that impression whenever it is read after a long course of his other works; yet there are many masses, too numerous to mention, which cannot easily be considered inferior to it. Indeed F. X. Haberl, the editor of the complete critical edition of Palestrina’s works, prefers the Missa Ecce ego Joannes, first published by him in the 24th volume of that edition in 1887.
Palestrina-scholars will hardly think us singular for placing on the same plane as the Missa Papae Marcelli at least 16 out of Palestrina’s 94 extant masses: Missa brevis, bk. 3, no. 3; Dies sanctificatus, bk. 6, no. 1; Dilexi quoniam, bk. 6, no. 5; O admirabile commercium, bk. 8, no. 3; Dum complerentur, bk. 8, no. 5; Veni sponsa Christi, bk. 9, no. 2; Quinti toni, bk. 10, no. 5; Octavi toni, bk. 11, no. 4; Alma Redemptoris, bk. 11, no. 5; Ascendo ad Patrem, bk. 12, no. 3; Tu es Petrus, bk. 12, no. 5; Hodie Christus natus. est, bk. 13, no. 2; Beatus Laurentius, bk. 14, vol. 3; Assumpta est Maria, bk. 14, no. 5; Tu es Petrus, bk. 15, no. 5; Ecce ego Joannes, bk. 15, no. 6.
The third and most distinctive phase of Palestrina’s style is that in which he relies entirely upon the beauty of simple masses of harmony without any polyphonic elaboration whatever. Sometimes, as in his four-part litanies, this simplicity is mainly a practical necessity; but it is more often used for the purpose of his profoundest expressions of sacramental or penitential devotion, as for instance in the motet Fratres ego enim accepi, the Stabat Mater and the first, really the latest, book of Lamentations.
Besides these three main styles there are numerous cross-currents. There is the interaction between the madrigal and ecclesiastical style, which Palestrina sometimes contrives to show without confusion or degradation, as in the mass Vestiva i colli. There is the style of the madrigali spirituali, including Le Vergine of Petrarca; which again distinguishes itself into a broader and a slighter manner. And there is lastly an astounding absorption of the wildest freaks of Flemish ingenuity into the loftiest polyphonic ecclesiastical style; the great example of which is the Missa L’Homme armé, a work much maligned by writers who know only its title and the part played by its secular theme in medieval music.
The works published in Palestrina’s lifetime naturally contain a large proportion of his earlier compositions. After his death the publication of his works continued for some years. We are apt to read the musical history of the 17th century in the light of the works of its composers. But a somewhat different view of that time is suggested by the continual pouring out by influential publishers of posthumous works of Palestrina, in far greater quantities than Palestrina had either the influence or resource to publish in his lifetime. We regard the 17th-century monodists as triumphant iconoclasts; but it was not until their primitive efforts had been buried beneath the entirely new arts to which they led, that the style of Palestrina ceased to be upheld as the one artistic ideal. Moreover the posthumous works of Palestrina belong almost entirely to his latest and finest period; so that a study of Palestrina confined to the works which he himself was able to publish gives no adequate idea of the proportion which his greater works bear to the rest. It was not, then, the rise of monody that crowded 16th-century art out into a long oblivion. On the contrary, the Palestrina tradition was the one thing which gave 17th-century composers a practical basis for their technical training. Only in the 18th century did the new art, before coming to maturity under Bach and Handel, reduce the Palestrina style to a dead language.
In the middle of the 19th century that dead language revived in a renascence which has steadily spread throughout Europe. The Musica divina of Canon K. Proske of Regensburg, begun in 1853, was perhaps the first decisive step towards the restoration of Roman Catholic church music. The St Cecilia Verein, with Dr F. X. Haberl as its president, has carried on the publication and use of such music with the greatest energy in every civilized country. The difficulties of reintroducing it in its native home, Italy, were so enormous that it is arguable that they might not yet have been surmounted but for the adoption of less purely artistic methods by Don Lorenzo Perosi, who succeeded in crowding the Italian churches by the performance of compositions written in an artless manner which, by its mere negation of display, was fitted to produce upon unsophisticated listeners such devout impressions as might gradually wean them from the taste for theatrical modern church music. The pope’s fiat has now inculcated the use of Gregorian and 16th-century church music as far as possible in all Roman Catholic churches, and the effect has been astonishing. Within eighteen months of Pius X.’s decree on church music, the choir of Cologne Cathedral, previously far less accustomed to a pure polyphonic style than most German Protestant choirs, at Easter of 1905 gave a very satisfactory performance of the Missa Papae Marcelli. The influence of what is henceforth an inevitable and continual familiarity of Palestrina’s style, at least among Roman Catholics, cannot fail to have the profoundest effect upon modern musical culture.
