Palestrina - Princeps musicae (2009)

During the time when Protestant Northern Europe separates from the Catholic Church of Rome and when Rome is no longer the center of power, the young Giovanni Pietro Aloysi, later called Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, is trained as a choir-boy in the circle of the Roman School of polyphony founded by Costanzo Festa. Already in the middle of the 16th century, the talented musician - at only 25 - becomes the head of the Cappella Giulia at St. Peters. He is both artistically and economically dependent on the clergy and is subject to the grace and envy of the potent Popes. Since Pope Giulio III nominates him cantore ponteficio for life, the highest position in Rome for a musician at that time, Palestrina feels that he, at the age of thirty, is at the height of his career. However, the envy of the next Pope, Paul IV, and that of his singer-colleagues lead to him losing the title and he is dismissed. He is deeply shocked and realizes that the greedy Roman clergy is more interested in secular politics than in the spirituality of music. This realization obsesses the musician and causes his artistic counter-reaction. Within a few years he develops a new style in polyphonic art, the genus novus. A balance between word and sound and the equivalence of all voices are prominent. Music becomes freer than ever