find See also:information as to many features of Palestrina's style and its relation to that of the 16th century in See also:general. So See also:simple are the materials of 16th-century music, and so See also:close its limitations, that the difference between See also:great and small artists, and still more the difference between one great artist and another, can be detected only by See also:long and See also:familiar experience. A great artist, working within limits so narrow and yet so natural, is fortunately See also:apt to give us exceptional opportunities for acquiring the right See also:kind of experience of his See also:art, since his See also:genius becomes far more prolific than a genius with a wider See also:field for its energies. Yet all 16th-century masters seem to be illuminated by the See also:infallibility of the normal musical technique of their See also:time.

This technique is no longer so familiar to us that its euphony and vivid See also:

tone can fail to impress us wherever we meet it. There is probably no respectable school piece of the 16th century, which, if properly performed in a See also:Roman See also:Catholic church, would be quickly distinguishable by See also:ear from the style of Palestrina. But when we find that every addition to our acquaintance with Palestrina's See also:works is an acquisition, not to our notions of the progressive possibilities of 16th-century music, but to our whole sense of style, we may then recognize that we are in the presence of one of the greatest artists of all time. Palestrina's work has many styles. Within its narrow range there can be no such glaring contrasts as those of the " three styles " of See also:Beethoven; yet the distinctions are as real as they are delicate. His early, or Flemish style, was apt to See also:lead him into the notorious Flemish disregard of proportion. Yet in some of his greatest works, such as the Missa brevis, we find unmistakably Flemish features so idealized as to produce breadth of phrase (Missa brevis, Agnus Dei), remarkably See also:modern firmness of See also:form (ibid. second See also:Kyrie), and close canonic sequence carried to surprising length resulting in natural unexpectedness of harmony and subtle See also:swing of See also:cross See also:rhythm (See also:Amen of Credo). If we find it convenient to See also:divide Palestrina's work roughly into three types, we shall be able to take the Missa Papae Marcelli as the crowning representative of his second style. It probably is his greatest work; at all events it continues to make that impression whenever it is read after a long course of his other works; yet there are many masses, too numerous to mention, which cannot easily be considered inferior to it. Indeed F. X. Haberl, the editor of the See also:complete See also:critical edition of Palestrina's works, prefers the Missa Ecce ego Joannes, first published by him in the 24th volume of that edition in 1887.

Palestrina-scholars will hardly think us singular for placing on the same See also:

plane as the Missa Papae Marcelli at least 16 out of Palestrina's 94 extant masses: Missa brevis, bk. 3, no. 3; See also:Dies sanctificatus, bk. 6, no. 1; Dilexi quoniam, bk. 6, no. 5; 0 admirabile commercium, bk. 8, no. 3; Dum complerentur, bk. 8, no. 5; Veni sponsa Christi, bk. 9, no.

2; Quinti toni, bk. so, no. 5; Octavi toni, bk. 11, no. 4; See also:

Alma Redemptoris, bk. 11, no. 5; Ascendo ad Patrem, bk. 12, no. 3; Tu es Petrus, bk. 12, no. 5; Hodie Christus natus, est, bk. 13, no. 2; See also:Beatus See also:Laurentius, bk.

14, vol. 3; Assumpta est Maria, bk. 14, no. 5; Tu es Petrus, bk. 15, no. 5; Ecce ego Joannes, bk. 15, no. 6. The third and most distinctive phase of Palestrina's style is that in which he relies entirely upon the beauty of simple masses of harmony without any polyphonic elaboration whatever. Sometimes, as in his four-See also:

part litanies, this simplicity is mainly a See also:practical See also:necessity; but it is more often used for the purpose of his profoundest expressions of sacramental or See also:penitential devotion, as for instance in the motet Fratres ego enim accepi, the Stabat Mater and the first, really the latest, book of See also:Lamentations. Besides these three See also:main styles there are numerous cross-currents. There is the interaction between the See also:madrigal and ecclesiastical style, which Palestrina sometimes contrives to show without confusion or degradation, as in the mass Vestiva i colli.

