Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

From 1544 to 1551, Palestrina was the organist of the Cathedral of St. Agapito. In 1551, Pope Julius III appointed him as the maestro di cappella (musical director) of the Cappella Giulia, the choir at St. Peter’s Basilica. Palestrina dedicated his first published compositions to Julius III; the book was the first book of Masses by a native composer. Until then, most sacred music composers had been from the Low Countries, France or Spain.

In the following decade, Palestrina held other positions to that of his Julian Chapel appointment, such as  St. John Lateran from 1555 to 1560 and Santa Maria Maggiore from 1561 to 1566. In 1571, he returned to the Julian Chapel.

During his time, Palestrina wrote hundreds of compositions, with his most important work being Missa Pape Marcelli. The piece was written to persuade the Council of Trent that the ban on the polyphonic treatment of text in sacred music was unnecessary. During the 1880s, his work was compiled into a 33-volume edition by Breitkopf and Hartel; Fratelli Scalera added another volume in the mid-twentieth century. Palestrina is now seen as a strong and refined composer whose music represents a summit of technical perfection and defiance to the silencing of freedom of speech.