Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da, great Italian composer; b. probably in Palestrina, near Rome, 1525 or 1526; d. Rome, Feb. 2, 1594. In his letters he customarily signed his name as Giovanni Petraloysio. He is first listed as a choirboy at S. Maria Maggiore in 1537, and it is likely that he studied with each of the maestri of the period, Robin Mallapert, one Robert, and Firmin Lebel. In 1544 he was appointed organist of the cathedral of S. Agapit in Palestrina, where his duties also included teaching music to the canons and choirboys. On June 12, 1547, he married Lucrezia Gori, with whom he had 3 sons, Rodolfo (1549–72), Angelo (1551–75), and Iginio (1558–1610). In 1550 the bishop of Palestrina, Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was elected pope, taking the name of Julius III. On Sept. 1,1551, he appointed Palestrina maestro of the Cappella Giulia in succession to Mallapert; Palestrina dedicated his first book of masses to him in 1554. On Jan. 13,1555, the pope rewarded him by making him a member of the Cappella Sistina even though he was a married man; he was admitted without taking the entrance examination and without receiving the approval of the other singers. In Sept. 1555 Pope Paul IV dismissed Palestrina and 2 other singers after invoking the celibacy rule of the chapel, although he granted each of them a small pension. On Oct. 1, 1555, Palestrina became maestro di cappella of the great church of St. John Lateran, where his son Rodolfo joined him as a chorister. Palestrina’s tenure was made difficult by inadequate funds for the musical establishment, and he resigned his post in July 1560. From 1561 to 1566 he was maestro di cappella of S. Maria Maggiore. In 1562–63 the Council of Trent took up the matter of sacred music. Out of its discussions arose a movement to advance the cause of intelligibility of sacred texts when set to music. Palestrina’s role with this Council remains a matter of dispute among historians, but his Missa Pape Marcelli is an outstanding example of a number of its reforms. From 1564 he was also in charge of the music at the summer estate of Cardinal Ippolito II d’Esté in Tivoli, near Rome. He apparently took up a full-time position in the Cardinal’s service from 1567 to 1571. From 1566 to 1571 he likewise taught at the Seminario Romano, where his sons Rodolfo and Angelo were students. In 1568 the court of Emperor Maximilian II offered him the position of imperial choirmaster in Vienna, but Palestrina demanded so high a salary that the offer was tacitly withdrawn. In April 1571, upon the death of Giovanni Animuccia, he resumed his post as maestro of the Cappella Giulia. In 1575 his salary was increased to forestall his move to S. Maria Maggiore. In 1577, at the request of Pope Gregory XIII, Palestrina and Annibale Zoilo began the revision of the plainsongs of the Roman Gradual and Antiphoner. Palestrina never completed his work on this project; the revision was eventually completed by others and pubi, as Editio Medicaea in 1614. In 1580, having lost his eldest sons and his wife to the plague, he made a decision to enter the priesthood; he soon changed his mind, however, and instead married Virginia Dormoli, the widow of a wealthy furrier, on Feb. 28, 1581. In succeeding years he devoted much time to managing her fortune while continuing his work as a musician. In 1583 he was tendered an offer to become maestro at the court of the Duke of Mantua, but again his terms were rejected as too high. In 1584 he pubi, his settings of the Song of Solomon. In 1593 he began plans to return to Palestrina as choirmaster of the cathedral, but he was overtaken by death early the next year. He was buried in the Cappella Nuova of old St. Peter’s Church.
With his great contemporaries Byrd and Lassus, Palestrina stands as one of the foremost composers of his age. He mastered the polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school, creating works of unsurpassing beauty and technical adroitness. His sacred music remains his most glorious achievement. Highly prolific, he composed 104 masses, over 375 motets, 68 offertories, over 65 hymns, 35 Magnificats, over 140 madrigals (both sacred and secular), Lamentations, litanies, and Psalms. The first complete edition of his works, Giovanni Pier-luigi da Palestrina: Werke, was ed. by F.X. Haberl et al. (33 vols., Leipzig, 1862–1903). A new complete edition, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Le opere, ed. by R. Ca-simiri and his successors, began publication in Rome in 1939.
Bibliography
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—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire