Mysterium Duo

Harmonic Breath
The Music of Palestrina

Music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(1525-1594)
Adaptations for two accordions by Mysterium Duo:
Sir N. Antonio Peruch and Penny Sanborn

The sheet music adaptations are for two free-bass accordions
(with extended range in the left hand manual to C0).

A Journey Through
Palestrina’s Sacred Masterpieces

This unique project brings Palestrina’s musical masterpieces to life through adaptations for two accordions.

The Mysterium Duo proudly presents a collection of nine carefully curated adaptations, reflecting a strong artistic identity and offering a thoughtful perspective on the sacred works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. These pieces are available as a recorded album (Harmonic Breath, The Music of Palestrina by the Mysterium Duo) as well as in published sheet music format.

Widely regarded as the greatest composer of late Renaissance sacred music, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525–1594) mastered smooth, balanced polyphony that became the model for church composition and later counterpoint teaching. He served as maestro di cappella at the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of the most prestigious musical positions of his time, and his works profoundly influenced major composers, including J.S. Bach, who studied Palestrina’s motets as exemplars of perfect polyphonic writing and sacred style.

This repertoire, entirely new for two accordions, offers a rare journey into the inner polyphonic architecture of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s sacred music. It opens refined and compelling interpretative possibilities while remaining fully aligned with the aesthetic principles of Renaissance polyphony. These adaptations have been prepared with a historically informed approach, respecting the original modal structures, voice-leading, and contrapuntal clarity, while carefully adapting the music to the expressive, timbral, and dynamic resources of two free-bass accordions, with extended left-hand range down to C0. The scores are deliberately left unmarked, with no indications for registration, phrasing, dynamics, tempo, bellows programming, or fingering, reflecting Palestrina’s original manuscripts.

This collection represents a unique editorial contribution, presenting works of high artistic and cultural prestige. They are suitable for concert performance, academic study, and early music contexts, and stand as a clear affirmation of the accordion as a mature instrument, capable of engaging convincingly with Renaissance polyphonic repertoire.

Through these adaptations, Palestrina’s sacred music is recreated with reverence, clarity, and expressive depth. Each piece preserves the integrity of the original polyphony while revealing new dimensions of breath, resonance, and harmonic light, made possible by the unique voice of the accordion duo.

Music Unfolded

Ricercar del Primo Tuono
The Ricercar del Primo Tuono is an instrumental work rooted in the improvisatory traditions of the Renaissance. Built on imitative counterpoint within the first ecclesiastical mode, the piece explores thematic development with measured clarity and balance. It offers insight into Palestrina’s contrapuntal thinking beyond vocal music, revealing the same disciplined elegance found in his other sacred works.

Sicut Cervus
Perhaps Palestrina’s most universally loved motet, Sicut Cervus unfolds with flowing lines that suit the accordion’s character and phrasing perfectly. Elegant and timeless, it breathes grace, with imitative lines rising and falling like living water, deepening the emotional pull in its luminous and meditative texture - a true harmonic breath. Through overlapping points of imitation and radiant clarity, it portrays profound longing through Palestrina’s ability to unite spiritual depth with musical simplicity.

Heu Mihi Domine
A profound lament of human frailty. In this intimate motet, suspensions sigh and resolve with aching restraint, revealing Palestrina’s unmatched ability to evoke sorrow and reflection without excess. By using controlled dissonance within a restrained contrapuntal texture, Palestrina conveys deep emotion with subtlety.

Missa Papae Marcelli - Crucifixus Etiam Pro Nobis - from Credo
In this music, time seems suspended, as suffering, humility, and stillness converge in music of immense spiritual gravity. The careful architectural pacing and harmonic restraint lend the music profound emotional weight.

Panis Angelicus
Panis Anglicus offers a serene culmination, where gentle melodic lines and transparent counterpoint combine with radiant harmonies to lift the listener into peace, transcendence, and timeless repose. The sacred music invites quiet meditation, offering a luminous space for reflection and contemplation.

Missa Aeterna Christi Munera - Kyrie
This parody mass is based on Palestrina’s own motet Aeterna Christi Munera. This Kyrie from Missa Aeterna Christi Munera conveys cleansing and supplication, bridging penitence without anguish and prayer without weight. Its luminous polyphony restores equilibrium, offering calm, order, and renewed emotional breath, and opens the door toward light. Missa Aeterna Christi Munera is one of Palestrina’s most transparent and elegant Masses, and this movement is perfectly suited to the accordion’s clarity and sustaining voice. 

Sitivit Anima Mea
More intimate and inward, this work whispers rather than proclaims. Its restrained intensity draws the listener into a space of personal prayer, introspection, and contemplative stillness. The piece unfolds with modal colouring and subtle harmonic shifts, creating an inward, meditative atmosphere.

Alma Redemptoris Mater
This intimate Marian motet features gently flowing polyphony and balanced voice leading. Its lines unfold with warmth and luminous serenity, inviting quiet contemplation, protection, and peace.

Super Flumina Babylonis
Super flumina Babylonis conveys lament and exile through darker modal inflections and richly woven polyphony, transforming sorrow into dignified musical prayer. The music unfolds with a profound sense of emotional breath, extending grief into reflective distance and measured contemplation. This motet stands as a striking example of Palestrina’s mastery in balancing emotional weight with structural clarity, guiding sorrow toward serene acceptance rather than despair.

Echoes of Palestrina

Together, these nine sacred, meditative works form a coherent musical and spiritual arc - from grounded contemplation, through inner suffering, and onward toward light and consolation. This publication is an important contribution to the accordion repertoire, affirming the instrument’s unique capacity to convey Renaissance polyphony with intimacy, depth, and living harmonic breath.

We invite you to experience and enjoy this musical exploration!

Warmly,
Sir N. Antonio Peruch & Penny Sanborn,
Mysterium Duo