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Let's talk choral music.

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pwhodges:
You do realise, I hope, that the much-loved "traditional" version of the Allegri Miserere with that famous high phrase is a stylistically impossible fabrication by a late 19th century editor who completely misunderstood a comment made by Mendelssohn?

Barmymoo:
I did not realise this. Tell me more!

pwhodges:

--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 14 Jan 2013, 10:28 ---I did not realise this. Tell me more!

--- End quote ---

The Miserere sung in the Vatican was composed several times by different composers, following the same framework, so that the pieces are very similar.  The best known version are those of Allegri and Bai, and a combination of these two was also sung; Mendelssohn said he couldn't even hear the difference!  This was partly because the famous "secret" was not the pieces themselves, but the very elaborate ornamentation (called the abbellimenti) which was applied in the same way regardless of which version of the piece was being sung!  A fairly detailed account which includes details of how the modern corrupt version got created is here.  A very detailed account based on a late but genuine manuscript is here.

Barmymoo:
Interesting! I was thinking a couple of days ago how Allegri couldn't have been the only person to set those words to music, just as Beethoven couldn't be the only person to have written a solemn mass. It's funny how certain works become synonymous with their names or settings, despite being one of many.

The Missa Solemnis concert went well last night - although I felt awful for the poor alto soloist. She'd been struggling with counting for her entries in the rehearsal, as a couple of times she had to come in immediately after a tempo change and Roger Norrington has a tendency to stop conducting, or be very unhelpful (he told us straight out that he wouldn't be giving us our entries). He wasn't even using a score, and although he clearly knew the work by heart, it meant he didn't always know exactly who was coming in next. She got flustered in the performance and was quite badly out of time in the final section. It will only have been noticed by anyone who knows the work well, or those of us following a score... but that was several hundred people. Poor girl, she wasn't very old. Admittedly she's a professional and ought to be able to count, but I did feel bad for her.

Redball:
Paul, I told you I've been wanting to hear your surround sound recordings in surround sound. Here in Tucson, I've been working toward it. I don't like to put much money into a condo I occupy two months out of the year, but a friend here gave me a JVC digital media system with 5.1 speakers and digital audio inputs. After way too much time connecting TV, Apple TV controller and DVD player, I just got the women's trio coming out of at least 4 speakers using VLC app, but I don't have enough speaker wire to place the rear speakers properly yet. Still working on it.

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