"weil es eine der Geheimnisse von Rom" : die Mozarts als verhinderte Überbringer von Allegris Miserere

Abstract

Since the times of Renaissance, Italian culture and arts had broadly reached the regions north of the Alps. To have poets, painters, singers and chapel masters from Italy at court became one of the main features of absolutism. However, only when soon after 1700 the War of Spanish Succession raged and swapped lots of Italian instrumentalists to the German territories, the Italian orchestra style began to dominate, embracing all music with its very specific characters. Thus the Mozarts, when listening to Allegri's famous Miserere in Rome in 1770, must have felt surprised by its Falsobordone setting. Yet other devices of the performance, being baroque in their origin, should have been quite common to them. Against this background, a re-evaluation of the often commented 'wonder' of Wolfgang Amadés by heart-transcription is suggested.

Keywords

• Mozart Father and Son
• Gregorio Allegri's Miserere setting
• Rome
• Cappella Sistina
• Tradition into 18th century Austria
• Salzburg experiences of Holy Week performances