Giovanni da Palestrina
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Foremost among the musicians of the Counter-Reformation was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He is widely considered the foremost composer of the sixteenth century, and his music represents the apotheosis of Renaissance polyphonic choral style.

Born in the town of Palestrina, which was part of the Papal States, he was a singer at the Santa Maria Maggiore basilica in Rome by 1537. He eventually returned to his home town as an organist and choir director, married a woman named Lucretia Gori, and had three children. In 1551, the Bishop of Palestrina became Pope Julius III and made him music director at Saint Peter's Basilica. Palestrina began to compose a mass, which was dedicated to the next pope, Marcellus II (thus its name, the Missa Papae Marcelli.) This work became renowned for its textual clarity. Palestrina writes in six-part imitative polyphony, but cleverly brings the voices into homophonic texture to highlight important portions of the text. Voices are grouped together in symbolic ways (for example, references to the Holy Trinity are sung by three voices) and Palestrina uses major and minor voicings to support the words appropriately.

Palestrina had to give up his position at Saint Peter's just a few years later when the new pope, Paul IV, decreed that all papal musicians would need to become priests; since Palestrina was married, he was not eligible. Instead, he moved on to various positions at other prominent churches throughout Rome, including the Cathedral of St. John Lateran.

The clarity of Palestrina's music and the compositional style by which he supports the text with the music is often credited with convincing the delegates of the Council of Trent to continue the use of polyphony in Catholic liturgies. His fame was sufficient that in 1568, the Holy Roman Emperor offered him a position in Vienna, but Palestrina declined because he felt the emperor was not offering him enough money.

He lost his wife and two sons to plague in the 1570s. He considered the priesthood but decided to remarry. His new wife, Virginia Dormoli, was wealthy enough to allow him to continue composing until his death in 1594.

Among his hundreds of choral works, his masterful use of consonance and dissonance was highly influential on later composers. Palestrina is considered the epitome of Renaissance choral music, to the point that later popes used his name simply to mean a great composer. (Pius IX reportedly addressed Franz Liszt as "my dear Palestrina.")