Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . of all these workswas made anonymously, and was completedwithin the six years of Palestrinas stay atthe Lateran. The ten years during which he remainedat Santa Maria Maggiore formed at oncethe most brilliant decade in the life of Pales-trina and one of the most remarkable epochsin the history of his art. It is not easy for 14 GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA us at this moment to realize the position ofChurch music at the date of the Council ofTrent. It may be said that it had lost allrelation to the services which it was sup-posed to illustrate. Br
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . of all these workswas made anonymously, and was completedwithin the six years of Palestrinas stay atthe Lateran. The ten years during which he remainedat Santa Maria Maggiore formed at oncethe most brilliant decade in the life of Pales-trina and one of the most remarkable epochsin the history of his art. It is not easy for 14 GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA PALESTRINA us at this moment to realize the position ofChurch music at the date of the Council ofTrent. It may be said that it had lost allrelation to the services which it was sup-posed to illustrate. Bristling with ineptand distracting artifices, it completely over-laid the situations of the mass; while found-ed, as it was for the most part, upon secularmelodies, it was actually sung, except bytwo or three prominent voices in the frontrow of the choir, to the words with whichits tunes were most naturally and properlyassociated. It was usual for the most sol-emn phrases of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,and Agnus to blend along the aisles of the. PALESTRINA basilica with the unedifying refrains of thelewd chansons of Flanders and Provence,while ballet and other dance music wereplayed every day upon the organ. Otherirregularities and corruptions hardly lessflagrant were common among the singers;and the general condition of affairs wassuch that a resolution as to the necessity ofreform in Church music, which very nearlytook the shape of a decree for its abandon-ment altogether, was solemnly passed in afull sitting of the Council of Trent. In 1563 Pius IV issued a commission toeight cardinals authorizing them to take allnecessary steps to carry out the resolution of the council. Among these, two of themost active were the Cardinals Borromeoand Vitellozzi. At their instance Palestrmawas commissioned to write a mass as a typeof what the music of the sacred office shouldbe. With a noble mixture of modesty andenergy the great composer declined to trustthe fate of his art to one work. He co
Size: 1474px × 1696px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmode, booksubjectmusicians
