In 18th-century Rome, there was a liturgy that drew royalty to the Vatican: Holy Week. In particular, the Tenebrae service on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday saw all the crowned heads of Europe flock to the Sistine Chapel.
There, the papal choir, in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, performed a gem whose “ineffable beauty” was praised by the poet Goethe: Allegri's Miserere, composed in the 1630s.
In the splendor of the papal chapel plunged into darkness and dimly lit by 27 candles, the cream of the aristocracy held its breath as the polyphonic piece was sung a cappella by two choirs.
It was a mystical moment that lingered in the hearts of the audience, all the more so because the sacred piece was performed only in that place.
A certain mystery therefore surrounded this masterpiece, carried by castrato voices rising to heights of rare celestial purity.
Emperor Leopold I had obtained the score from the pope himself, but was unable to achieve the same result.
The way the notes were interpreted contained one of the secrets that made it a unique success, eclipsing the frescoes of Raphael and Michelangelo.
The vice-prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Father Giacomo Cardinali, told Aleteia this story, which he included in a book recounting the adventures of the young Mozart in Rome.
The legend of a score
For ordinary mortals, Allegri's Miserere was unattainable. Legend had it — and still does, since this version persists today — that the Supreme Pontiff threatened to excommunicate anyone who distributed the score. However, no trace of such a papal provision has been found in the Vatican, according to Father Cardinali.
On the other hand, there is a brief decree by Innocent XI providing for the excommunication of any singer in the papal choir who disclosed any document from the musical heritage of the papal archives.
The young prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, taken on a long European tour by his father, traveled to Rome by stagecoach, and slipped into the audience of the astonished spectators of the Miserere on April 11, 1770. Defying the ban, and thanks to his rare genius, he transcribed every note and every measure in one go. Returning to the Sistine Chapel on April 13, 1770, he listened to it again to fine-tune his copy.
The encounter with the soloist of the Miserere
During the months of isolation caused by COVID, Father Giacomo Cardinali, a philologist and paleographer, conducted extensive research on the collection of administrative documents of the Sistine Chapel. He cross-referenced Mozart's history with the papacy of the time, court intrigues, and Renaissance musical culture in order to distinguish fact from fiction.
He decided to carry out this investigation after having dismissed an Italian journalist who had repeatedly asked him about the subject.
"There was this rumor that Mozart had listened to the Miserere and transcribed it, but it remained a kind of myth without any accurate reconstruction. I didn't think I would be able to find any trace of it in the archives of the Vatican Apostolic Library,“ says Father Cardinali, whose book is soon to be translated into Korean and Japanese.
And then, as he began to dig deeper, the vice-prefect became absorbed in this “fascinating" investigation, which he worked on day and night.
Finally, he was able to recount an unprecedented encounter, concluding this episode worthy of its fame: a few days after transcribing the Miserere, Mozart played the notes of the famous piece on a piano at a social gathering, where, by happy coincidence, the castrato who had performed the solo part with his angelic voice was present.
Fr. Giacomo Cardinali’s book is currently available in Italian: Il giovane Mozart in Vaticano, L’affaire del Miserere di Allegri, Giacomo Cardinali, Sellerio editore Palermo.
