Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
1525 - 1594
Roman Catholic
Biography
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer whose sacred polyphony became closely associated with the musical culture of the Roman Catholic Church. Born around 1525 in or near the town of Palestrina, he spent much of his career in Rome and held important posts connected with St Peter’s Basilica, St John Lateran, and Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1571 he returned to the Cappella Giulia at St Peter’s and remained there until his death in 1594.
Palestrina composed masses, motets, hymns, offertories, lamentations, and Magnificat settings. His “Magnificat tertii toni” was first published in “Magnificat octo tonum, Liber 1” in 1591. Material from its concluding section later became the basis for William Henry Monk’s nineteenth-century hymn tune VICTORY.
Palestrina did not write VICTORY as a congregational hymn tune and had no historical connection with Francis Pott’s English text. The familiar Easter setting is therefore a later adaptation: Palestrina supplied the Renaissance source material, while Monk transformed it for Victorian hymn singing.
Palestrina composed masses, motets, hymns, offertories, lamentations, and Magnificat settings. His “Magnificat tertii toni” was first published in “Magnificat octo tonum, Liber 1” in 1591. Material from its concluding section later became the basis for William Henry Monk’s nineteenth-century hymn tune VICTORY.
Palestrina did not write VICTORY as a congregational hymn tune and had no historical connection with Francis Pott’s English text. The familiar Easter setting is therefore a later adaptation: Palestrina supplied the Renaissance source material, while Monk transformed it for Victorian hymn singing.
Hymns by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done
Role: Composer