Around Palestrina

As we welcome our new music director, Gerard Lim, and commemorate the 500th anniversary of Palestrina's birth, we celebrate the resonance of his music from his own time through to today. Palestrina took the plainchant hymn Aeterna Christi Munera as the basis for his mass setting, whilst his motet Sicut Cervus is the inspiration for contemporary Italian composer Lorenzo Donati's 16-part motet, Sicut Cervus - Around Palestrina. James MacMillan's works often draw on Catholic liturgy and chant for their basic formal and melodic material, along with diverse other influences, with polyphony recalling Renaissance church composers.