Palestrina Composes "Missa Papae Marcelli"

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the leading composer of sacred music in sixteenth-century Italy, wrote the Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass. The work was named in honor of Pope Marcellus II, whose pontificate in 1555 lasted only a few weeks, and it was published in 1567.

The Mass is celebrated for its clarity of text and its serene, balanced polyphony for six voices. According to a long-held tradition, Palestrina composed it to demonstrate that intricate polyphonic music could still allow the sacred words to be clearly understood, a concern raised during the reforms of the Council of Trent.

Whether or not that account is wholly accurate, the Missa Papae Marcelli came to be seen as a model of Counter-Reformation church music. Palestrina's refined style, often described as the very ideal of Renaissance sacred polyphony, exerted a lasting influence on later composers and on the teaching of counterpoint.