Miserere mei, Deus – Versus 1-7 (~1638)
 
Few pieces in the history of music can evoke the mystery, sublime, and fascination of Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere. Composed around 1638 for the Sistine Chapel choir, to be played during the Tenebrae services in the Holy Week, Pope Urban VIII considered the Miserere so precious and sacred that he banned its playing outside of the Sistine Chapel, surrounding the piece with mystery and veneration. In part for this aura of esoterism, in part for the astonishing beauty of its melody and of the ornamentations that the choir would add time by time, the Miserere became famous and sought-after all-over Europe for centuries, attracting Christians and musicians from everywhere in a sort of musical pilgrimage to listen to its sublime beauty.