Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Palestrina was one of the greatest composers of the late 16th century, and his music came to embody the ideal of Renaissance perfection in balance, proportion and texture. He composed mostly sacred vocal music, the scope of which is enormous, including 104 masses (more than any other composer of his age), more than 300 motets and at least 140 madrigals. Born in 1525 or 1526 in the town of Palestrina, near Rome, he never travelled far and worked in the Eternal City throughout his life, most notably at the Cappella Giulia at the Basilica of Saint Peter, where he spent his last two decades as choirmaster before dying in 1594. His masses span every compositional type cultivated during the century. Half of them are based on pre-existing pieces, like the Missa Tu es Petrus, which expands on his motet of the same name, while many use plainsong melodies as their starting point (Missa Aeterna Christi Munera). The simple, chordal settings of the “Gloria” and “Credo” in the Missa Papae Marcelli seem to reflect the Catholic Church’s interest in greater textual clarity. Of Palestrina’s double-choir music for the papal choir, the fine Stabat Mater is notable for the unusual expressiveness of its harmony and the delicacy of its word setting.