PALESTRINA, GIOVANNI PIERLUIGI DA

born c. 1525, , Palestrina, near Rome died Feb. 2, 1594, Rome Italian Renaissance composer of more than 105 masses and 250 motets, a master of contrapuntal composition. Palestrina lived during the period of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and was a primary representative of the 16th-century conservative approach to church music. Additional reading Henry Coates, Palestrina (1938, reprinted 1979), is the standard English-language study of the life and works of Palestrina and contains a complete list of works. Jerome Roche, Palestrina (1971), is a brief, up-to-date biography useful for new details about Palestrina's life. Zo Kendrick Pyne, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1922, reprinted 1970), in English; and Ethel King, Palestrina, the Prince of Music (1965), are also useful. Knud Jeppesen, The Style of Palestrina and the Dissonance, 2nd ed. (1946, reissued 1970), is a specialized but thoroughgoing study of the technical aspects of the composer's contrapuntal style.