Gregorio Allegri (c.â??1582 â?? 1652) was a Roman
Catholic priest and Italian composer of the Roman
School and brother of Domenico Allegri; he was also a
singer. He was born and died in Rome. He is chiefly
known for his Miserere for two choirs. He studied music
as a puer (boy chorister) at San Luigi dei Francesi,
under the maestro di cappella Giovanni Bernardino
Nanino, brother of Giovanni Maria Nanino. Being
intended for the Church, he obtained a benefice in the
cathedral of Fermo. Here he co...(+)
Gregorio Allegri (c.â??1582 â?? 1652) was a Roman
Catholic priest and Italian composer of the Roman
School and brother of Domenico Allegri; he was also a
singer. He was born and died in Rome. He is chiefly
known for his Miserere for two choirs. He studied music
as a puer (boy chorister) at San Luigi dei Francesi,
under the maestro di cappella Giovanni Bernardino
Nanino, brother of Giovanni Maria Nanino. Being
intended for the Church, he obtained a benefice in the
cathedral of Fermo. Here he composed a large number of
motets and other sacred music, which, being brought to
the notice of Pope Urban VIII, obtained for him an
appointment in the choir of the Sistine Chapel at Rome
as a contralto. He held this from 6 December 1629 until
his death. Allegri is said to have been a virtuous man,
as well as good-natured and generous to the poor and to
prisoners.
Among Allegri's musical compositions were two volumes
of concerti for five voices published in 1618 and 1619;
two volumes of motets for six voices published in 1621;
an edition of a four-part sinfonia; five masses; two
settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah; and numerous
motets which were not published in his lifetime. He was
one of the earliest composers for stringed instruments,
and Athanasius Kircher has given one specimen of this
class of his works in his Musurgia Universalis. Most of
Allegri's published music, especially the instrumental
music, is in the progressive early Baroque concertato
style. However, his work for the Sistine Chapel is
descended from the Palestrina style, and in some cases
strips even this refined, simple style of almost all
localised ornamentation. He is credited with the
earliest string quartet.
By far the best-known and regarded piece of music
composed by Allegri is the Miserere mei, Deus, a
setting of Vulgate Psalm 50 (= Psalm 51). It is written
for two choirs, the one of five and the other of four
voices, and has obtained considerable celebrity. One of
the choirs sings a simple fauxbordon based on the
original plainsong chant for the Tonus peregrinus; the
other choir sings a similar fauxbordon with
pre-existing elaborations and the use of cadenzas. The
Miserere has for many years been sung annually during
Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. Many have cited this
work as an example of the stile antico (old style) or
prima pratica (first practice). However, its emphasis
on polychoral techniques certainly put it out of the
range of prima pratica. A more accurate comparison
would be to the works of Giovanni Gabrieli.
The Miserere is one of the most often-recorded examples
of late Renaissance music, although it was actually
written during the chronological confines of the
Baroque era; in this regard it is representative of the
music of the Roman School of composers, who were
stylistically conservative. The work acquired a
considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility
between the time of its composition and the era of
modern recording; the Vatican, wanting to preserve its
aura of mystery, forbade copies, threatening any
publication or attempted copy with excommunication.
They were not prepared, however, for a special visit in
1770 from a 14-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
who, on a trip to Rome with his father, heard it but
twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory, thus
creating the first known unauthorised copy. However,
there is evidence that copies of the work that pre-date
Mozart's visit to Rome in 1770 had already been
circulating in Europe, and Mozart may have heard the
piece performed in London in 1764 or 1765 as well.
In 1771 Mozart's copy was procured and published in
England by the famous traveler and music historian Dr
Charles Burney. However, Burney's edition does not show
the ornamentation for which the work was famous.
The music as it is performed today includes a strange
error by a copyist in the 1880s. The curious "trucker's
gear change" from G minor to C minor is because the
second half of the verse is the same as the first half,
but transposed up a fourth. The original never had a
Top C.
The entire music performed at Rome in Holy Week,
Allegri's Miserere included, has been issued at Leipzig
by Breitkopf and Härtel. Interesting accounts of the
impression produced by the performance at Rome may be
found in the first volume of Felix Mendelssohn's
letters and in Miss Taylor's Letters from Italy.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Allegri)
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB) & Organ,
I created this arrangement of "Miserere mei, Deus"
(Have mercy upon me, O God) for Winds (Flute, Oboe,
English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION