Gregorio Allegri

Have you ever had one of those weeks when it seemed that everything that could go wrong, in fact did go wrong? Sometimes problems become so overwhelming that you think you can't deal with them anymore. In the midst of it, you develop what I call the "Second Shoe Syndrome." That is, you wait for the second shoe to drop. That in itself can be troubling, but when it keeps dropping and dropping, you wonder if it will ever stop. Well I recently had one of those weeks. I will not enumerate my problems, since they are not of interest to you.

So, eventually I pretty much solved the last of my problems. The whole process was sort of like shoving springs in a box. You get one in and another pops out, but I got the lid on just before supper. So, what could I do to gain a measure of peace? You remember the old saying, "Music hath charm to soothe the savage breast?" (That's breast, not beast as it is often quoted.)

When I want to find peace, I usually drag out my CD entitled, "Allegri-Miserere" recorded by the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge with director Richard Marlow. If you are interested, the number is 74321-16851-2. This album contains some of the most beautiful choral music I have ever heard. The title number is the "Miserere" by Gregorio Allegri, 1582-1651. The text is from Psalm 51. The soaring soprano voices counter the chanting tenors, and together they color the background 5-part harmony of the full choir. It is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music coming down from that period of liturgical music.

The work was kept secret for almost two centuries, but the 14-year-old Mozart wrote it down from memory, after he had heard it sung during Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel in 1770. The work is written for a five-part choir, with a second four-part choir of soloists. Since Mozart's transcription of this work from memory, it has become part of the liturgical repertoire of the wider world. What the world would have missed had the super-talented Mozart not heard it!

Gregorio Allegri was born in Rome in 1582, and became a chorister at the Papal Chapel in 1591 until 1596, when his voice broke. He subsequently became a tenor at S. Luigi del Francesca for the next 8 years, and studied with Giovanni Maria Nanino from 1600 until 1607. In 1604 he was a Singer and Composer at Tivoli and Fermi, and then became Maestro di Cappella at S. Spirito, in Sassia, Rome in 1628. The sixth of December, 1629 saw his appointment as a singer in the Papal Choir, until his death on February 17th, 1652, at the age of 70. He wrote a large body of work, of both instrumental and sacred choral music, favoring the style of his mentor Nanino, and before him, Palestrina.

It has been suggested by some authors that Allegri was a castrato, and that the Miserere was written especially for castrati. Allegri was employed as a tenor, and so could not have been a castrato. Also, if the portrait above is accurate, he would not have been able to grow a beard if he had been castrated.

He was buried in the Chapel of Santo Filippo Neri, in the Chiesa Nova at Rome, traditionally the burial place of the Papal Choir.