Musical Offerings ⦁ 2025 ⦁ Volume 16 ⦁ Number 1 13 Musical Offerings 16, no. 1 (2025): 13–26 ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2025, Abigail Pahl, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) After Death, He Did Not Die: An Examination of Palestrina’s Continuing Legacy Abigail Pahl Cedarville University hat is the significance of a person whose name never disappears from history? Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (ca. 1525–1594) is among the few people who can boast of a reputation that has continued for over four hundred years. As a church musician and composer of the late Renaissance period, Palestrina lived during the Catholic Counter Reformation and adapted to the reforms of church music that resulted from the Council of Trent. His compositions are considered the height of Renaissance vocal polyphony. During the seventeenth century, his works were highly influential on theorist Johann Fux. Through Fux’s writings, Palestrina continued to have an impact on composition long after his death. Although Palestrina was respected during his own life, his reputation blossomed and even grew out of proportion in the years after his death. Palestrina’s reputation has been maintained throughout music history because of the credit he received for saving church music and his influence on Johann Fux’s treatise Gradus ad Parnassum. In response to the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s, the Catholic church reexamined itself and made efforts to fix issues they found within the church. This movement became known as the Counter Reformation. In 1543, Pope Paul III called the Council of Trent to discuss and establish reforms, including those concerning church music.1 The use of music in 1 Schaefer, 20. W
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