For centuries, much of what today we call classical music was commissioned by the church for use in worship. Professional musicians were often church musicians, and their business was religion. Palestrina, master of Italian polyphony, was music director at St. John Lateran in Rome. He wrote more than a hundred masses and about as many hymns.
From the beginning, the boundaries of what is considered Baroque has broadened. “We have played Beethoven, we have even played Mendelssohn," says Jane Glover.
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