Miserere Mei, Deus by Allegri

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djames99

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It’s almost a sacrilege not to have this beautiful music sung for any Good Friday or lent, let alone Good Friday for this year of Jubilee of Mercy.

Other than finding someone who can hit the high "C"s, it’s not that difficult to assemble 8 choir members with a good grounding in latin to sing it. Time is short, on the other hand, each line is sung almost exactly the same. I’m not a music expert, but it seems to me it could be done in time.

Trads should put in a plug to have it sung, in fact almost an obligation.
 
djames99 said:
It’s almost a sacrilege not to have this beautiful music sung for any Good Friday or lent, let alone Good Friday for this year of Jubilee of Mercy.

Other than finding someone who can hit the high "C"s, it’s not that difficult to assemble 8 choir members with a good grounding in latin to sing it. Time is short, on the other hand, each line is sung almost exactly the same. I’m not a music expert, but it seems to me it could be done in time.

Trads should put in a plug to have it sung, in fact almost an obligation.
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I’m a bit bewildered by the lack of context here. What church, may I ask, do you regret is not singing the Miserere Mei?

Mine will be.
 
dshix said:
You didn’t really answer my post. What’s your agenda in creating this thread?
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I’m not an agenda person, sorry. 🙂 I’m more an inspiration to conversation ‘jump in if you want to’ type.

Your lucky to be in a parish to hear it. It is hardly sung anywhere in Dioceses. Of the three EF Churches in my area, none has scheduled it. It should be sung in the regular Churches as well, with a printing of the Psalm in English(or common language) on one side and Latin on the other. People would love it.

In this world we can use descriptive terms to describe our feelings about music. We can use terms such has ‘blues’, or ‘up beat’ to describe a song, but not this. Such music is from heaven and can only be described by terms derived by the heart.

Miserere is an expression of love to man. God’s love goes to extent that even in the depths of our sins, when we cry out for mercy, he reciprocates by giving a composer the grace to put it in music, because the appeal to mercy is already ‘music’ to God’s ears, as it is proof of a battle against evil won. Immediately the Pope ‘sensed’ the origin of this music and held it privately for the clergical community, only later to be given to all men.

So it is a tragedy that it is not sung in all Churches during lent. Especially Good Friday.
 
It is sung. We had the Allegri setting on Ash Wednesday, and sing a plainsong version on Good Friday, and I don’t attend an EF mass. But having seen some of the music lists in American churches I can understand why this might be considered unusual.
 
liturgyluver said:
It is sung. We had the Allegri setting on Ash Wednesday, and sing a plainsong version on Good Friday, and I don’t attend an EF mass. But having seen some of the music lists in American churches I can understand why this might be considered unusual.
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That’s great! I’m jealous. 🙂

"considered unusual’

Would you describe it has a reluctance, a discomfort perhaps?. I ask because in this day and age the unusual is accepted readily, even to their peril it would seem.

I would expect discomfort, as this music has it’s foundation in reconciliation. So few are comfortable with confession either these days.
 
djames99 said:
That’s great! I’m jealous. 🙂

"considered unusual’

Would you describe it has a reluctance, a discomfort perhaps?. I ask because in this day and age the unusual is accepted readily, even to their peril it would seem.

I would expect discomfort, as this music has it’s foundation in reconciliation. So few are comfortable with confession either these days.
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Nothing of the kind in my opinion. It is nothing to do with the confessional nature of the piece but more a comment about the state of liturgical music, and an inactive sense of participation.
 
liturgyluver said:
Nothing of the kind in my opinion. It is nothing to do with the confessional nature of the piece but more a comment about the state of liturgical music, and an inactive sense of participation.
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That could be, thanks.
 
Though a great choir will make the piece SEEM effortless, it is actually quite a difficult piece to put together well. You need a solid mens’ schola to interpret the chant correctly, a soprano with good high C’s, and the other parts in the choir require good blend. It’s an unbelievably beautiful work, and I would love to hear it more often, but most church choir directors simply don’t have the resources to make it happen.
 
Anna_jane said:
Though a great choir will make the piece SEEM effortless, it is actually quite a difficult piece to put together well. You need a solid mens’ schola to interpret the chant correctly, a soprano with good high C’s, and the other parts in the choir require good blend. It’s an unbelievably beautiful work, and I would love to hear it more often, but most church choir directors simply don’t have the resources to make it happen.
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Thank you for the info.
 
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