Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was born in the town from which he took his name. He was chapelmaster at St. Peter's in Rome from 1551 to 1554 and from 1571 until his death in 1594. His fame as the outstanding representative of the Roman school has caused his name to be directly associated with the "strict" style of Renaissance counterpoint used as a pedagogical model by students of nearly every succeeding generation. Palestrina achieved a mastery of contrapuntal techniques, meticulous voice leading, and refined dissonance treatment now universally idealized as the "Palestrina style."

04/07