The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-04-02
The Miserera.

The latest number of Groves Dictionary of
Music and Musicians contains the following
concerning the Miserere:
''The psalm Miserere mel Deus, as sung in
the Sistine Chapel, has excited more admira-
tion and attained more lasting celebrity than
any other musical performance on record. Its
effect has been described over and over again
in sober histories, guide-books and journals
without end; but never very satisfactorily. In
truth it is difficult to convey in intelligent Lam
guage any idea of the profound impression it
never fails to produce upon the minds Of all
who hear it, since it owes its irresistible charm
less to the presence of any easily defnable
characteristic than to a combination of circum-
stances each of which influences the feelings
OF any listener in its own peculiar way. Chief
among these are the extraordinary solemnity
of the service into which it is introduced; the
richness of its simple harmonies; and the con-
summate art with which it is sung. The
Mserere forms part Of the service called Tene-
br9, which is sung late in the afternoon on
three days only in the year-the Wednesday in
Holy Week, Maunday Thursday and Good
Friday. At the beginning Of the service the
chapel is lighted by six tall candles on the al
tar, and fifteen others placed on large trian-
gular candle-stick in front. OF these last one
is extinguished at the end of each division Of
the psalms The six altar candles are put out
one by one, during the singing of the Benedic-
tus. The only light then remaining is the up
permost one on the triangular candlestick. This
is removed and carried behind the altar, where
it is completely hidden from view though not
extinguished. The chapel is by this time so
dark that it is only possible to discern the red
vestments of the Pope as he kneels at his gen.
ufexorium. Meanwhile a single soprano
voice sings with exquisite expression the anti
follows, during which the Paternoster is said
in secret-and the first sad wall of the Miserere
then swells from the softest possible pianissimo
into bitter cry for mercy, so thrilling in its
effect that Mendelssohn-the last man in the
world to give way to unnatural excitement
describes this part of the service as the most
sublime moment of the whole. There is rea-
son to believe that the idea of adapting the
Miserere to music of more solemn character
than that generally used for the psalms orig
example in existence is by Costanza Festa,
composed in 1917. Festa's Niserere is
the first of a collection of twelve
contained in two manuscript volumes
preserved in the pontifcal chapel. The other
contributors to the series have been Luigi Den
tice, francesca Guerrero, Palestrina, Gargano,
francesca Anerio, Felice Anerio, an anony-
nous composer, Nanini, Naldini, Giovanelli,
and lastly Allegri, whose work is the only one
of the twelve now rt naming in use. So great
was the jealousy with which these famous
compositions were formerly guarded that it
was all but impossible to obtain transcript of
any one of them. 1t is said that up to the
year ITO only three copies of the Miserere of
Allegri were ever lawfully made-one for the
Emperor Leopold l.; one for the king of Portu-
gal; and a third for the Padre Martini. Padre
Martini lent his MS. to DIR. Burney, who pub
lished it in 1880 in a work now exceedingly
scarce. The authenticity of this version is un-
doubted but it gives only a very faint idea OF
the real Miserere, the beauty of which depends
almost entirely on the manner in which it is
sung. A curious proof of this well-known fact
is afforded by an anecdote related by Santa
relli. When the choristers Of the Imperial
Chapel at Vienna attempted to sing from the
the effect produced was so disappointing that
the Pope's Chapel Master was suspected of
having purposely sent spurious copy in order
that the original music might rest with the
pontifcal choir alone"