The Library of Belarusian State Academy of Music presents a thematic exhibition, “Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – A Great Master of Polyphony: On the 500th Anniversary of His Birth” (1525-1594), prepared as part of the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Current Issues in Contemporary Music Art: At the Intersection of Genres”.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian composer, one of the most important figures in late Renaissance music and the most significant representative of the Roman School of Music.
The composer’s extensive heritage is marked by both supreme mastery and profound meaning. Palestrina’s music is almost entirely concentrated in sacred genres: he composed 105 masses, over 375 motets, 68 offertories, 65 hymns, litanies, lamentations. The most valuable of his spiritual legacy are his masses, where one can fully appreciate the composer’s incredible imagination and inventiveness. G.P.Palestrina employs a wide variety of formal techniques, yet the music always proves profound, natural, and harmonious.
The composer’s work has remained in the history of music as an unrivaled example of polyphonic mastery: over the following centuries, his music became a model for training musicians in the art of polyphony.
The exhibition features encyclopedias, textbooks, monographs, research essays, articles from journals, scholarly works and collections on the life and work of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, as well as printed sheet music and audio recordings of the composer’s works.
On November 28, the exhibition successfully concluded the International Scientific and Practical Conference at the historical, cultural, and educational project “Palestrina Day” (commemorating the 500th anniversary of the great composer’s birth). From November 29, 2025 to January 26, 2026, the exhibition will be located in the elevator lobby on the 6th floor of Academic Building No. 3 (22 Petrusya Brovki St.).
