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This is a tribute page to Giovanni Palestina (c. 1525 - 1594). Palestrina, named from his hometown, is a composer of the Renaissance ages. Although today is not the most well-known name, in his time he was very popular as he was arguably the most talented composer among his peers. I wouldn’t want to bore you with how many masses, madrigals, and motets he wrote as this is what we have Wikipedia for. What I do find interesting, however, is to explain to you the times that he lived in and what was his special contribution to music. After all, a person of the 21st century decided to write on their blog about a guy that died more than 400 years ago. He must have done something right.
Music can be divided into many styles throughout the years, but the most basic division for the music of the last 1000 years is that of the following seven periods.
We can see from the diagram that Palestrina’s age comes before the Baroque era, where composers like Johan Sebastian Bach lived, and well before the Classical era where the most well-known composers of today like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig Van Beethoven lived. Specifically for J.S. Bach, Palestrina was an inspiration. His music was heavily studied and even hand-copied by Bach in his early steps, and we can find similarities in the early works of Bach to Palestina’s late work.
The fact that he lived so long ago is the main reason that he is forgotten today, however, I argue that this should not have been the case.
In those days, music wasn’t a form of entertainment as it is today. It was mainly a tool to praise God through hymns and masses. Music and the church were interconnected. Additionally, music was not art as we understand it today. It wasn’t just the expression of the composer, it was composed with strict rules in the mind of what was or wasn’t allowed. Of course, what separated the good from the great composers was their deep understanding of music which helped them know when to follow and when to break those rules.
The important take-home message is that people at that time believed that music is a gift passed from God to humans, for them to paise Him.
The more complicated the music sounded, the more relief the listener felt when the piece came to an end. Hence, polyphony was born progressively. When we say that a piece is polyphonic, we mean that there are multiple people, singing the same lyrics with different melodies. This is quite opposite of today’s music, where there might be many people singing the same lyrics with the same melody and some organs that are there to support the main melody.
Little by little lyrics were pushed aside and the actual text came in second to the music. Composers were trying to outcompete each other by writing more complicated pieces than others, with more people signing different melodies of the same lyrics.
This is an example of a polyphonic piece from J.S. Bach (Invention No. 5, BWV 776)
This is where the line starts to blur and there is no clear distinction between legend and reality. That being said, I will write as if everything that follows is true because I like this legend so much! Also, I personally think that at least for non-musicians the legend helps convey the message of how important Palestrina is to music history better than just presenting the facts and diving deep into the technicalities of his very complicated compositions. The legend has its origin in the opera Palestrina (1917) by Hans Pfitzner.
At the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563, an important series of councils took place. In some of those holy meetings, a debate occurred over whether music should be banned from the church. The polyphonic music was in the way of the words of the mass and interfered with the listener’s devotion! After fierce debate the burden fell upon Giovanni Palestina, the most capable musician of the time, to prove to the clergy that polyphonic music can complement the words of the mass for the praise of god!
Palestina managed to write such a piece and it was the Pope Marcellus Mass in 1562 which you can listen to here.
For the viewer that listened to a piece like that for the first time: I bet that it wasn’t too easy to press the pause button.
It was believed that this simple and bombastic piece convinced the Cardinal Carlo Borromeo that polyphony could exist alongside the words of the mass and that Palestrina’s music was too elegant and beautiful to be left out of the church.
Even though we established that this is a myth, most pieces of the story are true.
The only thing in the story that might not be true, is that there wasn’t going to be a ban on polyphonic music. They were trying to find a way to keep the music inside the church and they found it in Palestina’s compositions.
The only thing from this story that cannot be fake is that - music as we know it today - exists thanks to (among other) Palestina, who managed to make the music of his time simpler yet more beautiful.
Felix Mendelssohn placed him in the pantheon of the greatest musicians, writing, “I always get upset when some praise only Beethoven, others only Palestrina and still others only Mozart or Bach. All four of them, I say, or none at all.”
