CORO CORO Palestrina Volume 1 “The approach of Harry Christophers is distinctive and PALESTRINA Giovanni Giovanni revelatory, and he has surrounded the Mass by a well- chosen array of motets in praise of the Virgin Mary.” BBC MUSIC maGAZINE cor16091 Claudio Monteverdi Selva morale e spirituale Vol. II p “There is a feeling of easiness with Monteverdi’s harmonic ierluigi da and especially rhythmic vocabulary that lends a tripping lightness to the performances.” INTERNatiONAL RECORD REVIEW cor16101 Handel - Saul “Sarah Connolly’s David is in a class of its own. Her wonderfully refined and sensitive singing, radiated with intense musicality and intelligence.” THE dailY TELEGRAPH cor16103 The Italian Collection Special slipcase edition containing five of The Sixteen’s celebrated CDs. Includes Allegri Miserere and Scarlatti Iste Confessor as well as masterpieces by Handel, Palestrina, Lotti and Monteverdi. cor16099 Giovanni Pierluigi Giovanni da PALESTRINA The Sixteen volume To find out more about The Sixteen, concert tours, and to buy CDs visit cor16105 www.thesixteen.com Harry CHristopHerS 2 Giovanni pierluigi da volume 21 wrote 104 Masses! But what we will do is present each volume based around a PALESTRINA single Mass and theme relevant to that Mass, in this case the Nativity, alongside some of his settings of The Song of Songs. Palestrina published 29 such settings. He apologised for possessing “light and vain ideas” and indeed “blushed and Palestrina’s legacy and impact on grieved” at presenting these sensual motets. Remember that The Song of Songs sacred music worldwide is second comes from that part of the Old Testament which was often considered too orggreve to none. Composers through the B sensual and erotic to be read. It was originally Hebrew love poetry, written down centuries have studied and learnt possibly 300 years or so before the birth of Christ, but these are texts which in from his gift for writing exquisite Renaissance times were used in praise of the Virgin Mary. polyphony. Small wonder then that he has been called not only “the I have always regarded Palestrina as the master craftsman whose music prince and father of music” but also Marco Photograph: composers of all ages have attempted to emulate. He shapes his music in a “the saviour of church music”. At the beautifully sonorous way using a lot of suspensions but always coming back into final session of the Council of Trent, the line of the music. However it is this perfect craftsmanship that can sometimes there were many discussions about make Palestrina’s music sound all too perfect and occasionally academic. the use of polyphony and whether or We have attempted to achieve real ebb and flow in his music, not clipping not it should be banned. In 1607, the the ends of phrases but allowing the music to breathe, to convey the real composer Agostino Agazzari wrote meaning of the words and making our breaths part of the music as a whole. “music of the older kind is no longer There is a wealth of word painting in which to indulge, especially in his Song in use because of the confusion and Babel of the words”. He went on to say that of Songs motets. Our aim has been to be sensitive to this wonderful poetry and this music would have come very near to being banished from the holy church inject an energy and beauty into our performances that I hope goes some way by a sovereign pontiff had not Giovanni Palestrina found the remedy. to honour Palestrina as “the celebrated light of music”. Over the next few years, we are undertaking a series honouring Palestrina’s great art. I hasten to add that we are not endeavouring to record every note Palestrina penned – that would be more than a lifetime’s work considering he 2 3 Giovanni pierluigi da volume he small Italian town of Palestrina lies The musical activities of these and other (1525-1594) 21 T on the edge of the hills about 20 or so Roman religious institutions were initially PALESTRINA miles east of Rome. It has a minor claim to dominated by Franco-Flemish and Spanish fame in our time as the home of the genius singers and composers; in the later part of composer Adrian Leverkühn in Thomas the 16th century, particularly when the Mann’s famous novel, Doktor Faustus. 1 Hodie Christus natus est (Motet) 2.32 Counter Reformation was in full flow after It is far better known, however, as the the Councils of Trent (1545-63), they were 2 Christe Redemptor omnium 8.27 birthplace (in 1525) of another composer, 3 supplanted by native Italians, Palestrina Magnificat Quinti Toni 11.38 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, during dominant among them. 4 Tui sunt caeli 2.53 his lifetime holder of the most prestigious 5 Reges Tharsis 2.36 musical posts in the Roman Catholic With the revised liturgical texts of Trent, Church, and by his death in 1594 regarded there was a great need to rewrite much Missa HoDie CHriSTUS NaTUS eST as the greatest composer of the age. of the repertoire, in the latest styles, in a 6 Kyrie 3.19 more transparent and text-related fashion. 