Little is known of Allegri's parents or home life. From the age of
nine he was a choirboy in Rome, going on to become a tenor at San
Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where he remained between the ages of
14 and 22. He then studied under the composer Giovanni Nanini
until he was nearly 30, an intensive period of learning during
which he was strongly influenced by Palestrina. From 1607 to 1621
he was a singer and composer at Fermo, then at Tivoli; finally he
progressed to the rank of Maestro di Cappella at the church of
Santo Spirito in Sassia (Rome), by which time he was 46 and had
had 37 years of musical training and practice.
Towards the end of 1630, at the age of 48, Allegri joined Urban
VIII's Papal choir. In this inspiring environment not only did his
singing develop but he was able to evolve new compositional ideas.
The legacy of Palestrina's teaching, together with his own
experience in the Papal choir, led Allegri to write a number of
works for the choir's use. Among these was his setting of the
Penitential Psalm 51: the famous Miserere.
In essence, this is a simple chant on one-chord sung by an
unaccompanied five-part choir with a second four-part choir adding
further elements, including passages for solo treble which climb
to a high С — a rarity at that time. The effect was to give a
supreme, ethereal quality to the music that enhanced its
celebration of the glory of God.
The Miserere was written to be part of the important
Holy Week celebrations at St Peter's in Rome, and it proved so
powerful that it became a traditional part of the Holy Week
service sung in the Sistine Chapel every year. The musical score
of the work was kept under guard; only three copies are known to
have existed. To copy it was an offence punishable by
excommunication. Wide-scale performance of the Miserere
became possible only after Mozart, at the age of 14, wrote out the
complete score from memory after listening to only one or two
performances.
Allegri's music was sung for more than 100 years in the Sistine
Chapel, especially his six- and eight-part Masses. In these, like
Palestrina, he used the a cappella technique of writing for
unaccompanied voices, featuring instruments only when they doubled
the vocal parts. He also published a number of compositions that
were influenced by the musical fashions of northern Italy and not
suited to the religious needs of Rome. Allegri's music subtly
explored new musical ground, combining his decades of discipline
and experience in church music with elements of madrigals and
dance rhythms.
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