Friday, November 20, 2009
Miserere Mei Deus, by Gregorio Allegri
This is a beautiful recording of Miserere Mei Deus, by Gregorio Allegri--especially if you watch it in high quality (go to youtube, click the HQ button on the bottom right).
Unfortunately youtube doesn't say who the group is singing it. :-(
Wikipedia had a funny blurb about this piece: "The Miserere is one of the most often-recorded examples of late Renaissance music... The work acquired a considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility... 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 Mozart, who, on a visit to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory, thus creating the first "bootleg" copy. In 1771 Mozart's copy was procured and published in England by the famous traveler and music historian Dr. Burney."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Allegri
The image of Mozart as the first bootleg copier made me smile.
Unfortunately youtube doesn't say who the group is singing it. :-(
Wikipedia had a funny blurb about this piece: "The Miserere is one of the most often-recorded examples of late Renaissance music... The work acquired a considerable reputation for mystery and inaccessibility... 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 Mozart, who, on a visit to Rome with his father, heard it but twice and transcribed it faithfully from memory, thus creating the first "bootleg" copy. In 1771 Mozart's copy was procured and published in England by the famous traveler and music historian Dr. Burney."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Allegri
The image of Mozart as the first bootleg copier made me smile.
# posted by John Colton @ 11:17 AM 
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