7 Gloria 4.53 Palestrina, (as he came to be known), a Although everyday fare remained music young man of great talent, inevitably was written for four or five voices, or even 8 Credo 6.49 to seek a career in Rome, where, by the six, composers started setting the many 9 Sanctus 3.46 beginning of the 16th century, the Church standard texts in double-choir format, a bl Benedictus 2.14 had attained great wealth and prestige, and style favouring intelligible projection of the bm Agnus Dei 2.31 political power. This enabled it, in addition words. Not only Palestrina himself, but also to its pastoral role, to become the major many younger composers, Romans such SoNG of SoNGS: nos. 1-3 patron of Architecture, Art and Music of as the Nanino and Anerio brothers, (and bn Osculetur me osculo oris sui 3.23 the time. There were great opportunities also the Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria), bo Trahe me post te 3.24 for composers and singers in providing seized these opportunities, composing bp Nigra sum sed formosa 3.40 and performing music for the rituals of a huge amount of music which poured the Church. The Sistine Chapel, built in in sumptuous volumes from the printing bq O magnum mysterium (Motet) 5.20 the late 15th century by Sixtus IV (1471- presses of Rome and Venice. 84), housed the Papal Choir, and the great Total running time 67.34 basilica of St Peter’s, begun in 1506, was Cristóbal de Morales, a Spaniard who had largely completed in Palestrina’s lifetime. sung for ten years in the Sistine Chapel, 4 5 published two books of Masses in 1544. composers needing a prior arrangement of the Papal fur and leather merchant, Lassus, who published the gargantuan He seems to have been the first to market in place; or an effusive dedication to some Giuliano Guerrazi, who had died at the early Magnum Opus Musicum (Munich, Nicolai and promote them personally, in both Italy potentate was offered in each new volume age of 36 in 1576. She brought with her the Henricus, 1604, dedicated to Maximilian I, and in Spain, a strategy followed later by in hope of support later. fur business. No doubt this was profitable, Elector of Bavaria), a compendium of 516 Victoria with his music. These composers’ for not only in 1582 did Palestrina buy of their father’s published and unpublished reputations were enhanced so much Palestrina was hardly justified in some land in his native town (presumably Motets and Antiphons for two to twelve by the widespread distribution of their complaining however. Perhaps he was for his retirement), but he was also able in voices, in six partbooks, ten years after music in print that they became the most not astute at marketing or at attracting 1586 to take on a partner. Palestrina seems his death. Yet a prodigious quantity of internationally famous Spanish composers sponsorship; or more likely he may have thus to have been financially secure for the Palestrina’s music has come down to us of the middle and late 16th century, and been too busy, for he was a businessman, rest of his life. mainly in 16th-, and also in early 17th- for years afterwards. Palestrina and other married with a family, and he was also very century prints. composers too saw the benefits of their active as composer and performer. But Clearly Palestrina was systematically methods, though success did not come he still found money for a large number publishing his music, genre by genre, the This CD displays a selection from Palestrina’s easily. Palestrina was to complain (in the of publications, 23 of them, not counting more practical (and saleable) first, but he settings of texts from the extensive Liturgy preface to his only published volume the numerous reprints, between 1554 died on February 2nd, 1594 leaving much for Advent and Christmas. Two of his of Lamentations of 1588), that he had and his death in 1594. The settings of The in manuscript. As with Orlandus Lassus, the Christmas motets, Hodie Christus natus est composed much, and published some, Song of Songs texts, book IV of his motets task of printing his remaining works now and O magnum mysterium were used by yet had to hold back so much more for published in 1583-84 were reprinted four fell to his family, in Palestrina’s case, to his him as models for Mass settings.