Honoring a Major Palestrina Anniversary

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

As is often the case in the study of early music, there is some debate as to when Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born. However, the prevailing consensus puts his birth somewhere around February 3, 1525, meaning that next month would be a time to celebrate his 500th anniversary. Given their repertoire, it should be no surprise that, this coming Friday, harmonia mundi will release an album for this occasion. The full title of that album will be Palestrina Revealed: Byrd, White, Mundy. It will present a cappella performances by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge led by Graham Ross. As is almost always the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for taking pre-orders.

All of the Palestrina selections will be world premiere recordings. (This explains the appearance of “revealed” in the album title!) These will include two mass settings, Missa Emendemus in melius a 4 and Missa Memor esto verbi tui a 5, and the single-movement “Magnificat secundi toni a 5.” The remaining selections are polyphonic anthems, which alternate with anthems by William Byrd (five parts), Robert White (six parts), and William Munday (six parts). Unless some critical data have missed my attention, the last time I encountered White’s music was on another harmonia mundi album that he shared with Byrd, The Phoenix Rising, performed by Stile Antico. This album was released in the summer of 2013, prior to an October tour of the United States.

It is somewhat ironic that Palestrina is known better for his style than his substance. His counterpoint technique was documented in the treatise Gradus ad Parnassum (steps to Parnassus) by Johann Joseph Fux, which was first published in 1725 but still served as one of the foundations for my own studies in music composition during my undergraduate years. Nevertheless, almost all of my past encounters with the music itself on this site involve performances of Mass settings at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King with a few program selections by San Francisco Renaissance Voices and at least one presented by Chanticleer.

Personally, I was delighted to add this album to my collection. Yes, it is convenient that the Church of the Advent is a short walk from where I live. However, this is music that is best appreciated through repeated listening experiences. After all, the style is a far cry from what would later emerge from the pens of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The only way in which it can rise to a similar level of attention will be through the more-than-modest collection of recordings that are sensitive to the nuances of style in the sixteenth century.