Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music
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mostly of students, faculty, and alumni of the University of the Phil-
ippines. It has gained international acclaim by winning many interna-
tional choral competitions. As resident artists of the Cultural Center
of the Philippines, the ensemble promotes its country’s musical cul-
ture through international tours (often two per year) and recordings.
Its performances are marked by eclectic programming and ensemble
cohesiveness (made the more remarkable because of its tradition of
singing without a conductor).
PHILIPS, PETER (1560/61–1628). English composer and organist.
Trained as a choirboy at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, he fled
England in 1582 because of his Roman Catholic faith. He resided in
Rome for a while, then traveled throughout Europe for five years in
the service of Lord Thomas Paget, an English Catholic. In 1591 he
settled in Antwerp, where he supported himself by giving lessons on
the virginal. His choral compositions include some 50 Italian mad-
rigals (most of them for six or eight voices) and almost 300 Latin
motets with organ continuo: some for five-part or double choir,
others for one or more voices with instruments in the concertato
style. Philips’s allegiance to Rome is evident in his work as editor
of Les rossignols spirituels (1616), a Counter-Reformation hymnal
that featured settings of popular tunes for the religious instruction of
children, and in his adherence to Roman styles of writing in both his
sacred and secular works.
PHILLIPS, PETER (15 OCTOBER 1953– ). English choral conduc-
tor and writer. In 1973 he founded the Tallis Scholars, an ensemble
specializing in the sacred music of the Renaissance. With this group
he recorded the complete English anthems of Thomas Tallis. He has
also worked closely with John Taverner, conducting several first
performances of his works.
PILKINGTON, FRANCIS (C. 1570–1638). English lutenist, com-
poser, and curate, who published one volume of (solo) lute songs
(1605), which include alternative versions for four voices, and
two volumes of madrigals, one for three to five voices (1613/14)
and one for three to six voices (1624). Examples of his madrigals
include Have I Found Her? and Care, for Thy Soule (in which Pilk-
ington used a text William Byrd had set three-and-a-half decades
earlier).
352 • PHILIPS, PETER
PINKHAM, DANIEL (5 JUNE 1923–18 DECEMBER 2006).
American composer and harpsichordist. He studied with Archibald
T. Davison, Walter Piston, and Aaron Copland at Harvard Uni-
versity (1940–44) and with Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger,
and Samuel Barber at Tanglewood. He also studied privately with
Nadia Boulanger (1941–47). In 1958 he became music director at
King’s Chapel in Boston, and in 1959 he began teaching at the New
England Conservatory. The influence of Igor Stravinsky and Paul
Hindemith, as well as his interest in early music is evident in his
earlier works. Later stylistic developments included increased chro-
maticism, exploration of 12-tone techniques, and experiments with
electronic tape.
Often-cited works from a prodigious output of more than 200
pieces include Wedding Cantata, for SATB and instr. (1956);
Christmas Cantata for SATB and brass (1957, later rearranged in
three parts for treble or male voices); Easter Cantata for SATB,
brass, and perc. (1957); Festival Magnificat and Nunc Dimit-
tis for mixed chorus with opt. org. or brass (1963); Requiem for
SATB, a short work for brass and db. (or org.) (1963); Stabat ma-
ter, for S, chorus, and orch. (1964); St. Mark Passion, for solo vv.,
chorus, and orch. (1965); In the Beginning of Creation, for mixed
chorus and tape (1970); Daniel in the Lion’s Den, for T, Bar., B,
nar., mixed chorus, 2 pf., perc., and tape (1972); a half-dozen other
cantatas; some 18 psalm settings; and many other motets and
smaller pieces.
PISANO, BERNARDO (12 OCTOBER 1490–23 JANUARY 1548).
Italian composer, singer, and classical scholar. After training as a
cathedral chorister in Florence, he became Master of the Choristers
at the cathedral school, then maestro di cappella. One of his students
was Francesco Corteccia. In 1514 he began singing in the papal
choir in Rome while continuing to serve in Florence. His extant
compositions include responsories for the Tenebrae services of
Holy Week and some 30 secular works; among them are ballatas and
canzonettas (composed before 1515) and pieces in early madrigal
style, to texts by Francesco Petrarch, published as Musica di messer
Bernardo Pisano sopra le canzone del Petrarcha (Venice, 1520), the
first printed volume of secular music containing the works of a single
composer.
