Column
From Heavenly Harmony
Lyrical Shapes of Fatherly Love
When my son was seven or eight, he was plagued by various fears at bedtime that kept him from falling asleep. In an effort to provide some form of comfort, I gave him a small cassette player that had a decent speaker to place on his bedside table and set about to make him a mix tape. As a professional audio producer with lots of elaborate gear at hand—and as a parent long concerned about the responsibility of helping to form the imagination of my children—this was a natural response. My efforts soon resulted in a cassette inscribed with a single word written with a black felt-tip pen: "Palestrina." My son was soon being soothed by sound from the sixteenth century.
Not all of the music written by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) would be suitable for bedtime listening. There are, after all, around 500 choral works in his catalog, including 104 settings of the Mass and 250 motets fulfilling a wide range of liturgical and theological ends. Mournful lament and glorious ecstasy are to be heard in his works, but always guided by confident (rather than cautious) restraint. The Danish musicologist Knud Jeppesen once wrote: "Judging from his art he seems to have been of an earnest, quiet disposition, and to have been characterized by a certain gentle manliness combined with aristocratic reserve, and a pronounced natural aptitude for the harmonious."
Works of Confident Beauty
Whether or not we can extrapolate from the music to the man, Palestrina's imagination and craftsmanship generated a body of work that is consistently described with nouns such as "balance," "proportion," "order," "clarity," "serenity," "elegance," and "refinement," while adjectives such as "luminous," "pure," and even "seraphic" are not uncommon. Such qualities are also often (and not coincidentally) attributed to the spirit of plainchant. As with chant, Palestrina's compositions (especially his later work) demonstrate that submission to the text, which sung prayer requires, need not entail the sacrifice of artistry. The shape of his melodic lines and the complex coordination of multiple interacting voices serve to enhance rather than obscure the intelligibility of the words of the liturgy, words that are finally words of comfort.
In a Wednesday audience homily, Pope John Paul II once observed that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God sustains "the conviction that within history there is at work a plan, a design, a strategy of harmony and good desired by God." And, rightly perceived and honored, "the Kingdom of God is a source of peace and serenity that overpowers the empire of darkness." Palestrina's Masses and motets are clear evidence that the peace of God and his rule can be understood through the experience of sensory form.
New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has observed that "Renaissance polyphony does for the ears what the Sistine Chapel does for the eyes, giving lyric shape to divine power"—the power, I would add, of a loving Father. Musical works of confident beauty preserve echoes of that paternal presence with its attendant promises. I think that's what enabled my son to overcome fear and find his way to sleep many years ago: the forces of darkness were no match for the cosmic harmony and good enunciated by Palestrina's artistry.
Some Masses
I can't remember the specific pieces I put on that cassette for my son, but I'd bet Palestrina's Missa Brevis was one of them, as it's a piece I've known since my teens. The title of the work is an anomaly, as it is in fact a complete Mass (not just the "Kyrie" and "Gloria" as in a Lutheran Kurzmesse) and it is no shorter than any of Palestrina's other hundred-plus settings. First published in 1570, the Missa Brevis is one of only six "free" Mass settings by Palestrina, free because it is not based on either a plainchant melody or a preexisting motet. It is written for four voices (five in the final "Agnus Dei" movement), but is in the words of conductor Peter Phillips "one of the most substantial and sonorous" of Palestrina's four-part Mass settings.
The 1880 edition of Sir George Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes the Missa Brevis as "a work of unapproachable beauty." That description was no doubt intended as an awed compliment, but it unfortunately suggests that unworthy novices should keep their distance from this holy monument. I think it's actually a wonderful place for an introduction to Palestrina. It is more intimate and gentle than its better-known sister, the Missa Papae Marcelli, by far the most famous of Palestrina's compositions. Written for six voices and named in honor of Pope Marcellus II (whose papacy ended with his death after only three weeks), this Mass setting is more majestic and grand (without grandiosity) than the Missa Brevis, but finally no less approachable.
Many of Palestrina's Masses are based on motets that are associated with specific feast days. His Missa Viri Galilaei, for example, is based on one of his own Ascensiontide motets. The title is from the Latin for "men of Galilee," the opening of the angelic address in Acts 1:11, as Jesus' followers are staring with amazement into the sky. After examining many of the details of composition through which Palestrina's music engages the text of the Mass with musical metaphors (especially with some remarkable intertwined ascending passages), Jean-Pierre Ouvard comments: "Palestrina composes as a preacher, his polyphony is a sermon. What he is offering us here [in Missa Viri Galilaei] is no less than a theological commentary on the words St. John gives to Jesus, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.'"
Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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