1567 Palestrina only says that he had been constrained by
the order of men of the highest gravity and most approved piety to apply
himself _ad sanctissimum Missae sacrificium novo modorum genere
decorandum_, and that he had performed his task with indefatigable pains
and industry (Baini, _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 280). But it is noteworthy
that of the three Masses furnished for the approval of the congregation,
the first was entitled _Illumina oculos meos_, and that an anecdote
referring to this title relates Palestrina's earnest prayers for grace
and inspiration during the execution of the work (_ibid._ p. 223,
note.)]

And these two motives, the motive of religious zeal and the motive of
devotion to art, inspired him for the creation of a new musical world.
Analysis of his work and comparison of it with the style which he was
called on to supersede, show pretty clearly what were the principles
that governed him. With a view to securing the main object of rendering
the text intelligible to the faithful, he had to dispense with the
complicated Flemish system of combined melodies in counterpoint, and to
employ his scientific resources of fugue and canon with parsimony, so
that in future they should subserve and not tyrannize over expression.
He determined to write for six voices, two of which should be bass, in
order that the fundamental themes should be sustained with dignity and
continuity. But what he had principally in view, what in fact he had
been called on to initiate, was that novel adaptation of melody and
science to verbal phrase and sense, whereby music should be made an art
interpretative of religious sentiment, powerful to clothe each shade of
meaning in the text with appropriate and beautiful sound, instead of
remaining a merely artificial and mechanical structure of sounds
disconnected from the words employed in giving them vocal utterance.

Palestrina set to work, and composed three Masses, which were performed
upon April 28, 1565, before the eight Cardinals of the congregation in
the palace of Cardinal Vitellozzi. All three were approved of; but the
first two still left something to be desired. Baini reports that they
preserved somewhat too much of the cumbrous Flemish manner; and that
though the words were more intelligible, the fugal artifices overlaid
their clear enunciation. In the third, however, it was unanimously
agreed that Palestrina had solved the problem satisfactorily. 'Its style
is always equal