PISANO, BERNARDO • 353
PITONI, GIUSEPPI (18 MARCH 1657–1 FEBRUARY 1743). Ital-
ian composer and writer on music, who spent almost all of his career
in Rome. His incredibly large oeuvre includes some 270 masses
and mass movements (4–8 vv.); over 205 introits (4 vv.); over 230
graduales; over 210 offertories (1–2, 4–5, 8 vv.); 37 litanies (4–5,
8 vv.); about 780 psalm settings (3–5, 8, 16 vv.); about 220 canticles
(4–5 vv.); over 250 hymns (1, 4–5, 8 vv.); more than 235 motets
(1–4, 6, 8–9 vv., some with insts.); 25 Lamentations; about 640
antiphons (1–4 vv.); in addition to some other liturgical pieces. He
composed in both the traditional stile antico and the newer concer-
tato and polychoral styles, a distinction often made clear in the titles
of the pieces.
PIZZETTI, ILDEBRANDO (20 SEPTEMBER 1880–13 FEBRU-
ARY 1968). Italian composer, conductor, and critic. Though he
was briefly associated with progressive trends typified by Gian
Francesco Malipiero and Alfredo Casella, he became a traditional-
ist, being influenced by Claude Debussy and Italian music of the
Renaissance. Although best remembered for his operas, he also wrote
significant choral pieces. They include half a dozen works with or-
chestra, among which are Epithalamium, for solo vv., chorus, and
orch. (1939); Cantico di gloria “Attollite portas,” for 3 choruses,
choirs, 22 winds, 2 pf., and perc. (1948); Vanitas vanitatum, for solo
vv., male chorus, and orch. (1959); and Filiae Jerusalem, adjoro vos,
for S, female chorus, and orch. (1966). Nearly a dozen unaccompa-
nied works (which demonstrate his interest in polyphony) include
Messa di requiem (1922); De profundis (1937); Tre composizioni
corali (1943); and Due composizioni corali (1961).
PLAINSONG. See GREGORIAN CHANT.
PLENARY MASS. A mass setting that includes texts of both the Mass
Proper and Mass Ordinary.
POHJOLA, ERKKI (4 JANUARY 1931–19 JANUARY 2009).
Finnish choral conductor and music educator, considered a pioneer-
ing figure in Finnish music education and in the international chil-
dren’s and youth choir movement. In 1963 he founded the Tapiola
Children’s Choir, which he directed for more than three decades.
In 1964, after meeting Zoltán Kodály and Carl Orff, he began a
program to reform music education, which became an international
354 • PITONI, GIUSEPPI
model of excellence. He also established links with leading con-
temporary composers, encouraging them to write for children’s and
youth choirs.
POINTS OF IMITATION. A style of polyphony in which each suc-
cessive phrase of text is given a characteristic melodic and rhythmic
gesture, which is then treated imitatively by the other voices; also
individual passages of such imitative counterpoint.
POLYCHORAL STYLE. A type of antiphonal writing in which the
musical forces are divided into distinct, sometimes spatially sepa-
rated, groups. It came to be associated with Venice because of its
extensive cultivation at San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica), whose sep-
arate choir galleries (each with its own organ) lent themselves well to
the effect. The emergence of polychoral music signified a shift away
from the polyphonic ideal of the 16th century to the homophonic
textures typical of the Baroque era. Adrian Willaert, maestro di
cappella at St. Mark’s from 1527 until his death in 1562, is regarded
as the founder of the style, although he was not the first to use it. He
was the most influential composer and teacher of his generation, and
his students included Cypriano de Rore, Andrea Gabrieli, Claudio
Merulo, and Gioseffo Zarlino.
The practice originated during the first half of the 16th century
in northern Italian cities, among which were Treviso, Ferrara, and
Bergamo. By mid-century, polyphonic publications began appear-
ing elsewhere. In 1548 Dominique Phinot published five motets for
two equal four-voiced choirs in Lyons; over the next two decades,
these were often reprinted in German anthologies. Nevertheless, it
was Willaert’s publication of Salmi spezzati (1550) that stimulated
a widespread cultivation of the style and established the polychoral
Vespers psalm as a major genre in the latter half of century. In
Munich, Orlande de Lassus used the technique in motets, masses,
Magnificat settings, and even Marian antiphons, influencing both
Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. In their ceremonial motets they
explored imaginative combinations of voices and instruments for
greater contrast. With their efforts the style became unequivocally
identified with St. Mark’s Cathedral during the late 1500s and early
1600s. In addition to Willaert’s students mentioned above, compos-
ers of polychoral works at St. Mark’s included Baldassare Donato,
Giovanni Croce, and Giovanni Bassano, among others.
