Palestrina: Missa Brevis

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c1525-1594), took his name from the small town in the Sabine Hills about 25 miles from Rome where he was born. He was the eldest of four children of reasonably well-off parents and went to S. Maria Maggiore in Rome as a choirboy and even remained there after his voice broke. In 1544 he returned to Palestrina as organist and singing teacher but in 1551 he joined the town’s Bishop, who had been elected Pope, in Rome. A mass dedicated to his patron won him a place in the Papal Choir of the Sistine Chapel in 1554 but a year later his patron died and a successor, Paul IV, threw all the married men out of the choir and that included Palestrina. It was in 1561 that the appointment of maestro at S. Maria Maggiore, where he had been a choirboy, gave him the security he needed and his fame as a composer rose consistently thereafter. In all he wrote 104 settings of the mass and 375 motets, this collection, sung by the choir of King’s College in Cambridge, includes four of the most famous masses as well as six motets.