Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( 1525 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. He had a lasting influence on the development of church music, and his work is considered as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony.
Missa L'homme armé (Palestrina)
The Agnus Dei is split into two sections. Agnus Dei I and the Agnus Dei II. Palestrina's mass that was analyzed is his first mass based on the l’homme armé melody. This mass was written for five voices and was a regular cantus-firmus mass as many of the l’homme armé masses. It is said that Palestrina composed it during the 1560s which is within his second volume of masses which contains this mass was published in 1570. The use of a cantus firmus mass was outdated by the time Palestrina composed his mass so when he composed this mass he used the modern style of the time. This new view of the cantus fimus mass gave new life to work.