swer proved conclusively to what extent the contrapuntal style
had dissociated itself from the right object of all vocal music, that of
interpreting, enforcing, and transfiguring the words with which it
deals, and how it had become a mere art for the scientific development
of irrelevant and often impertinent melodic themes.

In order to avoid an absolute deadlock, which might have resulted in the
sacrifice of ecclesiastical harmony, and have inflicted a death-blow on
modern music, the committee agreed to refer their difficulties to
Palestrina. On the principle of _solvitur ambulando_, he was invited to
study the problem, and to produce a trial piece which should satisfy the
conditions exacted by the Congregation as well as the requirements of
the artists. Literally, he received commission to write a Mass in sober
ecclesiastical style, free from all impure and light suggestions in the
themes, the melodies and the rhythms, which should allow the sacred
words in their full sense to be distinctly heard, without sacrificing
vocal harmony and the customary interlacing of fugued passages. If he
succeeded, the Cardinals promised to make no further innovation; but if
he failed, Carlo Borromeo warned him that the Congregation of Reform
would disband the choral establishments of the Pontifical Chapel and the
Roman churches, and prohibit the figured style in vogue, in pursuance
of the clear decision of the Tridentine Council.

This was a task of Hercules imposed on Palestrina. The art to which he
had devoted his lifetime, the fame which he had acquired as a composer,
the profession by which he and all his colleagues gained their daily
bread, depended on his working out the problem. He was practically
commanded to discover a new species of Church music, or to behold the
ruin of himself and his companions, the extinction of the art and
science he so passionately loved. Truly may his biographer remark: 'I am
deliberately of opinion that no artist either before or since has ever
found himself in a parallel strait.'

We have no exact record of the spirit in which he approached this
labor.[210] But he was a man of sincere piety, a great and enthusiastic
servant of art. The command he had received came from a quarter which at
that period and in Rome had almost divine authority. He knew that music
hung trembling in the balance upon his failure or success.

[Footnote 210: In the Dedication of the _Mass of Pope Marcello_ to
Philip II. in