Giovanni da Palestrina (born Palestrina, (c.1525 – February 2, 1594 in Rome) was a very important Italian composer of church music of his time. He lived in the period called the Renaissance. Most of his music was choral (written for choirs). It is very polyphonic. This means that the different voices (sopranos, altos, tenors or basses) are often singing different words and different parts of the tune at the same time. Many composers since have studied the way that Palestrina wrote, because this is an excellent way to learn to write contrapuntal music.