Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s (1525-1594) fame in music history is unmatched. While most of his predecessors and contemporaries faded from view, Palestrina maintained his prestige at an ever higher level for 200 years after his death.
As Lawrence B. Porter wrote, “Though all the great European composers before the modern age worked at one time or another for the Catholic Church, it is arguable that Palestrina’s music, more so than any other, captures the sense of mystery and adoration characteristic of Catholic worship.”
Giovanni Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli
Palestrina Legend
One of the primary reasons for his historical fame is found in the Palestrina legend. The story goes that the Council of Trent, clarifying church doctrine in matters of liturgy and music, was ready to ban polyphonic music entirely. However, when Palestrina composed the Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass), which perfectly sounded beauty and clarity without obscuring the sacred texts, church authorities relented.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
It is clearly more of a myth or symbolic narrative rather than a historical fact, but the legend underscores Palestrina’s reputation as being a cornerstone of preserving the art of polyphonic choral music and securing a place for it in the Catholic liturgy. In short, Palestrina became the musical poster child of the “Counter-Reformation” in music. As we celebrate his 500th birthday, let us feature some of the glorious compositions that made Palestrina one of the towering musical figures in the late 16th century.
Giovanni Palestrina: Ave Maria (Camerata Nova; Luigi Taglioni, cond.)
Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Giovanni Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli – Kyrie
We still don’t know Palestrina’s exact birthdate. However, we can take a pretty good guess based on a contemporary eulogy, which tells us that he died at the age of 68. That would put his birth almost certainly between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526.
He got his family name from the town of Palestrina, also known under its ancient name of “Praeneste.” Located near Rome, scholars assume that it was his birthplace as his family had settled there some years before he was born. However, some documentary evidence seems to suggest that he might actually have been born in Rome.
Although his birthdate and birthplace are not confirmed, it is clear that Palestrina, who was also known by various other names, received his early musical training in Rome. As Lewis Lockwood writes, “his career was primarily centred in Rome, where he initially held significant positions in three major churches: S Maria Maggiore, S Giovanni Laterano, and S Pietro.”
Giovanni Palestrina Missa Ad coenam Agni, “Credo” (Brabant Ensemble; Stephen Rice, cond.)
First Publication and Capella Sistina

Cappella Sistina
Although Palestrina was employed by the church in a musical capacity, his initial activity as a composer is undocumented. All that changed in 1554 when he published his first book of masses. It was significant as it represented the first such publication by an Italian composer, as the mass genre had previously been in the hands of French-Flemish composers.
The publication is dedicated to Pope Julius III, the Bishop of Palestrina. On the cover page, we find a large woodcut showing the composer kneeling and presenting his work to the pope. That first publication received significant recognition, and the dedication bore fruit. On 13 January 1555, Palestrina was admitted to the Cappella Sistina, the pope’s official musical chapel.
Giovanni Palestrina: “Over de sensi e priva”
Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation

Giovanni Palestrina and Pope Julius III
The major event during Palestrina’s lifetime was the Council of Trent, which convened between 1545 and 1563. The Council was established to oppose the Protestant Reformation and to reform the Catholic church. This so-called “Counter-Reformation” didn’t directly address music but set broad guidelines.
Most importantly, the Council “emphasised the removal of secular and lascivious elements from church music and wanted to make the sacred texts clear and understandable.” A Roman commission was set up to oversee reforms in music, and that included Cardinal Carlo Borrommeo, archpriest at S Maria Maggiore. He worked closely with Palestrina, who was the chapel master at the church.
And this brings us to the origin of the Palestrina legend. We know that the papal singers gathered in 1565 to test if the words in their music were comprehensible, “and Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli may have been performed during this meeting.” Since Palestrina had been composing for the papal chapel since 1562, it is at least plausible.
Palestrina himself wrote, “Our wisest mortals have decided that music should give zest to divine worship. If people take great pains to compose beautiful music for secular songs, they should devote at least as much thought to sacred works.”
Giovanni Palestrina: “Hodie beata virgo” (Camerata Nova; Luigi Taglioni, cond.)
The Palestrina Sound
Palestrina’s musical style epitomised Renaissance sacred polyphony. Featuring clarity, balance, and a serene modal harmonic structure, he prioritised consonances with dissonances used sparingly for effect. His works, particularly his masses and motets, exhibit a rhythmic flow that complements the natural rhythm of Latin liturgical texts. With polyphony maintaining equality among all voices, his music seemingly promotes a collective spiritual experience.
Palestrina’s music reflects an emotional restraint that aligns with the focus on dignity and contemplation demanded by the Counter Reformation. In addition, Palestrina’s music found a place in musical pedagogy. His name became associated with the “stile antico,” the strict style of diatonic counterpoint as it appeared in theoretical treatises well into the 20th century.
Johann Joseph Fux writes in his Gradus ad Parnassum of 1725, “Palestrina is the celebrated light to whom I owe everything that I know of this art and whose memory I shall never cease to cherish.” And Giuseppe Verdi added later “Palestrina is the real king of sacred music and the eternal father of Italian music.”
Giovanni Palestrina: Missa Fratres ego enim accepi, (Kyrie) (The Sixteen; Harry Christophers, cond.)
Final Years

Portrait of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Jessie Ann Owens writes, “the real significance of the Council of Trent, for Roman music, was the liberating effect it had on what had been a fixed and backward-looking repertory. There was a strong feeling that new compositions were needed, and composers like Palestrina were well placed to provide them.”
After a period in private service, Palestrina returned to his post as choirmaster of the Cappella Giulia, and he remained at S Pietro until his death. During the 1570s, Palestrina experienced personal hardship as he lost family members to the plague, including his brother and two sons. He also suffered from serious illness, and his wife Lucrezia died in 1580. He did consider joining the priesthood but remarried Virginia Dormoli in 1581.
Dormoli was the widow of a Roman fur merchant, and the union “seems to have freed him at last from the financial strains imposed by many years as a poorly paid choirmaster.” He focused on his wife’s business and invested both in land and houses on the outskirts of the city. Composing prolifically until his death, Palestrina died in Rome of pleurisy in 1594.
Giovanni Palestrina: “Vergine bella” (Hilliard Ensemble)
Conclusions
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was a prolific composer crafting 104 securely attributed masses. We may also add more than 300 motets, 68 offertories, at least 72 hymns, 35 Magnificat settings, 11 litanies and four or five sets of Lamentations. He also composed in the secular realm, writing roughly 140 madrigals.
Palestrina was famous in his day, and his reputation increased after his death. The appeal of his music spanned for centuries, with Richard Wagner writing, “What we have in Palestrina is an almost equally space-and timeless image, a totally spiritual revelation which grips us with inexpressible emotion, because it brings to our consciousness the innermost nature of religion free from any dogmatic conceptual fiction.”
Twentieth and twenty-first-century scholarship, by and large, retains the view that Palestrina was a strong and refined composer whose music represents a summit of technical perfection while emphasising that some of his contemporaries possessed equally individual voices even within the confines of smooth polyphony.
The modern reception of Palestrina’s music has been complicated as we have come to take his music for granted; and the same is true of his character and personality. He didn’t travel, had two seemingly devoted and comfortable marriages, and no scandals have so far been uncovered. He was simply a man devoted to music and his faith.
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