PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PairtLumt DA, a distinguished musical composer of the 16th century. He derived his surname from the town of Palestrina, in the Roman states, where he was born in 1524. At the age of sixteen, he went to Rome, and studied music under Claude Goudimel, afterwards one of the victims of the St. Bartholomew massacre. In 1551 he was made maestro di eapella of the Julian chapel, and in 1554 he published a collection of masses, so highly approved of by pope Julius HI., to whom they were dedi cated, that he appointed their author one of the singers of the pontifical chapel. Being a married man, lie lost that office on the accession to the pontificate of Paul IV., in whose eyes celibacy was a necessary qualification for duties. In 1555 he was made choir master of St. Maria Maggiore, and held that position -till 1571, when he was restored to his office at St. Peter's. In 1563, the council of Trent having undertaken to reform the music of the church, and condemned the profane words and music introduced into masses, some compositions of Palestrina were pointed to as models, and their author was intrusted with the task of remodeling this part of religious worship. He composed three masses on the reformed plan; one of them, known as the mass of pope Marcellus (to whose memory it is dedicated), may be considered to have saved music to the church by establishing a type infinitely beyond anything that had preceded it, and, amid all the changes which music has since gone through, continues to attract admiration. During
the remaining years of his life, the number and the quality of the works of Palestrina are equally remarkable. His published works consists of 13 books of masses, 6 books of motets, 1 book of lamentatations, 1 book of hymns, 1 book of I book of wag nificats, 1 book of litanies, 1 book of spiritual madrigals, and 3 books of madrigals. Palestrina must be considered the first musician who reconciled musical science with musical art, and his works form a most important epoch in the history of music. Equally estimable in private life, and talented as a musician, Palestrina struggled through a life of poverty during eight pontificates; his appointments were meager, and his pub lications unremunerative. Ile died in 1594. A memoir of his life and writings has been written by tLe abbe Baini. .