POLYCHORAL STYLE • 355
In the meantime, the style spread throughout Italy and abroad.
It was used in Rome by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (who
seemed more interested in expanded sonorities than antiphonal ef-
fects) and in Spain by Tomás Luis de Victoria, from where it trav-
eled to Latin America. Some composers incorporated echo effects,
among them were Ignazio Donati, Claudio Monteverdi (e.g., in
the 1610 Vespers), and Giovanni Croce. In Germany, Lutheran
composers such as Hans Leo Hassler, Michael Praetorius, Johann
Hermann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, and Heinrich Schütz wrote
polychoral works to both German and Latin texts after it had already
begun to give way to the sacred concerto in Venice. In England,
choirs were traditionally divided into two blocks: the decani seated
on the congregation’s right (near the dean) and the cantoris seated
on the congregation’s left (near the cantor). Nevertheless, English
composers generally did not exploit the full antiphonal potential of
divided-choir writing.
Some composers carried the concept to monumental extremes.
Works famous for their sheer size include Thomas Tallis’s Spem in
alium, for 40 voices in eight five-part choirs (an obvious exception
to the foregoing statement) and the 53-part Missa salisburgensis for
voices and instruments, written for Salzburg Cathedral (now thought
to be by Heinrich Biber instead of Orazio Benevoli, to whom it had
been previously attributed).
In Italy, the technique continued to be used into the 1700s in con-
certos, as well as in cantatas and motets, where the emphasis on con-
trast led to increasingly sectionalized structures. Examples include
works by Antonio Vivaldi and Baldassare Galuppi. Elsewhere, it
was used by Johann Sebastian Bach (in his motets as well as in the
St. Matthew Passion) and by George Frideric Handel (in his orato-
rios). Composers of later generations used the technique more spar-
ingly, reserving it for monumental works. Examples include Hector
Berlioz’s Te Deum and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. See
also CORI SPEZZATI.
POLYPHONY (ADJ. POLYPHONIC). A term used to signify (1)
music in multiple parts (as opposed to monophony), or (2) music in
which multiple lines move independently, each one carrying melodic
interest (as opposed to homophony). The term is used especially
with regard to music before 1600. In most contexts it is more or less
synonymous with counterpoint, although the latter term is used
356 • POLYPHONY
more commonly in reference to later music such as Baroque fugues.
The earliest type of recorded polyphony in Western music was me-
dieval organum. Thereafter, ecclesiastical music was characterized
by polyphony (much of it chant-based). The 16th century has often
been called the “golden age of polyphony.” It was dominated first
by Franco-Flemish composers, and later by native Italians, the most
notable of whom was Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Other mas-
ters of the style were Orlande de Lassus, Tomás Luis de Victoria,
and William Byrd.
After 1600 polyphony began to give way to harmonically con-
ceived music. With the rise of opera, secular elements crept into
sacred genres. In the 19th century, a reaction set in, giving birth to
the Cecilian movement, which sought to store chant and polyphony
to its former place in the Catholic Church. See also CHORAL PO-
LYPHONY, ORGANUM, STILE ANTICO.
POOLER, FRANK (29 MARCH 1926– ). Innovative American
choral director and composer. For many years he was the director
of choral activities at California State University, Long Beach. He
is best remembered for championing new music and “choralog-
raphy”—rudimentary stage movements for choral performances.
Hundreds of his choral pieces are preserved in the university’s Frank
Pooler Collection.
PORCO, ROBERT (25 MARCH 1941– ). American choral conduc-
tor. He has served as head of the choral department at Indiana Uni-
versity (1980–98), artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis
Symphonic Choir (1989–98), conductor of the Cincinnati May Festi-
val Chorus (from 1989), and director of choruses for The Cleveland
Orchestra (from 1998).
PORPORA, NICOLA (ANTONIO) (17 AUGUST 1686–3 MARCH
1768). Italian composer and internationally renowned singing teacher.
Born and trained in Naples, he established himself there before mov-
ing to Venice, where in 1726 he became director at the Ospedale
degli Incurabili. From 1733 to 1737 he was in London, where he
composed operas in opposition to George Frideric Handel. After
his return to Italy, he held positions at various Ospedali in Venice,
then taught at the conservatory in Naples. After a few years in Dres-
den (1747–51), he moved to Vienna, where his students included
Joseph Haydn.
PORPORA, NICOLA • 357
As a composer Porpora was most famous for his operas, which are
characterized by florid vocal display. His choral works include some
5 masses, sacred dramatic works (chiefly cantatas and oratorios),
and some 40 Latin sacred works, mostly for female soloists, choir,
strings and continuo. The latter incorporate a range of styles includ-
ing simple homophony, contrapuntal choral writing, and virtuosic
solo parts.
