Mozart and Allegri's "Miserere, mei Deus"

Tonight, through the generosity of a friend, I got to attend a performance of the Tudor Choir at the Blessed Sacrament Church. This group specializes in Renaissance polyphony, which is some of my favorite choral music in the world. The theme for the night was "Music of the Sistine Chapel," which included music from the 16th and 17th centuries that was composed by individuals who were members of - or closely connected to - the Sistine Chapel's papal choir.

My favorite song that was performed is the famous "Miserere, mei Deus." It was lovely, especially because the choir split up and sang from different areas within the church. There was a quartet located behind the audience, up in the balcony by the choir. Another soloist stood on side of the church in the transept, and then the rest of the choir remained in the front of the building. Ethereal music floated to the congregation from all different directions; it was the best type of "surround sound" that you can imagine. If you are not familiar with this song, here is a performance of this piece (sung by The Tallis Scholars):



The program from tonight's concert included some really interesting historical information about this song, especially how Mozart played a part in popularizing this song in the 18th century. Although the story seems a little bit like a myth (and I noticed that the program pulled some of this information directly off of a Wikipedia entry that lacks citations), I thought that I would share it. This is what was included in my program:

"Miserere, mei Deus is easily the most famous vocal work of the Renaissance, largely due to an edition dating from the early-20th century, which included a soaring high C for the soprano in the odd-numbered verses sung by a quartet. The work started out as a simple succession of chords to which Pslam 51 was chanted, but over decades of exclusive performances by the Papal choir, embellishments were added by singers and the piece evolved into a legendary work. A heightened sense of mystery surrounded the piece as the Papal choir jealously guarded it from others. Occasionally a copy of the music would make its way out into the world, once via a young Mozart, who copied the work from memory after hearing a performance.

According to the popular story (backed up by family letters), the fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome, when he first heard the piece during the Wednesday service. Later that day, he wrote it down entirely from memory, returning to the Chapel that Friday to make minor corrections. Some time during his travels, he met the British historian Dr Charles Burney, who obtained the piece from him and took it to London, where it was published in 1771. Once the piece was published, the ban was lifted; Mozart was summoned to Rome by the Pope, only instead of excommunicating the boy, the Pope showered praises on him for his feat of musical genius. The work was also transcribed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1831 and Franz Liszt, and various other 18th and 19th century sources survive. Since the lifting of the ban, Allegri's Miserere has become one of the most popular a cappella choral works now performed."

If I can find a historical source to help support this story about Mozart, I will include it in this post in the future. Really, I'm a little bit surprised to see a lack of information on this particular subject online. So far, I have just found a site discussing this story in relation to copyright laws.