In the midth century, Palestrina was appointed a member of the Papal Chapel, as a reward for his many compositions for the Catholic Church. This was a controversial move: the Pope at the time turned a blind eye to the fact that Palestrina was not in Holy Orders, and waived the rule that he must take a rather taxing entrance exam.
That, coupled with the fact that many existing members of the Papal Choir thought Palestrina's voice wasn't nearly as good as theirs, led to quite a storm of protest. A subsequent Pope adopted a more stringent approach and Palestrina was asked to leave the choir permanently, with only a small pension.
The glorious Missa Papae Marcelli is Palestrina's most famous and most beautiful mass, still regularly sung in Catholic churches the world over. When he was grown up he got a job as organist and choir director at the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was not earning much money, but he married a lady who came from a very rich family, so he was comfortably off. Pope Julius III heard about how good this young composer was. He asked him to come and meet him. This was the top job in Italy and he was only Palestrina composed 93 masses these are musical settings of the words of the communion service.
Palestrina left hundreds of compositions, including masses , 68 offertories , motets , 45 hymns , psalms , 33 magnificats , litanies , 4 or 5 sets of lamentations etc. His Missa sine nomine seems to have been particularly attractive to Johann Sebastian Bach , who studied and performed it while he was writing his own masterpiece, the Mass in B Minor.
His compositions are typified as very clear, with voice parts well-balanced and beautifully harmonized. Among the works counted as his masterpieces is the Missa Papae Marcelli Pope Marcellus Mass , which according to legend was composed to persuade the Council of Trent that a draconian ban on polyphonic treatment of text in sacred music was unnecessary.
However, more recent scholarship shows that this mass was composed before the cardinals convened to discuss the ban possibly as much as ten years before. It is probable, however, that Palestrina was quite conscious of the needs of intelligible text in conformity with the doctrine of the Counter-Reformation , and wrote his works towards this end from the s until the end of his life.
The 'Palestrina Style'—the smooth style of 16th century polyphony , derived and codified by Johann Fux from a careful study of his works—is the style usually taught as 'Renaissance polyphony' in college counterpoint classes. As codified by Fux it follows the rules of what he defined as 'species counterpoint. Also, no composer of the 16th century has had such an edifice of myth and legend built around him.
Much of the research on Palestrina was done in the 19th century by Giuseppe Baini , who published a monograph in which made Palestrina famous again, and reinforced the already existing legend that he was the 'Savior of Church Music' during the reforms of the Council of Trent.
The 19th century attitude of hero-worship is predominant in this monograph, however, and this has remained with the composer to some degree to the present day; Hans Pfitzner's opera Palestrina shows this attitude at its peak. Scholarship of the 20th and 21st centuries tends to retain the view that Palestrina was a strong and refined composer, representing a summit of technical perfection, but emphasizes that there were other composers working at the same time with equally individual voices and slightly different styles, even within the confines of smooth polyphony, such as Lassus and Victoria.
Palestrina was immensely famous in his day, and his reputation, if anything, increased in the next century. Conservative music of the Roman School continued to be written in his style being known as the 'prima prattica' in the 17th century , for instance by Gregorio Allegri. Palestrina's music continues to be performed and recorded, and to provide models for the study of counterpoint. Artists Palestrina Biography. Biographies Letter P Palestrina biography. Renaissance and Sacred. Difficulty: medium.
Octavo and motet. Piano rehearsal part. Schirmer OC Published by G. Edited by John Leavitt. Arranged by John Leavitt. Treasury Cho By Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Edited by Robert Hufstader.
Much of the research on Palestrina was done in the 19 th century by Giuseppe Baini, who published a monograph in which made Palestrina famous again, and reinforced the already existing legend that he was the "Saviour of Church Music" during the reforms of the Council of Trent.
The nineteenth-century attitude of hero-worship is predominant in this monograph, however, and this has remained with the composer to some degree to the present day; Hans Pfitzner's opera Palestrina shows this attitude at its peak.
Scholarship of the 20 th and 21 st centuries tends to retain the view that Palestrina was a strong and refined composer, representing a summit of technical perfection, but emphasizes that there were other composers working at the same time with equally individual voices and slightly different styles, even within the confines of smooth polyphony, such as Lassus and Victoria. Palestrina was immensely famous in his day, and his reputation, if anything, increased following his death.
Conservative music of the Roman School continued to be written in his style known as the "prima pratica" in the 17 th century , by such students of his as Giovanni Maria Nanino, Ruggiero Giovanelli, Arcangelo Crivelli, Teofilo Gargari, Francesco Soriano and Gregorio Allegri. It is also thought that Salvatore Sacco may have been a student of Palestrina. Palestrina's music continues to be performed and recorded, and provides models for the study of counterpoint. Bach Connection Among the compositions by other composers that J.
Bach became involved with, Palestrina's Missa sine nomine occupies a special place, since J. Bach 's reworking of it exemplifies a process which was becoming widespread in Germany. For example, Johann Gottlob Harrer , J. Bach 's successor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig , had already furnished the same mass with parts for two oboes, three violins, two violas, bass, and continuo harpsichord and organ.
In his youth J. Harrer had travelled to Italy at the expense of his protector, Count Heinrich von Briihl, and had brought to Dresden a considerable number of sacred works by Italian masters, Palestrina in particular; the Missa sine nomine was one of at least six Palestrina masses that J. Harrer 'restyled'. Bach 's involvement with the work, which first appeared in the Missarum liber quintus pubin Rome by Francesco Coattino in , is datable to about He provided colla parte instrumentation for two cornetts, four trombones, organ, harpsichord, and violone.
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