Giovanni per Luigi de Palestrina

Palestrina was born in the town of Palestrina, southeast of Rome. He studied singing at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome beginning about 1537. In 1544 he became organist and choir director at the cathedral in Palestrina, leaving in 1551 to become choirmaster at the Julian Chapel at Saint Peter's in Rome. His next positions were also in Rome, at Saint John Lateran (1555-60), at Santa Maria Maggiore (1561-66), and as master of music at a seminary for Jesuits (1565-71).
From 1567 to 1571 he also held the secular post of music director at the villa of Ippolito II Cardinal d'Este. In 1571 he returned to the Julian Chapel, where he remained until his death. His music remained close to the mystical and highly ritualized spirit of the church.

The serenity of Palestrina's style arises from several technical sources. His music is vocal; no parts are written specifically for instruments. All the voice parts have a similar character, producing a homogeneous sound. The music is almost always contrapuntal, with simultaneously sounding, equally important melodic lines. Although Palestrina used only a few chords in any one composition, he altered the manner in which the individual tones of each chord were spaced among the various voice parts. He thus achieved subtle changes while maintaining a general feeling of constancy. In rhythm he avoided the feeling of a strong pulse by allowing each voice part to have its own accent patterns independent of the other parts. He created a subtle pulse by confining dissonant, or unstable, tones to weak beats within a measure and always placing consonant, or stable, tones on strong beats. Finally, his melodic lines unfold in long, gentle curves in which any large leaps upward or downward are balanced by a return to the center of the curve.

palestrina's religious music includes 102 masses, 250 motets, 35 magnificats, 68 offertories, 45 hymns, and other works. His secular works include many madrigals. Unlike most influential composers, Palestrina was not primarily an innovator in musical technique. Rather, he provided a model for other composers to emulate when they wished to recapture the mystical religious tone that his music exemplifies.

Some of Palestrina's works:

  • Aeterna Christi munera
    - Hymn
  • MISSA 'AETERNA CHRISTI MUNERA'
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus and Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei I and Agnus Dei II
  • THREE MOTETS
    • Sicut cervus desiderat
    • Super flumina Babylonis
    • Vidi turbam magnam
  • Magnificat Primi Toni
  • Missa De Beata Virgine for six voices
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus and Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei I and II
  • Missa Ave Maria for four voices
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus and Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei I and II
  • Missa Papae Marcelli
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus
    • Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei I
    • Agnus Dei II
  • Missa Brevis
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus
    • Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei I
    • Agnus Dei II
  • Motet Viri Galilaei for six voices
    • Viri Galilaei
    • Ascendit Deus
  • Missa Viri Galilaei for six voices
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus and Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei
  • Motet O Rex Gloriae for four voices
  • Missa O Rex Gloriae for four voices
    • Kyrie
    • Gloria
    • Credo
    • Sanctus and Benedictus
    • Agnus Dei
  • Canticum Canticorum Salomonis: The Song of Songs
    • Osculetur me osculo oris sui
    • Trahe me post te
    • Nigra sum sed formosa
    • Vineam meam non custodivi
    • Si ignoras te, o pulchra
    • Pulchrae sunt genae tuae
    • Fasciculus myrrhae dilectus meus
    • Ecce tu pulcher es
    • Tota pulchra es, amica mea
    • Vulnerasti cor meum
    • Sicut lilium inter spinas
    • Introduxit me rex in cellam
    • Laeva eius sub capite meo
    • Vox dilecti mei
    • Surge, propera, amica mea
    • Surge amica mea, speciosa mea
    • Dilectus meus mihi
    • Surgam et circuibo civitatem
    • Adiuro vos, filiae Hierusalem
    • Caput eius aurum optimum
    • Dilectus meus descendit
    • Pulchra es amica mea
    • Quae est ista quae progreditur
    • Descendi in hortum meum
    • Quam pulchri sunt gressus tui
    • Duo ubera tua
    • Quam pulchra es, et quam decora
    • Guttur tuum sicut vinum optimum
    • Veni, dilecte mi

    Also: 

    
Missarum Liber Primus 1554
Missarum Liber Secondus
Missarum Liber Tertius 1570, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Quartus 1582, 5 Voices
Missarum Liber Quintus 1590, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Primus 1591, with 1 added from 1554, 4 - 6 Voices
Missae Quinque, Liber Sextus 1594, 4 - 5 Voices
Misaae Quinque, Liber Septimus 1594, 4 - 5 Voices
Missarum Liber Sextus 1596, with 1 added from 1594, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Octavus 1599, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Nonus 1599, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Decimus 1600, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Undecimus 1600, 4 - 6 Voices
Missarum Liber Duodecimus 1601, 4 - 6 Voices
Missae Quatuor 1601, 8 Voices

Ad Coenam Agni (hymn) 1554, 5 voices
Ad fugam, 1567, 4 Voices
Aeterna Christi Munera (hymn) 1590, 4 Voices

    Links to otherpages

  • Palestrina: Music for Saint Michael
  • Palestrina at Naxos
  • Palestrina in some scandanavian language
  • Palestrina at Classical Net
  • Palestrina: Missa in duplicibus, Lamentations

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