PORTA, COSTANZO (1528/29–19 MAY 1601). Italian composer
and teacher. His sacred works demonstrate great contrapuntal skill.
Surviving are 15 masses for four to 13 voices (employing both
parody and cantus firmus techniques), hundreds of motets for four
to eight voices, polychoral psalm settings for eight or 16 voices,
litanies, and responsories. Also extant are more than 150 madrigals
for four or five voices.
PORTER, COLE (9 JUNE 1891–15 OCTOBER 1964). American
songwriter. Born into a wealthy family, he attended Yale and Har-
vard Universities, then settled in Paris after World War I. His most
successful work was the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate (1948). The
popularity of his songs has led to some choral arrangements, among
them, “Begin the Beguine” from the musical Jubilee (1935).
POULENC, FRANCIS (7 JANUARY 1899–30 JANUARY 1963).
French composer and pianist. He was counted among Les Six, a
group of composers so identified in 1920 by the critic Henri Collet,
which included Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud. Largely
self-taught, he was influenced initially by Igor Stravinsky. In his
later works he became increasingly lyric. He was especially effective
as a composer of art songs, composing more than 100 pieces now
considered to be masterpieces of the 20th century. After the death of
a close friend in 1936, he returned to the Catholic Church, a reorien-
tation that resulted in a steady stream of religious choral works, many
of which have become staples in the repertoire.
Poulenc’s music is largely diatonic and melodious, tonal or modal,
but with 20th-century dissonances. Diminished seventh chords are
common. Despite a fundamental lyricism, part writing is angular,
resulting in a unique harmonic piquancy.
His sacred choral works include Litanies à la vierge noire, op. 82,
for SSA and org. (1936, arr. SSA, str. orch., and timp., 1947); Mass
in G, op. 89 (1937); Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, op.
358 • PORTA, COSTANZO
93 (1938–39); the individual motets Exultate Deo, op. 109 (1941)
and Salve regina, op. 110 (1941); Quatre petites prières de Saint
François d’Assise, op. 142, for male vv. (1948); Laudes de Saint
Antoine de Padoue, op. 172, for male vv. (1957–59); Quatre motets
pour le temps de Noël, op. 152 (1950–51); and Ave verum corpus, op.
154, for treble vv. (1952). Large-scale works with orchestra include
Stabat mater, op. 148, for S, chorus and orch. (1951); Gloria, op.
177, for S, chorus, and orch. (1960); and Sept répons des ténèbres,
op. 181, for child S, male vv., children’s vv., and orch. (1961).
Secular pieces include Chanson à boire, op. 31, for TTBB (1922),
Sept chansons, op. 81, for mixed chorus (1936); Petites voix, op. 83,
for SSA (1936); the cantatas Sécheresses, op. 90, for chorus and
orch. (1937), Figure humaine, op. 120, for 12 vv. (a work inspired
by the French resistance movement and published secretly in 1943
during the Nazi occupation), and Un soir de neige op. 126, for 6
vv. (1944); and Chansons françaises, op. 130, for mixed voices
(1945–46).
POWER, LEONEL (DIED 5 JUNE 1445). English composer and
theorist. He was a leader in the development of the unified mass
cycle; his Missa Alma Redemptoris mater is the earliest known ex-
ample. His works (along with those of John Dunstable) were influ-
ential in establishing full chordal sonorities in England as well as on
the Continent during the first half of the 15th century.
Securely attributed surviving works include about 45 pieces of
music and a treatise on discant. More than two dozen of his works
are mass cycles, pairings, or individual mass movements (almost all
surviving in the Old Hall Manuscript). The others are Latin motets.
Most of his works are for three voices. Many are chant-based, the
tune (which is usually a Sarum chant) frequently appearing in the
middle of the texture. While some of the mass movements employ
isorhythm, none of the securely attributed motets do so.
PRAETORIUS, HIERONYMUS (10 AUGUST 1560–27 JANU-
ARY 1629). German composer, organist, and music editor. In 1582
he was appointed assistant organist to his father at the Jacobikirche in
Hamburg; upon his father’s death in 1586, he advanced to first organ-
ist, a position he retained until his death. His surviving choral works
include 6 masses (5 of which are of the parody type), 9 Magnificats
(covering all eight tones and providing music for the even-numbered
PRAETORIUS, HIERONYMUS • 359
verses), and more than 100 motets (for five to 20 voices). Almost all
of the motets are to Latin texts. About half of them are polychoral.
