Music As We Know It

Gregorio Allegri

It is hard to find the exact historical category for famous Italian composer Gregorio Allegri. He was born in 1582 in Rome, he mostly lived there throughout his life and died in 1652.  Roman composers of that time were stilistically conservative. Chronologically, this was the shining time of Baroque music, but most Roman composers created music closer to the late Renaissance music.  This is why Allegri’s compositions present an exotic mixture of both these two styles. 

Gregorio was not only the composer, he was a Catholic priest as well.  Most of his compositions are related to sacred music which helped him to get noticed by Pope and obtain a prestigious appointment in the choir of the great Sistine Chapel. 

His most celebrated composition is Miserere mei Deus based on the Biblical Psalm 50.  For centuries choir has been performing it annually during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel.  The Miserere is also one of the most prominently recorded example of late Renaissance music as well.  This work is surrounded by mystery too because Vatican forbade its distribution or copying under the treat of excommunication.

However it did not stop the attempts to procure an illegal copy.  The teenage composer Mozart who visited the Rome in 1770 heard Miserere twice and transcribed it from memory.  Mozart’s copy was later obtained and published in England but only showed the basic music without all ornamentation for which it was famous.

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