Renaissance / Early Baroque · 1638
Miserere mei, Deus
G. Allegri
- Key
- Cm
- Time
- C
- Tempo
- ♩=60
- AO focus
- AO3
Incipit
Form
Setting of Psalm 51 for two choirs (5 + 4 voices). Sung at the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week. The Vatican kept the score secret for centuries; legend has it the 14-year-old Mozart memorised the entire piece after one hearing in 1770.
Teaching points
- Two-choir antiphony (cori spezzati) — choirs alternate, then combine for the climaxes
- The famous high C — the soprano descant in the second choir leaps to a top C. Tradition holds that this was originally an ornament added by Sistine Chapel singers, not Allegri's notation
- AO3: secret Vatican music — Mozart's transcription broke the embargo. Discuss the tension between sacred ritual and public access
Full score ↓Public domain
Score: CPDL multiple editions (with and without the famous 'high C' descant). All public domain.