Leading Reviews
CHOIR AND ORGAN, January 2020, Rebecca Tavener
‘I hate Palestrina’ was the burden of an opinion piece by the chief music critic of one of Scotland’s broadsheets some years ago, prompted by this reviewer having a wee contretemps with him about the Italian sacred music maestro during interval drinks. In short, he was convinced that his experience as a music student had inoculated him permanently against the pleasures of Palestrina’s pure, sublime, spiritual counterpoint. He is not alone. Could this wonderful, welcome, long overdue book be the answer?
It seems incredible that something so worthwhile and necessary should be self-published, but here it is, illustrated clearly and to the point with sections of score, packed with fascinating and illuminating statistics, not only a powerful distillation of Boswell’s own and others’ research, but also an invaluable guide to programming Palestrina’s music both for the liturgy and concert hall. Boswell places Palestrina in historical and theological context (he has firm grasp on the latter), tracking the liturgical year with illuminating explanations for the uninitiated. This is truly an essential companion for all singers/ leaders, whether amateur or professional, who want to understand Palestrina through performance or by listening to his music, 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.
Here is a refreshing lack of jargon, a grand demystification of both man and music, rescuing Palestrina from both the dead hand of academic discipline and the ridiculously romantic pedestal erected by Pfitzner and others. It’s a great boon for Palestrina’s fans, of course, but if you’ve struggled to get on with his music, maybe having been turned off by time spent as a music student obliged to replicate his style for harmony and counterpoint classes, bored by poorly conceived performances, baffled by his musical/ spiritual philosophy, then this is aimed at you. If this brief book (there isn’t a word too many) doesn’t change those feelings, then surely nothing can. It should be on the shelves of music students, choir directors, church musicians, academics, singers (both amateur and professional), and listeners, and it’s so approachable and modestly priced that it really is ‘for all’.
‘I hate Palestrina’ was the burden of an opinion piece by the chief music critic of one of Scotland’s broadsheets some years ago, prompted by this reviewer having a wee contretemps with him about the Italian sacred music maestro during interval drinks. In short, he was convinced that his experience as a music student had inoculated him permanently against the pleasures of Palestrina’s pure, sublime, spiritual counterpoint. He is not alone. Could this wonderful, welcome, long overdue book be the answer?
It seems incredible that something so worthwhile and necessary should be self-published, but here it is, illustrated clearly and to the point with sections of score, packed with fascinating and illuminating statistics, not only a powerful distillation of Boswell’s own and others’ research, but also an invaluable guide to programming Palestrina’s music both for the liturgy and concert hall. Boswell places Palestrina in historical and theological context (he has firm grasp on the latter), tracking the liturgical year with illuminating explanations for the uninitiated. This is truly an essential companion for all singers/ leaders, whether amateur or professional, who want to understand Palestrina through performance or by listening to his music, 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.
Here is a refreshing lack of jargon, a grand demystification of both man and music, rescuing Palestrina from both the dead hand of academic discipline and the ridiculously romantic pedestal erected by Pfitzner and others. It’s a great boon for Palestrina’s fans, of course, but if you’ve struggled to get on with his music, maybe having been turned off by time spent as a music student obliged to replicate his style for harmony and counterpoint classes, bored by poorly conceived performances, baffled by his musical/ spiritual philosophy, then this is aimed at you. If this brief book (there isn’t a word too many) doesn’t change those feelings, then surely nothing can. It should be on the shelves of music students, choir directors, church musicians, academics, singers (both amateur and professional), and listeners, and it’s so approachable and modestly priced that it really is ‘for all’.
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, January 2021, Mark Sealey
It’s somewhat surprising that historian Jonathan Boswell’s recent (2018) survey of the music of Giovanni Luigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) stands almost alone in the current(ly available) bibliography of such an important musical figure: there really is no other more recent study than Robert Stewart’s ‘An Introduction fo Sixteenth Century Counterpoint and Palestrina’s Musical Style’ (ISBN: 9781880157077), which was published in 1994.
Boswell’s is an accessible and comprehensive study. Its 150+ substantive pages contain both narrative and analysis. The 15-page second chapter is a brief but telling biography. The other nine chapters carefully situate Palestrina’s phenomenal musical output in his times, relate them to the texts he used and link them to contemporary musical practice and developments. These leave you with a thorough understanding of the quality and scale of the mostly liturgical work for which the relatively long-lived composer these days perhaps receives less credit than is due to him. Boswell, though, writes not as an advocate. But as a scholar who feels strongly enough about the worth of his subject to explain and illustrate not only when Palestrina’s music originated but also how and why – and hence why it is still to be performed and listened to ….. perhaps with fresh ears.
