works of the composer, while he, marching at the head of the vocal army,
directed the musical proceedings. In 1571, after the death of Animuccia
(a pupil of Claudio Goudimel), Palestrina became leader of the choir of
St. Peter's and soon after he became a teacher in the music school which
his friend Giovanni Maria Nanini opened in Rome, a school which gave rise
to many composers, and which established the early Italian composition
on a firmer basis than ever before. In 1593 Palestrina became musical
director to Cardinal Aldobrandini, but he was now an old man and his
death ensued soon after; but his activity continued unabated almost up to
his decease; even to his very last days he produced works which remain
monuments of his energy. In January, 1594, he published thirty "Spiritual
Madrigals" for five voices, in praise of the Holy Virgin, and this was
his last work, for he died less than a month later. He had already begun
another work, a volume of masses to be dedicated to Clement VIII., when
he was attacked by pleurisy; the disease hastened to a fatal ending, for
he was ill but a week, receiving extreme unction January 29th and dying
February 2d, 1594, in the arms of his friend Philip Neri; his most famous
contemporary, Orlando di Lasso, died just four months later, so that the
end of the Flemish school, and the brilliant beginning of the Italian
church school come very close together.
Of the character of Palestrina's music we shall speak below, but it
may be stated here that there has never existed a composer at once so
prolific and so sustainedly powerful. The mere list of his compositions
would take considerable space, for he composed 93 masses for from four
to eight voices, 179 motettes, 45 sets of hymns for the entire year, 3
books of "Lamentations," 3 books of Litanies, 2 books of Magnificats, 4
books of Madrigals, a wonderful Stabat Mater, and very much more that is
unclassified. A list that is absolutely stupendous when the character of
the works is remembered. Through the enterprise of Messrs. Breitkopf &
Härtel all of these works will soon have appeared in print.
Palestrina is buried in St Peter's in the chapel of Sts. Simon and Judas.
The simple inscription on his tomb runs:
_Johannes Petrus Aloysius Praenestinus,
Musicæ Princeps._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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