PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERIXIGI DA (c.1524-94).) A great Italian composer. lle was horn in a small town southeast of Rome called Palestrina. His real name and the con dition of his parents in life are as uncertain as is the correct year of his birth. The late of his birth is variously stated from 1514 to 1524, with the weight of evidence strongly in favor of the latter date. His first experience in music is said to have been in the Church of Santa Maggiore, whose gave him his first lessons in music. lie is supposed to have studied four years in Rome at the celebrated Gallo-Belgian school established by the French man Goudimel (q.v.). This would seem to com prise all the instruction he ever received. At the age of twenty he was appointed to a canonry in the cathedral of his native town, Iris duties be ing to play the organ, sing, and teach the boys. The pay was very poor, and the duties seem to have been very distasteful. During his stay here he married a peasant girl named Lucrezia e Loris, who owned a small vineyard. The chief ecclesiastical functionary of the town was Giovan ni del Monte, who afterwards became Pope. with the title of Julius II(.. and who, as sovereign pontiff. maintained his interest in the young composer of Palestrina. Jacob Arcadelt. the great Flemish musician, resigned his post in the Cappella Giulia, and. although he was legally ineligible for the post, by reason of his marriage. Palestrina was named for the appointment by his patron, Pope Julius III. This was the most important period of his life, in that it was the period of his greatest development as a musician. On the accession of Pope Paul 1Y., in 1553, Pales trina was dismissed. with a pension of six gold scudi (about six dollars) a month. He was so well known, however, that he secured almost int inediatte employment at the Church of Saint John Lateran, where he stayed for six years, until his appointment as director of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he remained for many years. This was the most prolific period of his
life, and many of his finest madrigals, including the Donna bells c gcntil, date from this time. The crucial test. of his life, however, was yet to come. Pope Pius IV., after the close of the fa mous Council of Trent, appointed, in 1504. a com mittee of cardinals to investigate and, if possible, reform the condition of Church music. (See SA (TED Music.) Palestrina was asked to support the argument of those who in the Council of Trent had fought against a too rigid application of the Pope's radical views, by submitting a mass which should be free from all the errors prevalent at this time and yet he polyphonic in character. In response he wrote the great Missa Papre Marcell, which was so successful that it won the day, and secured for its composer the appoint ment of composer to the Pontifical chapel. On the death of .Aniinoccia he was appointed Master of Music at the Cappella Giulia, an office which he held up to the time of his death. His music is grave, beautiful. and unemotional in elmracter, but reverential in the highest and purest sense of the term. As a composer he is one of the im portant landmarks in the entire history of music, and in the realm of sacred composition he remains supreme. lie was a prolific composer, his compositions alone filling :33 volumes, a COM lilac edition of which was published between 1862 and 1894 by Breitkopf & Hfirtel, Leipzig, Germany. Particularly exquisite are the follow ing masses: .Eterna. Christi Minima ; Dies Sane lificatus; 0 Sarin:in Coneirium ; Assumpla est Maria in. Crania; Dilcxi Quoniam; Ecee Ego Jo,, nac.s.