Palestrina for All’s first short chapter (‘Prince of Music?’) does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the composer. Boswell suggests listening to one of the many high-resolution recordings of Palestrina's music – such as of the Missa Papae Marcelli. But immerse yourself in it. Without preconceptions. Respond to the totality of the sound … its counterpoint and intricacies.. Embrace the music’s apparent avoidance of what to many will be familiar tonal patterns … recognisable keys, resolutions.
Chapter 2 looks at Palestrina’s life in the context of late c16th Rome. Chapter 3 again advises close listening – this time to the Canticum Canticorum – as a work that typifies the concerns of a hybrid musical culture focussed on the sacred and the ‘earthly’ …Chapter 4 explains the exterior logic of some of Palestrina’s compositions: the Church Year (Nativity, Easter, etc ... joy, sorrow, suffering, persistence). It is against these traditions and praxes that Boswell suggests we should set Palestrina’s motives for writing. His music expresses the mystery of the spirit, and the importance of worship, engagement and participation in the confessional life and the ‘calendar’ which helps to hold it together. At a time of instability for the Catholic church his styles and structures offered both stability and balance – like the tree which is stronger in the wind by flexing – as fluidity.
Chapters 6, 7, 9 and 10 take us through the various movements of the Masses, of which Palestrina composed over 100. As you will have come to expect, these chapters are also compelling thanks to Boswell’s explanatory approach, his style, respect for detail - his ability to step back in order to present the wider view, his apposite choices of examples and delicate evaluations.
Chapter 8 is equally enticing. It looks at the composer’s reception, particularly in the 19th century (Beethoven ranked Palestrina very highly indeed) and the revival of his music with reassessments down to the present. Also useful is a brief survey of current performance practices, which differ between countries and musical traditions, and of some controversies which serve to deepen our understanding of Palestrina’s greatness.
Palestrina for All, then, is not the usual ‘introduction’, abbreviated biography or race through (key works) in a composer’s oeuvre. It offers a convincing amalgam of raw facts and background. Boswell is particularly strong on the religious bedrock of the second half of the 16th century in Rome. Popes, power, plagues, protocols, piety, even population growth …... Self-published to a very high standard, the book contains several monochrome images, numerous clearly reproduced musical examples, texts in Latin with English translations, quotes, footnotes, a brief and up-to-date bibliography and a list of Palestrina’s works referred to in the text.
If you’re new to the glories of the pinnacle of Renaissance polyphony which Palestrina represents, have already come to love the richness, inventiveness and profundity of his music and want to know more; or indeed if you want what is now the best introductory volume – Jonathan Boswell’s excellent contribution will suit the general reader and inquiring specialist very well indeed.
It’s somewhat surprising that historian Jonathan Boswell’s recent (2018) survey of the music of Giovanni Luigi da Palestrina (1525-1594) stands almost alone in the current(ly available) bibliography of such an important musical figure: there really is no other more recent study than Robert Stewart’s ‘An Introduction fo Sixteenth Century Counterpoint and Palestrina’s Musical Style’ (ISBN: 9781880157077), which was published in 1994.
Boswell’s is an accessible and comprehensive study. Its 150+ substantive pages contain both narrative and analysis. The 15-page second chapter is a brief but telling biography. The other nine chapters carefully situate Palestrina’s phenomenal musical output in his times, relate them to the texts he used and link them to contemporary musical practice and developments. These leave you with a thorough understanding of the quality and scale of the mostly liturgical work for which the relatively long-lived composer these days perhaps receives less credit than is due to him. Boswell, though, writes not as an advocate. But as a scholar who feels strongly enough about the worth of his subject to explain and illustrate not only when Palestrina’s music originated but also how and why – and hence why it is still to be performed and listened to ….. perhaps with fresh ears.
Palestrina for All’s first short chapter (‘Prince of Music?’) does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the composer. Boswell suggests listening to one of the many high-resolution recordings of Palestrina's music – such as of the Missa Papae Marcelli. But immerse yourself in it. Without preconceptions. Respond to the totality of the sound … its counterpoint and intricacies.. Embrace the music’s apparent avoidance of what to many will be familiar tonal patterns … recognisable keys, resolutions.
