Allegri, Gregorio
Period: Baroque
Born: c. 1582 in Rome, Italy
Died: Wednesday, February 7, 1652 in Rome, Italy
Nation of Origin: Italy
Major Works:
Miserere composed for the Sistine Chapel, is unusual in that it is scored for 9 voice parts. The parts are divided among 2 choirs, one with 4 voices and the other with 5.
Other Information:
Allegri was a Catholic priest. He composed church music of which his Miserere was most famous. The Catholic church forbade the publication of the work under penalty of excommunication. Mozart, however, was so impressed with the Miserere that he violated the law and wrote it out by memory after hearing it only twice.
General Bibliography:
Bukofzer, Manfred F., Music in the Baroque Era, from Monteverdi to Bach, W.W. Norton & Company, November 1947, ISBN: 0393097455
Palisca, Claude V. Baroque Music, Prentice Hall, December 1990, ISBN: 0130584967
Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura; Editors, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Gale Group, December 2000, ISBN: 0028655257
Sadie, Stanley and Tyrrell, John; Editors, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Groves Dictionaries, Inc., January 2004, ISBN: 0195170679
Rutherford-Johnson, Tim, Kennedy, Michael, and Kennedy, Joyce The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 6th Edition, 2012, ISBN: 0199578109
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Biographical essay from Wikipedia