Though these do not have independent instrumental writing, they
represent some of the earliest examples of Venetian-style works
published in north Germany.
Praetorius was known also for compiling the Melodeyen Gesang-
buch (Hamburg, 1604), a collection of 88 four-part German chorale
settings by the organists of Hamburg’s four main churches. Contain-
ing 21 of his own harmonizations, it is the earliest known German
volume to specify organ accompaniment to congregational singing
of chorales.
PRAETORIUS, MICHAEL (?15 FEBRUARY 1571–15 FEBRU-
ARY 1621). German composer and theorist. In 1595 he was ap-
pointed organist at the court of Duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick-
Wolfenbüttel; in 1604 he advanced to the position of Kapellmeister.
After the duke’s death in 1613, he spent a few years in Dresden at the
court of the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg. There he met Heinrich
Schütz. During his final years, though officially employed in Wolfen-
büttel, he traveled a great deal to various courts in Germany, acting as
a director and consultant. His itinerant work brought him into contact
with many musicians, one of whom was Samuel Scheidt.
Throughout his life Praetorius constantly studied the latest musical
styles and practices. A versatile and prolific composer, he devoted
his efforts almost entirely to sacred music, focusing especially on
chorale settings and Latin pieces for the Lutheran liturgy.
His approach was systematic, comprehensive, pedagogical, and
practical. The Motectae et Psalmi (1607) contains 52 Latin motets
in the traditional stile antico for four to 16 voices. In the nine-part
Musae Sionae (1605–10) he compiled and arranged more than
1,200 chorales, partly for eight to 12 voices (in the splendid Vene-
tian polychoral style), partly for two, three, or four parts (in a much
simpler style). Four volumes of Latin liturgical works followed in
1611: Missodia Sionia, for two to eight voices; Hymnodia Sionia,
for three to eight voices, containing more than 130 Latin hymns (a
few of which are arranged for organ) and featuring canonic tech-
nique; Eulogodia Sionia, for two to eight voices; and Megalynodia
Sionia, for five to eight voices, containing 14 Magnificats—many
of them parodies, some of which are modeled after madrigals by
Orlande de Lassus and Luca Marenzio. Some of the Magnifi-
360 • PRAETORIUS, MICHAEL
cat settings have chorale insertions for Christmas and Easter. In
1613 he published the Kleine und Grosse Litaney, for five to eight
voices, as well as Urania, which presents 19 well-known chorales
in arrangements for two to four choirs, and detailed instructions
regarding alternatim practice.
In his final collections Praetorius introduced the Italian concerted
style. Publications include Polyhymnia caduceatrix et panegyrica,
for 1–21 vv. and bc., containing 40 chorale concertos in the style of
Giovanni Gabrieli (1619); Polyhymnia exercitatrix seu tyrocinium,
for 2–8 vv. and bc., containing 14 exercises to Latin and German
texts for learning the ornamented singing style; and Puericinium, for
3–14 vv. voices (1621), in which the stanzas of 14 pieces are treated
in a varied manner, foreshadowing the chorale cantata. His last
work is a Latin setting of Psalm 116 for five voices, commissioned
by Burkhard Grossmann for Angst der Hellen und Friede der Seelen
(1623), a collection of settings of the same psalm by many of the
leading motet composers of the time.
Of particular historical importance is Praetorius’s theoretical
treatise Syntagma musicum (3 vols., 1614–18), which provides an
encyclopedic account of a wide array of topics. Volume 1 (written in
Latin) provides histories of ecclesiastical and secular music. Volume
2 (in German) classifies all the instruments known to the author.
Volume 3 (in German) covers music in theory and practice. A fourth
volume on counterpoint was never completed.
PRECES. A series of short prayers in the form of versicles and re-
sponses. In the Anglican rite they are prayers offered at Matins and
Evensong.
PROKOFIEV, SERGEI (11/23 APRIL 1891–5 MARCH 1953).
Russian composer. After the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), he lived
for a while in the West, returning to the Soviet Union in 1936. A
highly individualistic composer, he is best remembered for his stage
and instrumental works. Among his choral compositions (which are
influenced neither by church tradition nor Russian Romanticism)
are some 10 works for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. They include
Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, op. 74,
for two choruses, orch., military band, accordion band, and perc.
band (1937); and most significantly, Alexander Nevsky, op. 78, a
cantata for Mez., chorus, and orch. (1939). An additional one dozen
PROKOFIEV, SERGEI • 361