Palestrina’s works, as contained in the complete edition published by Breitkopf and Härtel, comprise 256 motets in 7 vols., the last two consisting largely of pieces hitherto unpublished, with one or two wrongly or doubtfully ascribed to Palestrina; 15 books of masses, of which only 6 were published in Palestrina’s lifetime, the 7th being incompletely projected by him, and the 14th and 15th first collected by Haberl in 1887 and 1888; 3 books of magnificats, on all the customary tones; 1 vol. of hymns; 1 vol. (2 books) of offertories for the whole year; a volume containing 3 books of litanies and several 12-part motets; 3 books of lamentations; a very large volume of madrigals containing 2 early books and 30 later madrigals collected from mixed publications; 2 books of Madrigali spirituali, and 4 vols. of miscellaneous works, newly discovered, imperfectly preserved and doubtful. The fourth book of motets is not, like the first three, a collection of works written at different times, but a single scheme, being a setting of the Song of Solomon; and the fifth volume is, like the offertories, designed for use throughout the church year. (D. F. T.)
PALETTE (the Fr. diminutive of pale, spade, blade of an
oar, from Lat. pala, spade, baker’s shovel or peel; cf. pandere,
to spread), a term applied to many objects which are flat and
thin, and specifically to a thin tablet made of wood, porcelain,
or other material on which artists place their colours. The
term is also used of the shallow box, with partitions for the
different coloured tesserae, used by mosaic workers. By transference
the colours which an individual artist employs are known
as his “palette.” The “palette-knife” is a thin flexible knife
used for arranging the colours on the palette, &c., and also for
the application of colour on the canvas in large masses.
PALEY, FREDERICK APTHORP (1815–1888), English
classical scholar, was born at Easingwold in Yorkshire on the 14th of January 1815. He was the grandson of William Paley, and was educated at Shrewsbury school and St John’s College, Cambridge (B.A. 1838). His conversion to Roman Catholicism forced him to leave Cambridge in 1846, but he returned in 1860 and resumed his work as “coach,” until in 1874 he was appointed professor of classical literature at the newly founded Roman
Catholic University at Kensington. This institution was closed
in 1877 for lack of funds, and Paley removed to Boscombe, where
he died on the 8th of December 1888. His most important
editions are: Aeschylus, with Latin notes (1844–1847), the
work by which he first attracted attention; Aeschylus (4th ed.,
1879), Euripides (2nd ed., 1872), Hesiod (2nd ed., 1883),
Homer’s Iliad (2nd ed., 1884), Sophocles, Philoctetes, Electra,
Trachiniae, Ajax (1880)—all with English commentary and
forming part of the Bibliotheca classica; select private orations of
Demosthenes (3rd ed., 1896–1898); Theocritus (2nd ed., 1869),
with brief Latin notes, one of the best of his minor works. He
possessed considerable knowledge of architecture, and published
a Manual of Gothic Architecture (1846) and Manual of Gothic
Mouldings (6th ed., 1902).
PALEY, WILLIAM (1743–1805), English divine and philosopher,
was born at Peterborough. He was educated at Giggleswick
school, of which his father was head master, and at Christ’s
College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1763 as senior wrangler,
became fellow in 1766, and in 1768 tutor of his college. He
lectured on Clarke, Butler and Locke, and also delivered a
systematic course on moral philosophy, which subsequently
formed the basis of his well-known treatise. The subscription
