The Miserere by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) is one of the most popular, oft performed and recorded choral pieces of late Renaissance/early Baroque music. Yet the piece known today bears little resemblanceto Allegri's original or to the piece as it was performed before 1870. 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 Tenebrae 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 focussing 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 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.

About the Author
GRAHAM O'REILLY is founder and conductor of the French-based Ensemble William Byrd, which recorded the Miserere from a late Vatican manuscript in 2000.

Reviews
This is an essential read for amateur and professional choral singers and directors, but [also] for music lovers, giving an inspiring insight into the complexities of musical transmission and the development of musical interpretation through the ages. * Andrew Benson-Wilson: Early Music Reviews *
[An] absorbing volume. . . . [T]his book is a fascinating account of an institution as well as of the multiple transformations of a piece of music that in consequence of its textural uncertainties, as O'Reilly comments, has "only really existed within a performance context." -- Thomas Cooper * The Consort *
It is the open and yet historically anchored attitude of the author that makes his approach so valuable and his book so worth reading. * JOURNAL FOR SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC *
Graham O'Reilly opens the door to amazing, and perhaps unexpected, ways of interpreting this iconic work. Whether you are a performer of this work or merely an appreciative listener, O'Reilly's text should be an important and illuminating part of your own journey. * THE JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF ANGLICAN MUSCIANS *
O'Reilly has produced a comprehensive and definitive account that asks and answers all the relevant questions about this extraordinary work. Most importantly, there is, for the first time, a convincing account of the Papal Choir's performance practice. The book should be compulsory reading for anyone intending to programme, direct, or perform this remarkable piece. * JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL EARLY MUSIC ASSOCIATION *
O'Reilly writes in an engaging manner and tells the story particularly from the perspective of a performer and conductor. -- Noel O'Regan * MUSIC & LETTERS *
Author and conductor Graham O'Reilly unravels the historical and musical threads in a meticulous and entertaining narrative. * Opera News *
The entire story has now been told by Graham O'Reilly in an academically rigorous yet thrilling narrated and beautifully written book. There are parts of the story that might do service as the basis for a Netflix blockbuster. -- Richard Osborne * THE OLDIE *



Book Information
ISBN 9781783274871
Author Graham O'Reilly
Format Hardback
Page Count 388
Imprint The Boydell Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g