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 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 500th Anniversary of Birth The stamp shown above, honoring the 500th birthday of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, was issued by Vatican City in 2025. An Italian composer of late Renaissance music, he is considered the most important composer of sacred music from late sixteenth century. Last year, Pope Leo XIV attended a ceremony featuring the works of this great composer, and he signed a poster board for the issuance of the stamp (see the Vatican State website story of this event in the References). Palestrina’s date of birth has been estimated to be February 3, 1525, in the town of Palestrina in the Papal States. As a child, he moved to Rome and began his musical studies there. In 1551, Pope Julius III appointed him “maestro di cappella” (“master of the chapel choir”) for the Cappella Giulia at Saint Peter's Basilica. Four years later, Julius’s successor, Pope Paul IV, decreed that all papal choir masters should be priests, resulting in Palestrina being forced to leave the position (he had married and had four children). He would hold similar positions at the papal basilicas of Saint John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore, but returned to the Cappella Giulia in 1571 and remained there until his death.  Sculpture of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Facade of Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence Photo by Sailko From Wikimedia Commons, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license Palestrina influenced the development of church and secular music in Europe, and is remembered for his "Palestrinian style" of counterpoint. His voluminous repertoire consists of over 100 Masses and 250 motets. His masterpiece is the ”Missa Papae Marcelli” (“Mass of Pope Marcellus II”), whose style foreshadowed the reform of sacred music introduced by Pope Paul IV. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina died on February 2, 1594. The 400th anniversary of his death was commemorated by Vatican City with its aerogramme of 1994:  Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 4th Centenary of Death Vatican Aerogramme 1994 REFERENCES: |
