18 Pahl ⦁ Palestrina works to determine the intelligibility of their text. Whether it was heard then or not, Palestrina’s Mass was known and respected as being an exemplary composition of the new style.19 Shortly after Palestrina’s death, the truth about his role in church music became blurry. Before long he was credited with single-handedly saving the music of the Catholic church.20 The earliest known source that attributes this to Palestrina was a treatise written by Agostino Agazzari in 1607 in which he states: And on this account music would have come very near to being banished from the Holy Church by a sovereign pontiff had not Giovanni Palestrina found the remedy, showing that the fault and error lay, not with the music, but with the composers, and composing in confirmation of this the mass entitled Missa Papae Marcelli.21 This information soon spread around Europe and was incorporated into other writings as well as translated into German.22 Many other sources picked up the story of Palestrina and continued its spread, including Pietro Della Valle who wrote in 1640, “I too admire that famous Mass by Palestrina that so pleases your Lordship, and which was the reason that the Council of Trent did not banish music.”23 One of the more influential people for spreading the legend of Palestrina was Giuseppe Baini, who studied the composer and wrote his biography. In 1828 he wrote a dramatic rendition of Palestrina being asked to write a Mass that would determine the future of polyphony in the church. “The fate of church music hung from his pen…”24 It describes the meeting at Cardinal Vitellozzi’s house to hear Palestrina’s compositions and concludes with highest praise of his Missa Papae Marcelli with the gathered Cardinals encouraging him to “go on writing in that style and to communicate it to his pupils.”25 Through such sources Palestrina has mistakenly been attributed with being the “savior of church music” beginning after his death and continuing even to today. Although this 19 Schaefer, 23–24. 20 Palestrina, 28. 21 Palestrina, 28–29. 22 Palestrina, 29. 23 Palestrina, 32. 24 Palestrina, 35. 25 Palestrina, 35–36.
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