This new book explores the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), its character, history and ongoing appeal. It fills a serious gap - the last wide-ranging English language book for the general reader came out many decades ago. 

Drawing on large samples, the book follows Palestrina's music from love poetry, through changing events in the Church Year, to the composer's 104 Mass settings. At each stage descriptive sketches uncover some neglected treasures.

​The treatment of structure and style is accessible and largely non-technical. There is a focus on relationships with text, belief and ceremony; on varied approaches to hearing and listening; on the individual melodic lines; and on the richly interweaving voice parts (cantus, alto, tenor, bass).

The book also engages with Palestrina's life and environment, the eventful reception history, and the front line of singers and conductors.

Jonathan discusses diverse ways of responding to the music, emotional, spiritual and imaginative. Palestrina's counterpoint, he suggests, can be interpreted as subtly symbolising core beliefs about the eternal God.
He examines its key features of voice part differentiation, equality, consonance, and cordial mutuality. These, he argues, combine to symbolise good social relationships or ideal community. This is music which strikingly avoids tight metricality, mighty forces, tumult or disjunction. Its leading values are those of clarity, balance, affectionate concord and graceful flowingness. 
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Palestrina for All is self-published, enabling access at moderate prices. To purchase the book go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Paperback £5, €6.42, $7.40.  Kindle edition £3, €3.35, $3.95.
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Table of Contents

1 - Prince of music?    2 - Palestrina in his own time   3 - Love poetry and devotional diversities    
4 - Sorrow, suffering, hope and glory    5 - A music of amity and ideal community   
6 -  'The quality of mercy': Kyrie eleison   7 - Gloria and Credo 
8 - Controversies, choirs, conductors    9 -  Sounding the mystery: Sanctus and Benedictus   
10 -  Peace and eternity: Agnus Dei        
Select bibliography    Index of works referred to​