Music

Music

The history of composed music is long and detailed, boasting countless names of those scholars who lovingly devoted their genius to music.   Through the ages, each composer has transformed music into his own masterful work of art.   Few periods in time have revolutionized the culture of art, especially in terms of music, as extensively as the Renaissance.   During this time the arts spread to regions that hadn’t been exposed to this type of cultural influence since the late Roman Empire.   Music advanced leaps and bounds, with a previously inconceivable number of youths learning to read and write classical music, more people had an appreciation for well-composed music, fueling the need for more development and refinement.   Out of Rome came a composer in the 16th century that embodied the idea of the Roman School of Musical Composition.   This Man was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.  
Giovanni was born in 1526 in Palestrina, Italy, a small town outside of Rome.
He began his formal study of music in 1537 at Sta. Maria Maggiore in Rome where he also became a choirboy.   Giovanni left school in 1539, continuing on as a choirboy until his departure for his hometown of Palestrina to be the organist and singer in 1544.   His prowess as an organist, choir director, and music teacher attracted many in the surrounding areas, even grabbing the attention of the bishop Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, who would later go on to become Pope Julius III.   Palestrina was married in 1547 and fathered 3 sons before returning to Rome in 1551 to assume his papal appointment as Director of the
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Julian Chapel Choir.   This made his responsible for any and all music to be played in St. Peter’s Basilica.   Soon after he became a composer to the papal chapel, repaying the Pope’s patronage by composing a mass for him.   He also wrote many Madrigals (secular and spiritual part-songs).   After the passing of the pope, Palestrina and others were dismissed by the new pope, Pope Paul...