Allegri’s Miserere- Music for the First Monday in Lent

"The Repentance of King David,"
C. 1650, artist unknown

 One of the best known of Lenten musical compositions today is the setting Gregorio Allegri composed some time in the 1630’s for Psalm 51.  The piece is known as the Miserere (i.e., “Have mercy”) from it’s first word in Latin.  Allegri composed it specifically for use in Tenebrae services in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

     And in the Sistine Chapel it stayed, for almost a century and a half.  The Popes did not allow transcriptions of Allegri’s mezmerizing composition to be made, and only three authorized versions were given away to private individuals (to Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, to King John V of Portugal, and to the musically gifted Franciscan Giovanni Battista Martini).  

     That all changed when a 14 year old visitor to Rome named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart heard the Miserere sung in the Sistine Chapel.  He listened closely and, when he went back to his room, he wrote down the music from memory . . .  [to hear Allegri's Miserere and read the rest of the post click HERE]