Palestrina: Pope Marcellus Mass

Author

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525-1594, Italian)
  • worked as an organist and choirmaster at various churches, including St. Peter's in Rome
  • was appointed to the Sistine Chapel Choir even though he was married
  • wrote over a hundred Masses
  • Wikipedia Article

About the Piece

(much of thedescription comes from elements that were brought out by Forney and Machlis, The Enjoyment of Music, and the accompanying DVD)

  • Genre is Mass
  • 6 voices (SATTBB)
  • clear text setting
  • mostly polyphony
  • frequent splitting and recombining of the 6 voices into groups
  • text is Latin
  • very "clean"; never strays too far from polyphony
  • some words are held in decently long melismas, but not too many

Purpose

  • sacred
  • Gloria, for the Mass Ordinary

Reflections

I also like this style. Palestria's simplicity when necessary and complexity when interesting makes for a great overall musical feel. Unfortunately, this piece is still a little bit difficult for the congregation to sing; it would have to be a choir. For this reason, I'm not sure it was "good" for the church, even if it is beautiful.