Our Roman Letter

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1924, Page 21

Our Roman Letter

(By “Stannous.”)

January, 1924

Palestrina takes liis name from a little town in the Homan Compagna about twenty or twenty-three miles east of Rome. In pagan times the town was called Praeneste; it figures in Roman history as having been captured by Camillas 380 8.C., and again by Sulla about 82 8.C., while the poet Horace praises it together with Tibur and Baiae in one of the Carmina. The date of the master’s birth is not quite certain, but a memorandum in the Sistine records in a note on his funeral in 1594 gives his age as sixty-eight years; so that it is argued that he was born either in 1525 or 1526. 'He came to Rome as a boy of fifteen, and eleven years later was elected as Master of the Cappella Giulia in the Vatican. Three years later (1554) he published his first volume of Masses and dedicated them to Pope Julios 111. it is of interest to note that this was the first time an Italian had dedicated a volume of music to a Pope. As a reward Julius 111. gave him a place among the twentyfour collegiate singers in his private chapel, although he was not only a layman but was also a married man. Within a few months Julius 111. died and was succeeded by Pope Marcellus 11. The latter, however, only reigned for three weeks, and after his death was succeeded by Pope Paul IV. Paul was a reformer and speedily dismissed Palestrina and other unqualified singers from the Papal chapel. So sensitive was the young maestro that at the dismissal he took to his bed and almost died of nervous prostration. On his recovery he became Maestro di Cappella at the Lateran. Here he remained for more than five years, after which he obtained a similar post at Santa Maria Maggi ;re Finally in 1571 he was recalled to his old position at tha Vatican. It was more than fifteen years since he had formerly held the post of Vatican Maestro and dicing that I.me his genius had blossomed forth in all its richness and splendor. During the years of his work at die Lateral', most of his compositions were published anonymously. The decade of his work at Santa Maria Maggiore (1561-1571) was the most brilliant period of his life and is said to cons' itute the most remarkable epoch in the history cf his art.

It was in 1564 that Pope Pius IV. appointed the Commission - of eight Cardinals to carry out the Tridentine reform of ecclesiastical music. At first the project seemed almost impossible of realisation. The abuses were so widespread and the prevailing practice of composers so utterly incapable of being altered in the direction of improvement that even such enthusiasts as Cardinal St. Charles Borromeo and Cardinal Vitellozzi almost despaired of the composers’ ability to produce any polyphonic music of a less un-devo-tional character than that in general use. At this stage Palestrina came forward with the text of a Mass which he is believed to have composed about two years previously as a matter of fact he actually submitted three Masses to the Commission but the Mass referred to was one of such outstanding merit that it immediately won the approval of the Cardinals. It was later called the Missd Papae Marcelli, was first sung in the Sistine Chapel on June 19, 1565, and was afterwards the subject of a Papal brief as a model of what church music ought to be. It was a triumphant vindication for the principles of polyphony. While its essential excellence is due to the genius that dictated it, its striking merit from . the merely mechanical point of view is the fidelity and skill with which polyphonic principles were employed in : its composition; not only is every part necessary to the production of the whole but in no single part does tlje chief interest of the work seem to be concentrated. This may justly be said to be the outstanding merit of the work. Depth of thought and intensity of expression came from the fire of Palestrina’s genius; but his handling of the rules of polyphonic technique, in this Mass whose every bar is a miracle of art, is a remarkable example of that apparent simplicity which is always the sign of a master-hand. Other Masses he wrote in plenty, indeed his full total is said to have been at least ninety-five; but no Mass of his so nearly approached perfection as this, which the maestro wrote in all the brilliant power of his late thirties. He lived for another three decades and during that crowded period no : public sensa-

tion or no personal sorrow could dim the divine fire of his genius or check the creative march of his prodigious industry. The effect produced by his works upon the prevailing style was all that could be desired and lasted till the beginning of that deadly feud with Monteverde in the first decade of the seventeenth century, a bitter feud that ended in the utter defeat of the polyphonic school and the enthronement, of what we call modern music. As a result of this change instrumental accompaniment was substituted lor the skill of pure vocal composition, and the contrapuntal glories of the choir gave place to the graces of symmetrical form, cultivated in association with a new system of partwriting on the basis of the principles of modern harmony. But though Palestrina’s achievements might be temporarily forgotten they could not altogether fall into oblivion. Here in this city of Rome there are signs all around us today indicating that the musical laws to which Palestrina paid the tribute of his genius are once more coming into their own. Both in ecclesiastical and in secular music such evidence is to be found. As an instance I might mention the fact of a brilliant concert here a couple of Sundays ago, when at the Accademia di S. Cecilia a very competent choir under the baton of the maestro Romeo Bartoli rendered a programme of polyphonic music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the pieces given were some of the Neapolitan canzoni of Scandello of Brescia (1517-1580) and selections from the madrigals of Ingegrieri of Verona, who died at Cremona in 1592. In regard to the latter it is not without interest to recall that among his works is a set of twenty-seven Reponsoria for Holy Week, which until 1897 passed as the work of Palestrina himself; they are very beautiful and are not unworthy to be ranked with the genuine works of the famous Vatican maestro. They were for many years included in the Opera Dubia of Palestrina but the original printed work, dated 1588, turned up at a sale twenty-three years ago. It is one of the little ironies of musical history that this Ingegneri had among his pupils at Cremona the celebrated Claude Monteverde, that revolutionary genius whose departure from the polyphonic tradition was to destroy the Palestrina school and to consign the master’s name to a partial oblivion from which it is only now triumphantly emerging. In one sacred place the holy fire of Palestrina’s fame has been reverently tended through the centuries, namely the Vatican of which he was proud to call himself Maestro di Cappella.