Firmin Lebel (early 16th century – December 27-31, 1573) was a French composer and choir director of the Renaissance, active in Rome. While relatively little music of his survives, he was notable as one of the likely teachers of Palestrina. Events January - articles of Warsaw Confederation signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland. ... Renaissance music is European classical music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Location within Province of Rome in the Region of Lazio Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,285 Your Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! km²  (496. ... Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c 1525–2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of Renaissance music. ...

He was born in Noyon, but nothing is known of his early life. He was a chaplain at Santa Maria Maggiore, and was maestro di cappella of its Liberian chapel by 1540; while at this post, from late 1540 and possibly continuing several years, he is thought to have been a teacher of the young Palestrina. In 1545 he became maestro di cappella at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, a position he kept until 1561, at which time Annibale Zoilo was appointed in his place. On September 4, 1561, he joined the papal chapel; evidently he was highly regarded as a choir director and composer, for the entrance examination was waived in his case, by Pope Pius IV himself. After only four years, however, the chapel choir was dramatically reduced as part of the reforms of the Council of Trent, and Lebel was dismissed, along with many other singers, including Ghiselin Danckerts. Lebel remained in Rome for the rest of his life, and a requiem was sung in his honor in 1574 at the chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi. Noyon is a small but historic French city in the Oise département, Picardie, on the Oise Canal, approximately 60 miles north of Paris. ... Pius IV, né Giovanni Angelo Medici (March 31, 1499 – December 9, 1565), pope from 1559 to 1565, was born of humble parentage in Milan, unrelated with the Medicis of Florence. ... The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Catholic Church and its Eastern Rite. ...

Only three of Lebel's works survive, all motets. Two, a setting of the Ave verum corpus and Sancta Maria succurre miseris, are for five voices, and the other, Puer natus est, is for six. Stylistically they are typical of the generation before Palestrina, during which Franco-Flemish rather than Italians dominated the musical scene in Rome. In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ... In music, the Dutch School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. ...

References and further reading

• Allan W. Atlas: "Firmin Lebel", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 6, 2006), (subscription access)
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4