Giovanni Pierluigi was born around 1525, probably in the small town of Palestrina, from where he was to take his name after moving to nearby Rome in 1551. Aside from his position as director of the Cappella Giulia (the choir of St. Peter’s), from 1555 onwards he was also a member of the Cappella Sistina (the choir of the Sistine Chapel). The 18-part Tu es Petrus “parody” mass, however, with its lavish polychoral textures, was almost certainly written with the vast spaces of St Peter’s in mind. Musically the mass is modelled on Palestrina’s own motet of the same name, which liturgically forms the Gradual at the Principle Mass of the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. This reconstruction places the Tu es Petrus mass in this same context.
