The famous book of Lamentations, known as the first book, ap peared in 1588, with a dedication to Pope Sixtus V. in which Palestrina complains of the poverty which compels him in his old age to publish this work in a small format and to leave many other things unpublished. The latter complaint is nobly justified by the enormous number and importance of his posthumous works. He published six books of masses. His son, Igino, pub lished the seventh; but another seven posthumous volumes fol lowed year by year, and late in the 19th century Haberl filled yet another volume with some of Palestrina's greatest works.
A set of hymns for the whole year appeared in 1589. They are severe and elaborate compositions, treating the themes of the plain-chant in close fugue. Only the alternate stanzas are set, the rest being left to unharmonized plain-chant.
It is possible that the Missa Pro Defunctis, which appears in the 1591 edition of the First Book of Masses may have been writ ten for Sixtus V., who died in 159o. The obiter dicta of this pon tiff, as cited by Brini, have given a bad reputation to the harm less Missa Tu et pastor ovium, and have not exaggerated the glories of the Missa Assumpta est Maria. During the two years' pontificate of Gregory XIV., Palestrina produced a double set of Magnificats in the eight tones, on the lines of his hymns, one set giving the odd verses in polyphony, and the other set the even. In 1593, in the reign of Clement VIII., Palestrina dedicated to the abbe Anton Baume another great volume of Offertories for the whole year, in his finest motet style. His last publication was a book of Madrigali Spirituali, also one of his greatest and most deeply felt works. He was preparing a seventh volume of masses when he died on Feb. 2, It is immensely significant that the interest in an almost homo phonic harmonic colour was already present in Palestrina's early madrigals, while at the same time he was capable of absorbing himself in abstruse Flemish puzzles. Facile he never was ; and his weaker works are heavy. Haberl, in speaking of the First (really the last) Book of Lamentations, finely characterizes Pales trina's special power as "the capacity to remain true to a funda mental mood." The range of Palestrina's fundamental moods is
wide. The despair of Job has never found deeper and truer ex pression than in Palestrina's Paucitas dierum in the Fifth Book of Motets; nor has any more glorious music than that of Dam complerentur in the Second Book of Motets been made to tell us of the ecstasy that came with the mighty rushing wind and fiery tongues of Pentecost. And it is all achieved in and by a style which is the quintessence of purity. The severest discipline of present-day academic counterpoint has no more to do with it than Tertullian's Latin has with the style of Virgil. R. 0. Morris has shown, in The Technique of Counterpoint (Oxford University Press), how far our school teaching has travelled from the true Palestrina discipline; and Jeppesen, in the work above cited, shows how minutely accurate Palestrina's obedience to his own discipline is. And this is not asceticism. It denies itself nothing; for it is God-intoxicated and its peace is in the Will that inspires it.
Palestrina's works, as contained in the complete edition pub lished by Breitkopf and Hartel, comprise 256 motets in seven volumes, the last two consisting largely of pieces hitherto unpub lished, with one or two wrongly or doubtfully ascribed to Palestrina; 15 books of masses, of which only six were published in Palestrina's lifetime, the seventh being incompletely projected by him, and the 14th and 15th first collected by Haberl in 1887 and 1888; three books of magnificats, on all the customary tones; one volume of hymns; one volume (two books) of offertories for the whole year; a volume containing three books of litanies and several 12-part motets; three books of lamentations; a very large volume of madrigals containing two early books and 3o later mad rigals collected from mixed publications; two books of Madrigali spirituali, and four volumes of miscellaneous works, newly dis covered, imperfectly preserved and doubtful. The fourth volume of motets contains the Song of Solomon; and the fifth volume is a collection designed for use throughout the Church year.
(D. F. T.)