The use of non-scholarly historiography can sometimes give rise to confusion.
Facts often become blurred and false ideas are created, which wind up being accepted as the truth. And Palestrina is one of these cases.
One such anecdote is that on Good Friday 1555, acting on the orders of the Council of Trent, Pope Marcellus II sent a warning to the cantors of the Papal Chapel (among whom was Palestrina). They were ordered to adapt the selection of choral works to the specific nature of the celebration of mass and pay more attention to the clear enunciation of the texts. His objective was simply to facilitate the understanding of the texts and thus to prevent parishioners from disregarding their spiritual content for the sake of musical “pleasure”.
Especially influential in drafting this new proposal were the two cardinals, Carlo Borromeo and Vitellozo Vitelli, who were put in charge of revising the rules of the Roman Chapel.
Their efforts were reinforced during the mid-sixteenth century to give moral and doctrinal coherence, and this eventually led to the Counter-Reformation. |
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