Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da (jōvän`nē pyārl

ē`jē pä'lāstrē`nä), c.1525–1594, Italian composer whose family name was Pierluigi; b. Palestrina, from which he took his name. Palestrina represents with Lasso the culmination of Renaissance music. In 1544 he was appointed organist at the cathedral in his native town. In 1550 the bishop of Palestrina became Pope Julius III and appointed (1551) Palestrina master of the Julian Chapel Choir. Palestrina's first book of masses appeared in 1554, dedicated to the pope. From 1555 to 1560 he was choirmaster of the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, for which he wrote his Lamentations, and from 1561 to 1566 he was choirmaster of Saint Mary Major. After several years in the private service of Ippolito II, Cardinal d'Este, he returned in 1571 to the Vatican to resume leadership of the Julian Chapel Choir. He was undisputed master of the mass, of which he wrote 105 for four, five, six, and eight voice parts. Best known is his Missa Papae Marcelli. He also wrote madrigals, motets, magnificats, offertories, litanies, and settings of the Song of Songs.

Bibliography

See biographies by E. M. King (1965), T. C. Day (1969), and J. Roche (1971).

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da

(born c. 1525, Palestrina, near Rome—died Feb. 2, 1594, Rome) Italian composer. He sang in Rome as a choirboy, then worked as an organist in his nearby hometown of Palestrina. He was appointed director of the Vatican's Cappella Giulia by Pope Julius II in 1551, and he later worked at the other great Roman churches. He worked for the d'Este family in Tivoli for four years but returned to the Cappella Giulia in 1571 and remained there the rest of his life. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Palestrina to restore the plainchant (a traditional liturgical chant sung in unison) to a more authentic form. The task proved too great, and his editorial work gave way to a flow of creative music, including volumes of masses, motets, and madrigals. After his death, his superbly balanced and serene music was proclaimed as a model for composers in the Roman Catholic church. The modern study of counterpoint dates from the codification of his practice in the 18th century.