MUSIC CURATOR

1. GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA
BY:
LUIGI NICKOLAI SACE
ANGEL GRACE PADERES
1525 - 1594

2. BIOGRAPHY
 Born: between February 3, 1525
and February 2, 1526 - probably
Palestrina, near Rome, then part
of the Papal States, Italy
Died: February 2, 1594 - Rome,
Italy.
 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
was an Italian composer of the
Renaissance. He was the most
famous 16th century
representative of the Roman
School of musical composition.

3.  Palestrina had a vast
influence on the development
of Roman Catholic church
music, and his work can be
seen as a summation of
Renaissance polyphony.
 Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina was born in
Palestrina, a town near Rome,
then part of the Papal States.
He spent most of his career in
Rome.

4.  From 1544 to 1551 Palestrina was organist of the
principal church of his native city (St Agapito),
and in the last year became maestro di cappella
at the Cappella Giulia, the papal choir at St.
Peter's Basilica.
 The decade of the 1570s was difficult for him
personally; he lost his brother, two of his sons,
and his wife in three separate outbreaks of the
plague (1572, 1575, and 1580 respectively).

5.  He seems to have considered becoming a priest
at this time, but instead he married again, this
time to a wealthy widow; this finally gave him
financial independence.
 He was not well paid as choirmaster but he was
able to compose prolifically until his death. He
died in Rome of pleurisy in 1594.

6. MUSIC AND COMPOSITIONS
Palestrina left hundreds of
compositions, including 104
masses, 68 offertories, more
than 300 motets, at least 72
hymns, 35 magnificats, 11
litanies, 4 or 5 sets of
lamentations etc., at least 140
madrigals and 9 organ ricercari.
.

7.  The Missa Papae Marcelli,
written in 1567, is
Palestrina's most well-
known mass and
represents one of his
greatest achievements: the
beautiful balance between
textual clarity, artistic
beauty and florid
counterpoint.

8.  The Missa Papae Marcelli
consists, like most Renaissance
masses, of a Kyrie, Gloria,
Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and
Agnus Dei, though the Agnus
Dei is in two parts rather than
the common three. The mass is
freely composed, not based
upon a cantus firmus or parody.
Perhaps because of this, the
mass is not as thematically
consistent as Palestrina's
masses based on models. It is
primarily a six-voice mass, but
voice combinations are varied
throughout the piece.

9. KYRIE
 In the Tridentine Mass, the Kyrie is the first sung prayer
in the Order of Mass. It is usually (but not always) part
of any musical setting of the Mass. Kyrie movements
often have an ternary (ABA) musical structure that
reflects the symmetrical structure of the text. Musical
settings exist in styles ranging from Gregorian chant to
Folk.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cH1RZcPKs

10. GLORIA
 The Gloria has been and still is sung to a wide variety of
melodies. Modern scholars have catalogued well over
two hundred of them. The Roman Missal indicates
several different plainchant melodies. In addition,
several "farced" Gloria's were composed in the Middle
Ages and were still sung in places when the Roman
Missal was revised by order of Pope Pius V in 1570.
These expanded the basic Gloria by, for instance,
adding to mentions of Jesus Christ a mention of some
relationship between him and his mother.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMWwt25wQA

11. THANK YOU