Chapter 2 looks at Palestrina’s life in the context of late c16th Rome. Chapter 3 again advises close listening – this time to the Canticum Canticorum – as a work that typifies the concerns of a hybrid musical culture focussed on the sacred and the ‘earthly’ …Chapter 4 explains the exterior logic of some of Palestrina’s compositions: the Church Year (Nativity, Easter, etc ... joy, sorrow, suffering, persistence). It is against these traditions and praxes that Boswell suggests we should set Palestrina’s motives for writing. His music expresses the mystery of the spirit, and the importance of worship, engagement and participation in the confessional life and the ‘calendar’ which helps to hold it together. At a time of instability for the Catholic church his styles and structures offered both stability and balance – like the tree which is stronger in the wind by flexing – as fluidity.
Chapters 6, 7, 9 and 10 take us through the various movements of the Masses, of which Palestrina composed over 100. As you will have come to expect, these chapters are also compelling thanks to Boswell’s explanatory approach, his style, respect for detail - his ability to step back in order to present the wider view, his apposite choices of examples and delicate evaluations.
Chapter 8 is equally enticing. It looks at the composer’s reception, particularly in the 19th century (Beethoven ranked Palestrina very highly indeed) and the revival of his music with reassessments down to the present. Also useful is a brief survey of current performance practices, which differ between countries and musical traditions, and of some controversies which serve to deepen our understanding of Palestrina’s greatness.
Palestrina for All, then, is not the usual ‘introduction’, abbreviated biography or race through (key works) in a composer’s oeuvre. It offers a convincing amalgam of raw facts and background. Boswell is particularly strong on the religious bedrock of the second half of the 16th century in Rome. Popes, power, plagues, protocols, piety, even population growth …... Self-published to a very high standard, the book contains several monochrome images, numerous clearly reproduced musical examples, texts in Latin with English translations, quotes, footnotes, a brief and up-to-date bibliography and a list of Palestrina’s works referred to in the text.
If you’re new to the glories of the pinnacle of Renaissance polyphony which Palestrina represents, have already come to love the richness, inventiveness and profundity of his music and want to know more; or indeed if you want what is now the best introductory volume – Jonathan Boswell’s excellent contribution will suit the general reader and inquiring specialist very well indeed.
THE CHORAL JOURNAL, May 2021, Ian Loeppky
It would be hard to overestimate the impact of Palestrina’s influence on subsequent generations of choral musicians. Jonathan Boswell’s engaging text begins with just such a rationale: ‘His hundreds of works engage with wide varieties of poetic, scriptural and liturgical texts. He was highly successful in his own time, living and working in the Rome of the Counter Reformation or Catholic Reform. His music carried previous centuries of musical evolution to a culminating synthesis, a peak point in choral music, often labelled as an ars perfecta. A highly eventful reception and discussion history followed, focussing on many inexorable and perennial issues about music, its cultural influence and complex meanings’ (p.1).
The book is arranged with several introductory chapters o ffering a historical context for Palestrina’s prolific output, followed by those concerned with the handful of earlier secular works plus commentary on several of his motets. This chapter-by-genre structure is paused with one reflecting on the ‘communal’ nature of 16th century polyphony and on Palestrina’s in particular. Subsequent chapters contrast and compare select movements from his enormous output (one on Kyries, another on Glorias and Credos, etc). Again he takes a ‘chapter pause’ with the history of the role of Palestrina’s music (‘Controversies, choirs, conductors’), followed by discussions of Sanctus and Agnus Dei movements from his Masses.
The result is an insightful overview that balances analyses of specific musical passages of the composer’s output with thoughts on its enduring legacy and impact. The writing illluminates Palestrina’s music so convincingly that one must pause, put the book down, find a recording and listen in rapt attention to the features Boswell has uncovered. As this is not a long book, listening with these new ears to music one has always loved is a marvellous way to spend an afternoon.
The author thoroughly explains the timeless qualities of Palestrina’s style for both listener and singer especially for those who enjoy it outside of its original sacred, liturgical context: ‘for all its deep religiousness it is not pressuring of ‘pushy’. Amateur singers warm to it as respecting their natural vocal ranges, letting their voices float free and undiluted, enhancing their roles in small ensembles. … Palestrina’s counterpoint offers a form of social symbolism: it intimates the essence of communicating well, ‘good conversation’, ‘relationships of fraternity’ and cooperation, ‘ideal community’ (p.10).
Boswell compares general traits across Palestrina’s output to help explain this appeal; one is in the form of a chart showing ‘the generally small intervals and the comfortable voice ranges’(p.30) of fifteen head-motives of various works (Inevitably, and as he suggests, the reader will start humming these and marvelling at their beauty and economy).
