Palestrina: The 'Prince of Music'

Monument to Palestrina by Arnaldo Zocchi

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On February 2nd 1594, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the greatest composers of Renaissance music, died in Rome. 

The maestro was born (1525) in Palestrina, a small town about 25 miles to the south-east of Rome. At the age of twenty-six he became director of music at the Cappella Giulia, making him responsible for music in St Peter's Basilica. He would later work for both the churches of San Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Maria Maggiore.  

Palestrina's vast musical output included 105 masses and more than 250 motets. Perhaps, his most famous work is Missa Papae Marcelli.  

​In 1921, the city of his birth finally got round to raising a monument to its most famous son, the work of the Florentine sculptor Arnaldo Zocchi (1862-1940). The inscription hails the composer as the 'Principe della Musica'. 

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