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First Recorded Instance of Musical Piracy in History

submitted by HistNerd

1 decade 7 years 8 months 3 weeks ago

This song was written by Gregorio Allegri during the 1630s. It was so coveted by the Catholic Church, that Pope Urban VIII forbid it to be copied or played anywhere but in the Sistine Chapel on Ash Wednesday, once a year. Mozart when he was 14 years old, came and listened to it and promptly wrote it out from memory. He gave it to a publisher in London, and after that the Catholic Church lifted the ban. Thus the first instance of musical piracy in history.

This particular version is sung by the New College Choir at Oxford. You may be intested to know that this choir is all male. The fantastic treble soloist you hear, is a boy, between the ages of 8 and 12.

I know that this one is not exactly a video . . . but, it's the Miserere, quite possibly one of the most famous accapella songs in history. I think it's worth sharing.

Click on part 2 to hear the rest.

To read up on the Miserere, click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miserere_%28Allegri%29

10 Comments

wow, thats remarkable music. the F# to high B soloist does sound incredible.

story reminds me how Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D-minor (his most famous work?) was likely simply attributed to him by a student of one of his students... ahh yes, wikipedia agrees with me, so you know its gotta be true! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_Minor

If anyone could copy it, Mozart could.

Yes he could. He could copy it, and improve the shit out of it!

MarineGunrock

This needs way more attention. It's SUCH a beautiful piece.
Annnnnnnd *PROMOTE!

Promoting this classic video back to the front page; last published Monday, March 5th, 2007 2:58am PST - promote requested by MarineGunrock.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'gregorio allegri, miserere mei deus' to 'gregorio allegri, miserere mei deus, choir' - edited by MarineGunrock

Wow.

yeah that's the shit right there. catholics, eh? when something makes such good music you can forgive a lot of other stuff.
nice story about mozart being a pirate.

burdturgler

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by burdturgler.

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