Allegri Miserere
The Miserere of Allegri is a piece of music sung , composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII , 1630.
Summary |
The Work
The Miserere ( Psalm 51 ) was sung in the Sistine Chapel during matins on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week , and only in this place and on this occasion. It was sung at the end of the service of darkness, while the candles that lit the chapel were gradually extinguished. Before the Pope and the cardinals kneeling, the singers of the Chapel improvised sumptuous ornaments on the drone.
Gradually, the vocal technique of the members of the Chapel in losing luster and ability to improvise counterpoint scholars languishing, ornaments and disappeared in the late eighteenth century there were only the most acute ornaments reserved for castrati, learned by heart by two sopranos, who have survived through the records and first published by Charles Burney.
Text
Miserere mei, Deus: secundum magnam tuam misericordiam.
And secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam.
Amplius lava me ab mea iniquity: and I peccato meo mundi.
Meam quoniam ego iniquitatem cognosco: peccatum meum contra me and is evergreen.
Tibi soli peccavi and malum coram te FeCl: C justificeris in sermonibus tuis, cum and Vince judicare.
Ecce enim in inquitatibus conceptus sum: design and in peccati me mater mea.
Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: incerta and occulta sapientiae manifestasti tuae mihi.
Asparagus me, Domine, hyssopo and mundbor: lavbis me, and super nivem dalbbor.
Auditui meo Dabis gaudium and laetitiam: ossa exsultabunt and humiliate.
Faciem tuam has warned peccati meis: and iniquity omnes meas dele.
Cor Mundum crea in me, Deus: Spiritum rectum and innovation in visceribus meis.
Do me a facie tua projicias: and Spiritum sanctum tuum auferas was not me.
Redde salutaris tui mihi laetitiam: spiritu principali and confirmed me.
Docebo iniquos vias tuas: impii and ad te convertentur.
Libera me from sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae: exsultabit and lingua mea justitiam tuam.
Domine labia mea Aper and bone meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.
Quoniam if voluisses sacrificium, Utica dedissem: Holocaust delectaberis not.
Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus: cor contritum and humiliatum, Deus, not despicable.
Benign fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: ut aedificentur muri Jerusalem.
Tunc acceptability sacrificium justitiae, oblationis, and Holocaust tunc super altare tuum imponent vitulos.
Translation
Pity me, O God, in Thy love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my sin, cleanse me from my sin. Yes, I know my sin, my sin is ever before me. Against You and you alone have I sinned, what is evil in your eyes, I did. Thus, you can speak and show your justice, being a judge and show Thy victory. I am born in sin, I was a sinner when my mother's womb. But you want deep down the truth in secret, You teach me wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear the songs and the celebration: they dance, the bones that you grind. Divert Your face from my sins, all my sins away. Create in me a clean heart, O my God, steadfast in my heart my mind. Do not cast me away from Your presence, I do not take your Holy Spirit. Give me the joy of being saved, a willing spirit sustain me. Sinners, I will teach your ways; to you, return the lost. Free me from bloodshed, O God my Savior God, and my tongue sing aloud Thy righteousness. Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise. If I offer a sacrifice, you do not want it, You do not accept the Holocaust. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit; You do not volunteer, O my God, a heart broken and crushed. Make Zion happiness, is the walls of Jerusalem. So you just accept from sacrifices and burnt offerings, so we offer bulls on Your altar.
Legend
From the early years, the Vatican had not copy or distribute the order to preserve the unique character. Transcribe or play elsewhere in these places was punished with excommunication.
However, there were many transcripts of alleged Miserere among the royal courts of Europe, but never the quality of that which was played in Rome. According to numerous letters, Mozart , aged fourteen, was able to transcribe the work after only one or two plays. While visiting Rome with his father, he had the chance to hear the Miserere Wednesday of Holy Week. The same evening, he transcribed the piece from memory. He listened again on Friday, which followed in order to make some changes. The Miserere obtained was published in 1771 in London and the papal ban lifted. But this version did not include the baroque ornaments that were successful and the beauty of song. Mozart was accused of stealing the partition because it seemed impossible that a boy of fourteen could, in as few plays, transcribing a score considered very complex.
Felix Mendelssohn was another transcript in 1831 and priest Pietro Alfieri transcribed flourishes in 1840. The edition with ornamentation played today is a mixture of these two transcripts. The original work was lost, but the Miserere still retains the privilege to be among the works of Baroque music the best known and most recorded.
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