Performers and scholars of Palestrina’s music eager for insights into the symbolic text-music relationships of their favorite motet (or one they are considering programming) won’t be disappointed either. The writer shows how Palestrina deftly responds to changing textual stimuli with subtle changes in accent, texture, meter, numbers of voices etc, and all ‘as if any engagement with dissonance would be deeply distasteful, even perverse. He adheres to careful consonance almost as if his life depended on it‘ (p.74). Most interesting is when Boswell connects different iterations of the same text to show shared stylistic traits such as those of the final movements of his Masses: ‘More importantly, however, is a general characteristic of the Agnus Dei sections, namely a breakway from palpable incident or ‘point making’, a retreat from narrative, agenda or contrast. The music does not have to ‘work’ so hard; there is no further need for explanation or excitement and typically, the pace is somewhat slower. The music favours an atmosphere of relaxedness, tranquillity, and reflectiveness’ (p.149).
For music we have known and loved for years, finding analyses to help explain why we take such joy and satisfaction in it are always a pleasure to discover. Boswell ‘unwraps’ Palestrina’s music for the singer, listener and scholar admirably in this well-written and insightful volume, and for this we are grateful.
It would be hard to overestimate the impact of Palestrina’s influence on subsequent generations of choral musicians. Jonathan Boswell’s engaging text begins with just such a rationale: ‘His hundreds of works engage with wide varieties of poetic, scriptural and liturgical texts. He was highly successful in his own time, living and working in the Rome of the Counter Reformation or Catholic Reform. His music carried previous centuries of musical evolution to a culminating synthesis, a peak point in choral music, often labelled as an ars perfecta. A highly eventful reception and discussion history followed, focussing on many inexorable and perennial issues about music, its cultural influence and complex meanings’ (p.1).
The book is arranged with several introductory chapters o ffering a historical context for Palestrina’s prolific output, followed by those concerned with the handful of earlier secular works plus commentary on several of his motets. This chapter-by-genre structure is paused with one reflecting on the ‘communal’ nature of 16th century polyphony and on Palestrina’s in particular. Subsequent chapters contrast and compare select movements from his enormous output (one on Kyries, another on Glorias and Credos, etc). Again he takes a ‘chapter pause’ with the history of the role of Palestrina’s music (‘Controversies, choirs, conductors’), followed by discussions of Sanctus and Agnus Dei movements from his Masses.
The result is an insightful overview that balances analyses of specific musical passages of the composer’s output with thoughts on its enduring legacy and impact. The writing illluminates Palestrina’s music so convincingly that one must pause, put the book down, find a recording and listen in rapt attention to the features Boswell has uncovered. As this is not a long book, listening with these new ears to music one has always loved is a marvellous way to spend an afternoon.
The author thoroughly explains the timeless qualities of Palestrina’s style for both listener and singer especially for those who enjoy it outside of its original sacred, liturgical context: ‘for all its deep religiousness it is not pressuring of ‘pushy’. Amateur singers warm to it as respecting their natural vocal ranges, letting their voices float free and undiluted, enhancing their roles in small ensembles. … Palestrina’s counterpoint offers a form of social symbolism: it intimates the essence of communicating well, ‘good conversation’, ‘relationships of fraternity’ and cooperation, ‘ideal community’ (p.10).
Boswell compares general traits across Palestrina’s output to help explain this appeal; one is in the form of a chart showing ‘the generally small intervals and the comfortable voice ranges’(p.30) of fifteen head-motives of various works (Inevitably, and as he suggests, the reader will start humming these and marvelling at their beauty and economy).
Performers and scholars of Palestrina’s music eager for insights into the symbolic text-music relationships of their favorite motet (or one they are considering programming) won’t be disappointed either. The writer shows how Palestrina deftly responds to changing textual stimuli with subtle changes in accent, texture, meter, numbers of voices etc, and all ‘as if any engagement with dissonance would be deeply distasteful, even perverse. He adheres to careful consonance almost as if his life depended on it‘ (p.74). Most interesting is when Boswell connects different iterations of the same text to show shared stylistic traits such as those of the final movements of his Masses: ‘More importantly, however, is a general characteristic of the Agnus Dei sections, namely a breakway from palpable incident or ‘point making’, a retreat from narrative, agenda or contrast. The music does not have to ‘work’ so hard; there is no further need for explanation or excitement and typically, the pace is somewhat slower. The music favours an atmosphere of relaxedness, tranquillity, and reflectiveness’ (p.149).
For music we have known and loved for years, finding analyses to help explain why we take such joy and satisfaction in it are always a pleasure to discover. Boswell ‘unwraps’ Palestrina’s music for the singer, listener and scholar admirably in this well-written and insightful volume, and for this we are grateful.