Reach for the Sky I

Allegri Miserere, part 1

(Because of YT's 10-min limit on uploads by non-partners, I was forced to chop the performance into two uploads.)

part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6CM2qrNKoo

This might seem an odd video from an atheist, but contrary to theist propaganda, we can appreciate beauty too.

Over the ages, great beauty has been created in honour of mythologies. These cathedrals, churches, monasteries, abbeys, and priories are scattered across Europe.

The music is Allegri Miserere, performed by the Tallis Scholars, under the direction of Peter Phillips.

Gregorio Allegri wrote the piece in the 1630s, and based it on Psalm 51. The Miserere uses two choirs (one of five voices, the other of four) and "deploys the dominant seventh chord repeatedly like a bomb, the trebles hit high C again and again, and the famous 'abbellimenti' are inserted like a stiletto, to pierce the hardest heart."

A famous tale is associated with this piece. A threat of excommunication was extended by the Vatican to prevent anyone's stealing it for performance outside the Sistine Chapel.

According to the Mozart story (supported by family letters), the fourteen-year-old Wofgang heard the piece while visiting Rome. He smuggled it out of the Sistine Chapel in his head. Later, he wrote it down entirely from memory. He attended another performance to check his memory and make minor corrections.

Mozart passed the score to the British historian Dr Charles Burney. As a result, it was published in 1771 ... thankfully for any who consider this music sublime!

http://www.brightcecilia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1836

Reach for the Sky is the title of a book by an Australian journalist, Paul Brickhill. The title has always struck me as appropriate to the towering majesty of gothic cathedrals.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• allegri
• miserere
• tallis
• scholars
• sistine
• chapel
• pope
• mozart
• cathedral
• church
• monastery
• abbey
• priory
• England
• Europe
• fountains
• riveaulx
• norman
• romanesque
• gothic
• nave
• gloucester
• cupola
• cloister
• Canterbury
• Salisbury
• Durham
• Cordoba
• Ely
• Barcelona
• York
• coventry
• yt:crop=16:9
• yt:quality=high
• classical music

[WeirdAndGeeky]

1:47 still shocks me everytime i hear it

[saphistische]

@WeirdAndGeeky

I'd say "thrills." "Shocks" sounds kinda painful, but perhaps that's what you meant.

[starrynight003]

This is gorgeous Saph, an auditory and visual feast....lovely.

[saphistische]

Thanks, starry. I love gothic cathedrals and allegri miserere.

[dnadsy52]

Than you.. d.

[saphistische]

Thanks, dnadsy.

I love your channel icon ;)

Which reminds me, have you seen the kitten video that is the latest addition to my favourites? It's very cute!

[WeirdAndGeeky]

@saphistiche

I'm thinking arguably both. It definitely touches some sort of nerve.

[1320045]

Pour le son : très bien.

Pour la vidéo : belle présentation d'architecture mais où sont donc passés les choristes ? Absence regrettable...

[info2it]

Saphistische...beautiful video you have put together...really enjoyed it on many levels...visual, audio..heart felt..thank you.

[saphistische]

Thanks again, Tilly.