Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-30
"THE PRINCE OF MUSIC"
FOUNDER OF POLYPHONY
Patesrnd Whose Meodous Calling of His Huckster Wares
Won Him Chance in Church Choir, Was Great
Figure in the Musical World

Aside from the dramatic and his
toric interest that attaches to the
| appearance in America of the Vati-
can Choirs, which for $50 years have
not been heard. as body, outside of
the hasilicas of Rome, and whose
| genesis dates back to a period far
beyond the Middle Ages, the oppor-
tunity that will be afforded lovers of
choral art to gain a personal knowl-
/ edge of polyphonic music-some-
/ thing which cannot be obtained from
books alone-from its highest ex-
emplars will be a rare and unpre-
is announced for the concert to be
given here, it will be seen
that a majority of the selec-
tions are from the works of Pales-
trina, the great master of poly
| phonic art whose compositions of
church music mark the high tide
| of the golden era of its artistic pro-
duction.
Polyphony means, simply, "many
sounds'-the combination of mefo>
dies or musical ideas. In its me-
dunn of expression it is purely vo-
cal, without the accompaniment of
any instrument like the organ or a
supporting medium like the orches-
ira. 1t bears the same relation to
vocal composition that symphony
does to orchestration. The man who
first conceived the idea of varying
the one-part singing of, say, a So
prano or baritone chorus by the ad-
dition of alto, tenor. or base parts
was the discoverer of polyphony.
Palestrina was not the first COM
poser of polyphonic music, but he
developed the art to such a degree
and by the sublimity of his genius
so enhanced its worth that he made
this field his own. In this branch
of music Palestrina occupies the
place held by Beethoven in SYM
phony, by Dante and Shakespeare
in poetry and by Michael Angelo in
painting and sculpture. He was. by
the way, contemporary of Michael
Angelo. whose great work in the
Sistine chapel, THE Last Judgment
is said to have been painted under
the daily inspiration of Palestrina's
masterpiece sung by the Sistine
Choir, under the leadership of the
master.
HarmonieS BlosSomed Like Roses
When Pedestrians great work, the
Mass of Marcellus ((selections from
which, it is said. will be given in the
Kansas City program) was first pro-
duced in the Sistine Chapel, the
whole of Italy welcomed it with
burst of passionate applause" writes
John Addington Symonds in his
Renaissance" Church music
had been saved. Modern music had
been created. A new and lovely
form of art had arisen like a star"
'Hauptman, the German dramatist,
and mystic, says of Pedestrians
music, 'it has all it's separate parts
so beautiful that one would like to
sing them all ones self" In George
Moore's musical novel, Evelyn In
nes." whole pages are devoted to
Palestrina. After Evelyn's father had
successfully organized choir in
London to sing the old church music
Evelyn remarked:
Father always said that Pales-
trina would draw all London, If
properly given" Then follows a
description of the singing of the
Palestrina music; THE Missa Brevis
is one of the most exquisite of the
masters minor works. 1t is written
in four voices, and with the largest
choir at his command, Mr.. Innes was
able to put eight to ten voices on a
part; and hearing voices darting,
voices soaring, voices floating, weav-
ing an audible embroidery, Evelyn
felt the vanity of accompaniment
instruments. Upon the ancient
chant the new harmonies bios
somed like roses on an old garden
stem, and when on the ninth bar of
the kyrie the tenors soft separated
from the sustained chords of the
other parts, the effect was as of
magic. She had heard it sung by
gray haired men in the papal choir
in Rome, soprano voices of a rarer
and more radiant timber than any
woman's seXful voice-subtle, and,
in some complex way, hardly of the
earth at all-voices in which no ac-
cent of sex transpired, abstract
voices aloof from any stress of pas
sion, undistressed by any longing.
They were not human voices, and
hearing them, Evelyn had imagined
angels bearing tall lilies in their
hands, standing on wan heights of
celestial landscape, singing their
clear silver music"
Worked as a Huckster
While much of the life of Giovan-
nj Pierluigi Palestrina is yelled with
the mist of fable, such facts as are
known read like a romance. He
was born in the small town of Pales-
trina, southeast of Rome, and it was
from that little town that he de-
rived his name In the year 1541,
while he was a boy of about II, he
left his birthplace and went to the
Eternal City. Tradition has II that
he was received into the Choir of
Santa Maria Maggiore by Maestro
Pittoni, who heard him singing in
the streets. Another story is that
he was a huckster, calling out his
wares and attention was attracted to
his voice. At any rate, 1t is certain
that October %, 1874, at the age of
Is, he was sufficiently accomplished
in music to be appointed to a
canonry in PaleStrina, where he had
returned, and where he sang, taught
and played the organ in the little
church. Three years later he mar
ried Lucrezia du Goris, young
peasant girl who owned small
vineyard. There he remained until
1851, when he was summoned to
Rome to become the first chapel
master of the Julian Chapel in the
Vatican.
In 1854 he had made enough pro-
gress in composition to dedicate a
volume of masses to Pope julius III
and the next year he was appointed
as one of the pontifical singers in
the Sistine Chapel. This was in vio-
lation of all rules for he was a lay
man and married, and it is also said
that he was not a good singer after
he reached the years of maturity.
After the death of julius, and when
Paul ~ came to the papal throne,
he promptly dismissed Palestrina
from the choir, and did not allow
him the pension of six gold scudi-
about SEA month.
The composer was quite pros
trated by worry over his poverty.