Allegri, Gregorio (EN)

Allegri Gregorio, *1582 or 1584 Rome, †17/18 February 1652 Rome, Italian composer, singer and bandmaster. In 1591–96, he was a discantist at S. Luigi dei Francesi and studied under G.B. Nanino, and perhaps also G.M. Nanino, in 1601–04, he sang there occasionally as a tenor. From 1607, probably until 1621, he was bandmaster of the cathedral in Fermo; in 1621, he returned to Rome, where he took up the position of bandmaster in S. Spirito in Saxia. At the end of 1629, he obtained a benefice in the cathedral in Tivoli. At the same time, he became a singer in the Sistine Band, and from 1650 until his death he was its bandmaster. In 1634–35 (and perhaps longer), he collaborated as an organiser and musician with the Arciconfraternità del SS. Crocifisso at the church of San Marcello. He maintained a relationship with the band of the Dukes of Altemps. Together with S. Landi and others, he worked on the revision of church hymns. He was appointed Kapellmeister of the Holy Year of 1650. Some of Allegri’s works (such as ad imitationem masses and works composed for Cappella Sistina) fall within the trend of post-Palestrina stile antico (for one and two choirs), which he treated quite freely, using dissonant chords and chromaticism in order to interpret the verbal text. In small-voice works, he introduced a concerto style and varied melodies; it is emphasised that the basso continuo accompaniment is particularly richly developed harmonically. In instrumental works, Allegri moves from a continuous ricercar-type structure to a segmental structure, with a clear differentiation of agogics and compositional techniques in adjacent sections. He owes his fame to Miserere (for 9 voices treated in 2 choirs), probably written in 1638 at the request of the Pope; it was reserved for performance only in the Sistine Chapel and was performed there continuously during Holy Week until approximately 1870. Most of Allegri’s surviving works remained in manuscripts and are kept in many libraries, mainly in Rome.

Literature: A. Adami Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro dei cantori della cappella pontificia, Rome 1711; E. Celani I cantori della Cappella Pontificia nei secoli XVI–XVIII, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” 1907, 1909; A. Cametti La Scuola dei “pueri cantus” di S. Luigi dei Francesi in Roma e i suoi principali allievi (1591–1623): Gregotio, Domenico e Bartolomeo Allegri, Antonio Cifra, Orazio Benevoli, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” 1915; A. Allegra La cappella musicale di S Spirito in Saxia di Roma, “Note d’archivio per la storia musicale” 1940; J.  Lionnet La Musique à Saint-Louis des Français de Rome au XVII^e siècle, part 2, Venice 1985–86 (“Note d’archivio per la storia musicale, nuova serie 3–4, supplement); G. Ciliberti Organizzazione musicale e orientamenti stilistici nello Stato Pontificio post-tridentino, “Rivista internazionale di musica sacra” 1990 No. 4; G. Morche Palestrina-Observanz im frühen Geistlichen Konzert, in: Atti del II convegno internazionale su studi palestriniani, ed. L. Bianchi, G. Rostirolla, Palestrina 1991; S.R. Miller Music for the Mass in Seventeenth-Century Rome: Messe piene, the Palestrina Tradition, and the stile antico, Chicago 1998; S. Ragni Il Miserere di Allegri nella tradizione della Cappella Sistina: Le suggestion letterarie, “Studi e documentazioni” 2000; B. Schrammek Römische Musikerkarrieren in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts, Essen 2002; K. Helfricht G. Allegri, Biographie, Werksverzeichnis, Edition und Untersuchungen zu den geringstimmig-konzertierenden Motetten mit Basso continuo, 2. vol., «Frankfurter Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft» 30, Tutzing 2004; T. Hochradner Einem Wunder Auf Der Spur: Die Mozarts und das Miserere von G. Allegri, “Muzikološki Zbornik/Musicological Annual” 2015 nr 2; G. O’Reilly “Per divertimento del Cittadino Mesplet, amatore et conoscitore della vera Musica”: two early sources of the “abbellimenti” used in Allegri’s “Miserere”, “Early Music” 2016 nr 1; G. O’Reilly “Allegri’s Miserere” in the Sistine Chapel, Woodbridge 2020.