The First Book of Ricercars for Four Voices

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–1594) is widely regarded as the greatest master of Renaissance polyphony. Born near Rome, he spent most of his career in the service of the Catholic Church, holding prestigious posts at St. Peter’s Basilica and other major Roman institutions. His music embodies clarity, balance, and smooth voice leading, qualities that came to define the ideal of late Renaissance sacred style. Palestrina’s masses and motets set the standard for contrapuntal writing for centuries, influencing composers from Bach to Bruckner and shaping the very foundation of Western choral tradition.

Palestrina’s First Book of Ricercars for Four Voices (“Il primo libro de ricercari a quattro voci” here arranged for the 5 voices of the brass quintet) contains eight movements and offers a rare glimpse of the composer’s secular and instrumental side. The ricercar—an early ancestor of the fugue—was a form devoted to imitative counterpoint and the exploration of a single musical idea. Composed in the mid-16th century, the collection exemplifies the height of Renaissance polyphonic technique.