Giovanni Palestrina (Pal-ess-TREE-na) was a Renaissance composer: Renaissance! brought something called polyphony. It made for happy chorus chaps who liked their Do Re Mi and Do Re Me tonal singing! Thank you, William Byrd! Ohhhhh, this is the musical timeline: It starts with the “Early” age, then it’s Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical, Romantic, and not to forget our “Modern” day!

Palestrina lived more than 400 years ago and composed music that was unaccompanied by instruments called a cappella music. Cappella is the Italian word for chapel (which comes from the Latin) because this choral music was sung in cathedrals or chapels. In fact, “Gloria” from Missa Aeterna Christi Munera is part of a Mass or a church service. If you go to Immanuel or another church that uses the liturgy, you sing a “Gloria” every Sunday: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth” or “Glory be to God on high and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Palestrina composed his own version of the Gloria sung in Latin.

In this “Gloria”, Palestrina composed parts for sopranos (high female voices), altos (lower female voices), tenors (high male voices), and basses (low male voices). At the very beginning, one tenor sings “Gloria in excelsis Deo” (Glory to God in the highest). After his solo part, all the voices come in with long, smooth lines of music. Palestrina purposely composed these musical phrases to fill the space with ringing sound. The churches in his day made the sound echo. Once we are able to gather in Immanuel’s sanctuary again, you will find that the new construction does the same thing. It is fun to sing (or play a French horn) in the space, because the sound lasts a long time.

Listen to the “Gloria”. Can you hear the singers taking any breaths? Palestrina composed the music so that it sounded like the whole thing is sung in one long breath. Of course, the singers have to take breaths, but there is so much overlapping music that someone listening to it might find it difficult to tell where the breaths are until the “Amen” at the very end.

Watch the YouTube video as you listen. Can any Latin scholars translate the words? Enjoy this beautiful a cappella piece!

Review questions:

1. Who is the composer and which musical era is he from?

2. What is the (short) name of this piece?

3. Where are you likely to hear this piece?

4. What does “a cappella” mean when talking about music? What is its English translation?

5. What are the four voices in this piece? Which voice starts out with the short solo?

6. Which language is this piece in?

7. Can you describe the musical phrases in this piece?

8. What kind of effect does the composer create with his overlapping musical phrases?

9. Can you sing the solo part at the beginning by yourself?