Palestrina
GIOVANNI PIETRO ALOYSIO DA, an Italian musician and composer; born in Palestrina, an ancient city 20 miles from Rome, in 1529; and was admitted into the Pope's Chapel in 1559. This musician holds the most prominent rank as a composer of ecclesiastical music of that age, his motets, masses, and chants being still in use. Palestrina has been regarded as the Homer of ancient music and the father of choral melody. He died in 1594.