'Allegri's Miserere' in the Sistine Chapel / Graham O'Reilly.
| Author/creator | O'Reilly, Graham, 1947- author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Rochester, NY : The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2020. |
| Copyright Date | ©2020 |
| Description | xvi, 372 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: myth and reality -- Part one: The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Context. The College of Papal Singers ; Voice types ; Repertoire -- Creation. Tenebræ ; The misereres of 1514 ; The first hundred years ; Gregorio Allegri -- Transformation. Allegri's Miserere. The four-part verses ; The five-part verses ; Burney's edition ; Tommaso Bai -- Part two: The eighteenth century. Show business -- Eighteenth-century sources 1: Blainville and Mozart. Blainville (1767) ; Mozart (1770) -- Eighteenth-century sources 2: the Paris and Manchester manuscripts. Background and provenance ; Louis Mesplet and the singers of the Papal Chapel ; The publication of 1838 ; Origins and sources of the manuscripts ; A related manuscript in Milan -- 'Con suoi rifiorimente, come si deve eseguire': what the earliest ornamented manuscripts show -- Part three: The nineteenth century. The Papal Choir in the nineteenth century 1: Giuseppe Baini. Baini's life and career ; Difficult times -- Nineteenth-century sources 1: British Library Add. MS 31525 and related manuscripts. A new version. Complete sources ; Partial sources, first group ; Partial sources, second group ; Different singers, different ornaments ; A preliminary note on pitch - - Nineteenth-century sources 2: Alfieri's Il Salmo Misere of 1840. A 'secret' publication ; Layout, musical content and sources ; The explanations. Pitch ; The relation of Bai's Miserere with that of Allegri -- The Papal Choir in the nineteenth-century 2: Domenico Mustafà. More difficult times ; Mustafà's life and career -- Nineteenth-century sources 3: the Vatican manuscript of Domenico Mustafà. The final source ; What Mustafà's manuscript shows -- Part four: Performing the Miserere in the twentieth century. The current 'popular' versions of 'the Allegri': the 'English Miserere'. The five-part verses ; The four-part verses ; Misereres in England 1: early days ; Misereres in England 2: Rockstro in the ascendant ; Misereres in England 3: other ideas -- Introduction to the editions -- Aspects of performance practice 1: performing pitch -- Aspects of performance practice 2: expression. Dynamics ; Rubato ; Ornamentation. Gruppetti ; Portamento ; Appoggiature ; Prosody -- Aspects of performance practice 3: performing forces. Soloists ; The cantus planus verses ; Castrati -- Conclusion -- Part five: Appendices, editions and notes. List of appendices. Allegri's 'original' version of verse 1 a5, Cappella Sistina 205 (1661) ; Biordi's rewriting of Allegri's five-part verses in Cappella Sistina 263 (c.1715) -- 'Allegri's Miserere" from Cappella Sistina 340-1 (1748) -- Bai's Miserere from Cappella Sistina 340-1 (1748) -- Miserere del Sgr Allegri in Blainville's Histoire Generale (1767) -- The Paris and Manchester manuscripts come si deve eseguire (1798) -- The Milan manuscript (c.1815) -- Source A (1820s manuscripts): a summary of the sources -- Source A: verses 1, 3, and 5, with variants -- Source A: verse 3 from British library add. MS 31525/1 -- Alfieri's manuscript - Berlin, Staatsbibliothek mus. ms. Alfieri 1 -- The performing editions. Edition 1. Bai/Allegri (Mustafa). Commentary -- Edition 1: 'Allegri's Miserere' based on source A. Commentary. |
| Abstract | The Miserere attributed to the Italian composer Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) is one of the most popular, often performed and recorded choral pieces of late Renaissance / early Baroque music. It was composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII in the 1630s, for the exclusive use of the Papal Choir in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week, the last of thirteen surviving Misereres sung at the services of Tenebræ since 1514. When the young Mozart visited Rome, so the story goes, he transcribed it from memory, risking excommunication but helping posterity to reclaim the piece. Yet the Miserere known today bears little resemblance to Allegri's original or to its method of performance before 1900. This book is the first detailed account of this iconic work's performance history in the Sistine Chapel, in particular focusing on its heyday in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Rather than looking at the Miserere as a work on paper, the key to its genesis - as this book reveals - can only be found in a performance context. The book includes consideration of both of the implications of that context in recreating it for performance, and of the history and practice of the "English Miserere" - the version commonly heard today. Appendices present key source transcriptions and two performance editions. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-362) and index. |
| LCCN | 2019565554 |
| ISBN | 1783274875 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 9781783274871 (hardcover) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.A45 O57 2020 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |