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Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina
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Browse piano sheets by Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina on Zen Virtual Piano. Palestrina was born in a small town, where his ancestors are thought to have lived for generations, and was taken as a child to nearby Rome. In 1537 he was among the choirboys of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and he also studied music there from 1537 to 1539. In 1544 he was engaged as organist and singer in the cathedral of his native town, with duties that included playing the organ, helping with the choir and teaching music. A choirboy who came back to his home town as organist and teacher suggests a musician who learned the life of a church from inside. He was not yet thirty when he published his first book of masses (1554), dedicated to Julius III, and in the following year he was promoted to a singer’s place in the Pontifical Choir. A decree of a new pope forbade married men to serve in the papal choir, and Palestrina and two of his colleagues received a small pension in compensation for their dismissal. In 1568 he received an offer to become musical director at the court of Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna, which he refused because of the low salary and a disinclination to leave Rome. A court post declined for its low salary and a reluctance to leave Rome can be read as a sign of how much weight he gave to staying where he was. Palestrina’s terms were also too high when he was invited to the court at Mantua in 1583, but he became friends with Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and was commissioned to write special compositions for the ducal chapel of Santa Barbara. Britannica writes that his mastery of contrapuntal ingenuity may be appreciated to the fullest extent in some of his canonic masses, and that his masses based on hymn melodies show his ability to ornament a plainchant until it becomes part of the texture. A refusal of one court and a friendship with another can be read as a composer who gave his time where the work and the people suited him. The Kennedy Center describes the Palestrina style as marked by perfect balance and equilibrium, a seamless blend of always intelligible words with rich vocal sound. Two years before his death the new pope, Clement VIII, increased his pension, and fellow composers paid him the compliment of writing sixteen settings of the Vesper Psalms to his praise. Sixteen settings written by other composers in his honour suggest the regard in which his colleagues held the elder master.
Browse piano sheets by Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina on Zen Virtual Piano.
Palestrina was born in a small town, where his ancestors are thought to have lived for generations, and was taken as a child to nearby Rome. In 1537 he was among the choirboys of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and he also studied music there from 1537 to 1539. In 1544 he was engaged as organist and singer in the cathedral of his native town, with duties that included playing the organ, helping with the choir and teaching music. A choirboy who came back to his home town as organist and teacher suggests a musician who learned the life of a church from inside.
He was not yet thirty when he published his first book of masses (1554), dedicated to Julius III, and in the following year he was promoted to a singer’s place in the Pontifical Choir. A decree of a new pope forbade married men to serve in the papal choir, and Palestrina and two of his colleagues received a small pension in compensation for their dismissal. In 1568 he received an offer to become musical director at the court of Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna, which he refused because of the low salary and a disinclination to leave Rome. A court post declined for its low salary and a reluctance to leave Rome can be read as a sign of how much weight he gave to staying where he was.
Palestrina’s terms were also too high when he was invited to the court at Mantua in 1583, but he became friends with Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and was commissioned to write special compositions for the ducal chapel of Santa Barbara. Britannica writes that his mastery of contrapuntal ingenuity may be appreciated to the fullest extent in some of his canonic masses, and that his masses based on hymn melodies show his ability to ornament a plainchant until it becomes part of the texture. A refusal of one court and a friendship with another can be read as a composer who gave his time where the work and the people suited him.
The Kennedy Center describes the Palestrina style as marked by perfect balance and equilibrium, a seamless blend of always intelligible words with rich vocal sound. Two years before his death the new pope, Clement VIII, increased his pension, and fellow composers paid him the compliment of writing sixteen settings of the Vesper Psalms to his praise. Sixteen settings written by other composers in his honour suggest the regard in which his colleagues held the elder master.
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Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was a composer who sang as a choirboy in Rome, joined the Pontifical Choir and published his first book of masses in 1554.
The Kennedy Center describes it as characterized by perfect balance and equilibrium, with a seamless combination of always intelligible words and rich vocal sounds.
He refused an offer to become musical director for Emperor Maximilian II in Vienna in 1568 and his terms were too high for the court at Mantua in 1583, though he befriended Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga and wrote for his chapel.
Two years before his death Pope Clement VIII increased his pension, and fellow composers wrote sixteen settings of the Vesper Psalms to his praise.