Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525-1594

Called to Change Music

It’s amazing that a composer, depended upon by popes to preserve a traditional sacred art form, would end up radically and beautifully changing it. Palestrina made his mark during a time of great upheaval in Christianity, but with innovative use of harmony and interwoven melodies he aided in church music’s rebirth and refined its clarity and spirituality.

The Chancel Choir will offer Palestrina’s beautiful “Adoramus Te” as its anthem for Good Friday’s Tennebrae service at 7:30 p.m. March 25. In traditional Renaissance motet style, it will be unaccompanied. The Latin text translates:

“Christ, we adore thee and bless thy name.

Who by your crucifixion hast redeemed your people.

Who has suffered, our God. Hear thy people.”

As with any outstanding artistic work, this piece uplifts and moves the listener. ”Adoramus Te” not only communicates the passion of its composer for the sacred subject, but also adds to the serenity of worship.

Born Giovanni Pierluigi in 1525 in Palestrina, Italy, this composer who served bishops and popes began singing in the streets of Rome to advertise his family’s farm produce. Heard by the choirmaster of a nearby cathedral, the talented boy was offered a musical education and a place in his choir. After he studied music in Rome, Palestrina served as organist and choirmaster in his local cathedral under a bishop who in 1550 was selected as Pope Julius III.

So convinced of this musician’s talent and religious sincerity, Julius III bent the rules to appoint Palestrina to the Papal Choir in his chapel in Rome. Because he was not a priest and was married, it was even more extraordinary that Palestrina’s place at St. Peter’s was secure even when a succession of later popes came to power. An appointment as “Composer of the Papal Chapel” gave the gifted musician freedom to compose and to explore his spiritual calling, without daily priestly duties.

The music of the church was ready to move beyond the unison chanting of Latin texts. But Catholic Church leaders of the 16th century were troubled by what they heard as an over-secularization of music during the Protestant Reformation: Everyday melodies were used for setting hymns; whole congregations, not just the clergy, were doing the singing; church music was set in the common language instead of only Latin text. They regarded many of the changes taking place in sacred music as a threat and some targeted polyphony for ruin.

With understandable words and their lovely and reverent settings, Palestrina’s compositions of six-voice Mass convinced church leaders otherwise. His polyphonic music with its independent musical parts, Palestrina’s supporters claimed, should not be banished but be celebrated. His compositions were seen as not only artistically but also spiritually mature. Palestrina’s devotion to the church and to enhancing worship also was endorsed by his spiritual mentor: Philip Neri, who as a layman and priest devoted his life to outreach and conversion of troubled youth and the sick. (He was canonized St. Philip in 1622.)

The patronage of the Catholic Church and of royalty richly benefited Renaissance composers and their music throughout Europe. Good Shepherd’s Chancel Choir recently offered at worship the anthem "Lord for Thy Tender Mercies' Sake" by English Renaissance composer Richard Farrant (1530-1581). A contemporary of Palestrina, Farrant excelled in the secular world of court while serving Britain’s King Edward VI as royal organist and choirmaster at Windsor. His sacred compositions were performed in English, instead of the traditional Latin, which enabled worshipers to better relate to their spiritual message. While many composers branched out by writing secular madrigals, or popular works for chamber and concert audiences --- Farrant’s artistry, for example, reached into the world of British theater --- Palestrina remained dedicated to sacred composition and to pleasing his patrons in the church.

This Italian master continued to compose through his 60s. His most famous work for double chorus “Stabat Mater” (to honor Christ’s mother Mary) was written in 1590 for Pope Gregory XIV, and is traditionally performed each year during Lent in the Sistine Chapel. Palestrina is credited with writing more than 250 motets, some 100 Masses, 200 liturgical settings and 100 spiritual madrigals before his death in 1594. For good reason, his contemporaries often referred to him as “The Prince of Music.”

--- Contributed by Penny Risen