This new book explores the music of the great composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), its surrounding history and still unfolding potential. It follows the music from love poetry, through changing events in the Church Year, to the composer's record-breaking 104 Mass settings, uncovering many neglected treasures on the way. Its approach is accessible and largely non-technical. There is a focus on relationships with text, belief and ceremony, the individual melodic lines, and the richly interweaving voice parts (cantus, alto, tenor, bass). Not least, the author explores diverse ways - emotional, devotional, imaginative - of enjoying and responding to the music.
Here is music which excels in subtle differentiation, equality, consonance and cordiality between the voice parts. Much of it can be interpreted as symbolising ideal community and core beliefs about the eternal God. There is a striking avoidance of tight metricality, mighty forces, tumult or disjunction. The music's leading values are those of clarity, balance, affectionate concord and graceful flowingness.
{WHAT SOME LEADING PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE BOOK}
'Historian Jonathan Boswell has brought a lifetime's fascination with the life and music of Palestrina to bear in a new book, the first accessible general guide in English to appear for several decades' (EARLY MUSIC TODAY, News, June 2019).
'Anyone interested in exploring Palestrina should start with this account ..I very much applaud the author' (PETER PHILLIPS, The Tallis Scholars). 'So refreshing, so personal, so illuminating ...I loved this book' (HARRY CHRISTOPHERS, The Sixteen). 'A very valuable contribution to the field, and it will immensely enrich all those who engage with it' (CHIARA BERTOGLIO, Professor of Musicology, University of Bologna). 'Cannot fail to move and stimulate the reader' (PATRICK RUSSILL, Royal College of Music). 'A much needed book .. it's first class' (ANDREW CARWOOD, St Paul's Cathedral & The Cardinall's Musick).
'Wonderful, welcome, long overdue ...an invaluable guide to programming Palestrina's music for both the liturgy and concert hall ....not merely setting the seal on the rehabilitation of a much-misunderstood master, but also teaching one how to hear, appreciate and absorb the internal workings of Palestrina's counterpoint, rather than be distracted by the line highest in pitch ....a grand demystification of both man & music ...there isn't a word too many ....It should be on the shelves of music students, choir directors, church musicians, academics, singers (both amateur & professional), and listeners' (CHOIR AND ORGAN, REBECCA TAVENER, January 2020)
'Palestrina for All should be bought and read carefully by anyone either new to (Renaissance) choral polyphony, or to 'early' music in general... The audience probably also includes many who already feel at home and familiar with Palestrina' ...an accessible and comprehensive study ...apposite choice of examples and delicate evaluations ...Self-published to a very high standard ...what is now the best introductory volume ....Jonathan Boswell's excellent contribution will suit the general reader and inquiring specialist very well indeed' (Mark Sealey, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL).
'An insightful overview that balances analyses of specific passages of the composer's output with thoughts on its enduring legacy & impact. Boswell's writing illuminates Palestrina's music so convincingly that one must pause ... find a recording, and listen in rapt attention to the features he has uncovered .... He 'unwraps' Palestrina's music for the singer, listener and scholar admirably in this well-written & insightful volume, and for this we are grateful' (The Choral Journal, Ian Loeppky).
About the Author:
Jonathan Boswell is a general historian. After National Service he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at New College, Oxford. 12 years in industry were followed by a long academic career, working at the City University Business School, St Antony's College Oxford, and finally for 10 years at the Von Hugel Institute, St Edmund's College Cambridge. He has published books on business history and social ideas. He has three daughters and six grandchildren and lives with his wife in North London.
Music has been a lifelong passion, starting as a boy with Bach's preludes and fugues on the keyboard, developing into a fascination with music history, general ideas about music and its relationships with emotion, imagination, secular ideas and religion. A lover of Palestrina's music since early manhood, later he sang large quantities of it in choral groups devoted to early music. From this experience, together with extensive study, intensive listening and wide discussion, sprang years of work on this book.
