No Renaissance composer and few later ones have been as proficient as Palestrina at writing positive, outward-going, major-key music, and in this context Assumpta est Maria represents one of the most important works of the period. With these words Peter Philips (director of The Tallis Scholars) mentioned Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s motet Assumpta est Maria for the first time in …

The motet Assumpta est Maria by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ read more »

❧ The composer Gregorio Allegri is best known for his Miserere and all the tradition around the Papal chapel during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Besides this wider-known composition, it is not an easy task to list other works by Allegri. The composer was born in Rome sometime during 1582. Together with his brother Domenico, he was a choirboy from …

The Missa Salvatorem exspectamus by Gregorio Allegri ❧ read more »

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina died on 2 February 1594. Several months earlier, a collection of 68 motets was published. Although it appeared at the end of 1593 it is generally thought that these motets were composed over a period of years. Many have interpreted this publication as a summation of Palestrina’s life’s work. It was the last of the many …

The motet Ad te levavi animam meam by Palestrina ❧ read more »