  The mass spectrum of P-wave mesons is considered in a nonrelativistic
constituent quark model. The results show the common mass degeneracy of the
isovector and isodoublet states of the scalar and tensor meson nonets, and do
not exclude the possibility of a similar degeneracy of the same states of the
axial-vector and pseudovector nonets. Current experimental hadronic and \tau
-decay data suggest, however, a different scenario leading to the a_1 meson
mass \simeq 1190 MeV and the K_{1A}-K_{1B} mixing angle \simeq (37\pm 3)^o.
Possible s\bar{s} states of the four nonets are also discussed.
