Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/643

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PAL
593
PAL

contrary, he failed or departed from the plan laid down, subsequent resolutions must be taken. It was now that Palestrina, full of enthusiasm and inspiration, wrote three masses for six voices; the first composed on the third and fourth modes, and the two others on the seventh and eighth. They were performed in the palace of Cardinal Vitelozzi. The first and second were admired, but the third was considered a very prodigy of human art; and the performers themselves could not avoid expressing, even during the performance, their admiration at this triumph of genius. It was immediately determined that no change should take place in what concerned the music of the church, except that in future only compositions worthy of the sacred place, and of which the three new masses of Palestrina formed admirable examples, should be sung. The pope having heard the third mass on the 19th June, 1565, rewarded its author with the place of composer to the apostolic chapel, a place created for Palestrina, and in which he had only one successor, Felice Anerio. These are the masses which, with a few others, Palestrina dedicated, in one volume, to Philip II. of Spain in 1567, under the title of "Missa Papæ Marcelli," which name he bestowed upon them in gratitude to the memory of his great benefactor. Pope Marcellus II. The tradition hitherto common respecting the origin of these celebrated masses: that Pope Marcellus had determined, in 1555, to banish music from the church—that Animuccia had persuaded his holiness to postpone the issue of the bull until he could hear a mass written in the true ecclesiastical style of the young composer Palestrina—that the latter, by his six part masses, had not only succeeded in reconciling the pontiff to music in general, but even induced him to become its patron—and that these masses had consequently received the name of "Missa Papæ Marcelli"—is now proved to have been without foundation, from the excellent historical and critical researches of Baini; although it is no less true that it was the compositions of Palestrina which convinced the council assembled for the reform of church music, that the judicious and tasteful employment of the harmonic contrapuntic art was fully adapted to elevate the mind of the hearer, and to assist devotion; and that by these means he succeeded in establishing for it a lasting place in the ritual of the church. The reputation of Palestrina now extended daily. In gratitude for the reception which Philip II. had given to his book of masses, he also, in 1570, dedicated to the same sovereign another book, containing eight masses; four for four voices, two for five, and two for six. With the exception of two of these, it would appear from internal evidence,' that they were not composed at the time they were published, but were early productions of his pen, written before he had corrected his style in conformity with the intentions of the council of Trent. In 1571, on the death of Animuccia, one of the pupils of Gondimel, Palestrina succeeded him as master of the chapel in the Vatican of St. Peter, the same office which in a former year he had resigned, so greatly to his disadvantage. About this time Giovanni, Maria Nanini, and Palestrina, who had long been friends, and orginally fellow-students under Gondimel, opened the celebrated school in Rome, which gave birth to many an eminent composer. This school was afterwards continued by Bernardino Nanini, the nephew and pupil of the former; and the beneficial influence which it exercised in all quarters was no where more conspicuous than in the pontifical chapel. Palestrina ended his active and useful life on the 2nd of February, 1594; and his remains were interred in the church of the Vatican. His funeral was attended not only by all the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite concourse of people, when the "Libera me, Domine," composed by himself, was sung by the whole college, divided into three choirs, as is related in the register of the pontifical chapel. Palestrina's works are reckoned generally as—twelve books of masses, for four, five, and six voices (Baini possessed a thirteenth and fourteenth book in MS.); one volume of masses for eight voices; two volumes of motets for four, and five volumes of the same for five voices; one volume of offertories (sixty-eight pieces); two volumes of litanies, besides many single compositions of this kind which appeared in different collections (Baini possessed three volumes of still unpublished motets, and a third volume of litanies); one volume of hymns for all the holy-days of the year; one volume containing the magnificat for five and six voices, and another for eight; one volume of lamentations (two or three in Baini's collection lately published for the first time by Alfieri); two volumes of madrigals for four voices; two volumes (sacred) for five voices, independently of some madrigals dispersed among other collections. Palestrina's works were, like all other musical productions at that time, printed only in separate parts, most of which have since been put into score by his admirers; and not only does every collector of ancient and classical music pride himself in possessing Palestrina in this form, but wherever vocal societies have been established, his music and its effects are known and admired.—E. F. R.

PALEY, William, the most perspicuous and popular of English moralists and theologians, was born at Peterborough in 1743. His father was a minor canon in the cathedral of that city. Paley's family had formerly resided in the parish of Giggleswick in the West Riding of Yorkshire, where his grandfather and great-grandfather had possessed a small patrimonial estate. Soon after his birth they returned to this district, his father having been appointed head master of the grammar-school of Giggleswick. In this remote region, which is one of the wildest in England, Paley was educated under the parental eye. He grew up among a people of marked character, primitive ways, hard nature, and uncultivated speech; and to the last his manners retained a tincture of the social peculiarities with which they had been imbued in his boyhood. His genius, too, may have owed something to the same local influences. To his early intercourse with the shrewd peasantry of Craven, who with all their simplicity had a keen eye to the main chance, his prudential morality and racy style may doubtless be in some measure ascribed. In 1759 Paley entered Christ's college, Cambridge, as a sizar. His time, he tells us, during the first two years of his residence was spent not very profitably. He was of a convivial turn, and his conversational powers were great, so that he was constantly in society, where he says, "we were not immoral, but only idle and rather expensive." This career was cut short by an incident which, had Paley been of a fanciful disposition, he might have construed into a supernatural visitation. Early one morning a boon companion, whom he had left at the festive board a few hours before, appeared at his bedside, and solemnly adjured him to alter his course of life. No ghost ever spake to better purpose. "I was so struck," says Paley, "with the visit and the visitor, that I lay in bed great part of the day, and formed my plan. I ordered my bedmaker to prepare my fire every evening, in order that it might be lighted by myself. I arose at five; read during the whole day, except such hours as chapel and hall required; allotted to each portion of time its peculiar branch of study; and just before the closing of the college gates, at nine o'clock, I went to a neighbouring coffeehouse, where I constantly regaled on a mutton chop and a dose of milk punch; and thus, on taking my bachelor's degree, I became senior wrangler." Paley graduated in 1763. During the next three years he acted as assistant teacher in Mr. Bracken's academy at Greenwich. In 1765 he gained a university prize for a Latin essay, the subject of which was a comparison between the Stoic and Epicurean philosophy with respect to the influence of each on the morals of a people. He advocated the Epicurean side of the question. This essay was probably the germ of his maturer work on moral and political philosophy. Soon afterwards he was elected a fellow and tutor of Christ's college, where he resided for about ten years, during which time, by his animated mode of instruction, he imparted a new life and interest to the routine of academical study. His intimate friend and associate in this occupation was Mr. Law, son of the bishop of Carlisle, to whom Paley was indebted for much of his subsequent preferment in the church. In 1776 Paley married, and of course vacated his fellowship; but in lieu of it he had got the livings of Mosgrove and Appleby in Westmoreland, and of Dalston in Cumberland. In 1782 he obtained the archdeaconry of Carlisle, and a prebendal stall in the cathedral of that city. His "Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy," for the copyright of which he received £1000, were published in 1785. This work obtained at once a very extensive circulation. It was admirably adapted to the spirit of the times, being very orthodox in its tone, and very worldly in its principles. Deficient as it is in all the profounder requirements of an ethical system, it was seen to have its roots in reality, and to be no mere beating of the air. It has a sufficient degree of truth to recommend it to all who are not very solicitous about nice distinctions; and its pithy and intelligible chapters must have fallen like a refreshing dew on a generation worn out by the dreary prosing of Bishop Cumberland, and his commentator. Dr. John Towers, or left