1. 01 Carlo Fiore

Iceberg P500. From Surfaced Palestrina to Sunken Palestrina: Discography, Bibliography, Choral Practice, History Manuals.

Abstract

This essay adopts the iceberg as a model image to discuss the current gap between the textual
and audio canons in Palestrina’s reception. Its main historical phases are reviewed—from 19th
-

century heroic bios to 20th

-century philology, to today’s multiple performance approaches. Then,
focus shifts to his discography and performance history from 1904 to 2025. Sound sources for
each composition are considered, and data filtering methods from statistics and economics are
applied. The results reveal a marked asymmetry. About 44% of the tracks deal with fifteen titles,
with the Missa Papæ Marcelli on top; hymns, offertories, magnificats, lamentations, and
madrigals largely remain a musical sunken Atlantis. The discography, organized by decades and
combined with samples of choral repertoire, educational programs, and concert seasons, shows
how anthologies, user editions, manuals, and amateur circuits further contributed to such
results.