Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

His surname is that of the small town, not far from Rome, where he was born.

He held various positions as choirmaster in Rome and in the Vatican. His vast output of church music is deemed the pinnacle of unaccompanied contrapuntal writing, looking back not only to what came before but looking forward to later developments.

His single best-known work is Missa Papae Marcelli, one of ninety-three masses and countless motets that he wrote.