There is the style of the madrigali spirituali, including Le Vergine of Petrarca; which again distinguishes itself into a broader and a slighter manner. And there is lastly an astounding absorption of the wildest freaks of Flemish ingenuity into the loftiest polyphonic ecclesiastical style; the great example of which is the Missa L'Homme arme, a work much maligned by writers who know only its title and the part played by its See also:

secular theme in See also:medieval music. The works published in Palestrina's lifetime naturally contain a large proportion of his earlier compositions. After his death the publication of his works continued for some years. We are apt to read the musical history of the 17th century in the See also:light of the works of its composers. But a somewhat different view of that time is suggested by the continual pouring out by influential publishers of See also:posthumous works of Palestrina, in far greater quantities than Palestrina had either the See also:influence or resource to publish in his lifetime. We regard the 17th-century monodists as triumphant See also:iconoclasts; but it was not until their See also:primitive efforts had been buried beneath the entirely new arts to which they led, that the style of Palestrina ceased to be upheld as the one See also:artistic ideal. Moreover the posthumous works of Palestrina belong almost entirely to his latest and finest period; so that a study of Palestrina confined to the works which he himself was able to publish gives no adequate See also:idea of the proportion which his greater works See also:bear to the See also:rest. It was not, then, the rise of monody that crowded 16th-century art out into a long oblivion. On the contrary, the Palestrina tradition was the one thing which gave 17th-century composers a practical basis for their technical training. Only in the 18th century did the new art, before coming to maturity under Bach and See also:Handel, reduce the Palestrina style to a dead See also:language. In the See also:middle of the 19th century that dead language revived in a renascence which has steadily spread throughout See also:Europe.

The Musica divina of See also:

Canon K. Proske of See also:Regensburg, begun in 1853, was perhaps the first decisive step towards the restoration of Roman Catholic church music. The St See also:Cecilia Verein, with Dr F. X. Haberl as its See also:president, has carried on the publication and use of such music with the greatest See also:energy in every civilized See also:country. The difficulties of reintroducing it in its native See also:home, See also:Italy, were so enormous that it is arguable that they might not yet have been surmounted but for the See also:adoption of less purely artistic methods by See also:Don Lorenzo Perosi, who succeeded in crowding the Italian churches by the performanceof compositions written in an artless manner which, by its See also:mere negation of display, was fitted to produce upon unsophisticated listeners such devout impressions as might gradually wean them from the See also:taste for theatrical modern church music. The pope's fiat has now inculcated the use of Gregorian and 16th-century church music as far as possible in all Roman Catholic churches, and the effect has been astonishing. Within eighteen months of Pius X.'s See also:decree on church music, the choir of See also:Cologne See also:Cathedral, previously far less accustomed to a pure polyphonic style than most See also:German See also:Protestant choirs, at See also:Easter of 1905 gave a very satisfactory performance of the Missa Papae Marcelli. The influence of what is henceforth an inevitable and continual familiarity of Palestrina's style, at least among Roman Catholics, cannot fail to have the profoundest effect upon modern musical culture. Palestrina's works, as contained in the complete edition published by Breitkopf and Hanel, comprise 256 motets in 7 vols., the last two consisting largely of pieces hitherto unpublished, with one or two wrongly or doubtfully ascribed to Palestrina; 15 books of masses, of which only 6 were published in Palestrina's lifetime, the 7th being incompletely projected by him, and the . 14th and 15th first collected by Haberl in 1887 and 1888; 3 books of magnificats, on all the customary tones; 1 vol. of See also:hymns; 1 vol. (2 books) of offertories for the whole year; a volume containing 3 books of litanies and several 12-part motets; 3 books of lamentations; a very large volume of madrigals containing 2 early books and 3o later madrigals collected from mixed publications; 2 books of Madrigali spirituali, and 4 vols. of See also:miscellaneous works, newly discovered, imperfectly preserved and doubtful.

The See also:

fourth book of motets is not, like the first three, a collection of works written at different times, but a single See also:scheme, being a setting of the See also:Song of See also:Solomon; and the fifth volume is, like the offertories, designed for use throughout the church year. (D. F.

End of Article: PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA (1526-1594)

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