{"id":643,"date":"2020-04-08T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T12:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=643"},"modified":"2025-06-13T22:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T22:02:34","slug":"music-for-spy-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/music-for-spy-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Music For Spy Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am not intending this series to have much of a theme usually, but it seems right that over the next few days I post some music that fits in some way with Easter.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Having said that &#8211; I don&#8217;t think I will be posting much that is specifically &#8216;Easter Music&#8217; with the exception of today&#8217;s post.\u00a0 The &#8220;Miserere Mei&#8221; written by Allegri in the 1630s (probably &#8211; no one knows for sure) was originally exclusively used in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week &#8211; specifically during Tenebrae and often on Spy Wednesday.\u00a0 This makes it particularly appropriate for me to share today.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-center width80\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/jimages\/sistine.jpg\" alt=\"Sistine Chapel\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The last time that I heard this live was actually at a service for Ash Wednesday in Coventry Cathedral.\u00a0 The music casts a spell over the listeners that is quite special &#8211; and having visited the Sistine Chapel for the first time just a couple of years ago I can only imagine how lovely this would sound in there.<\/p>\n<p>For some, this video may be too long, but I intend to make no apologies for posting clips that require the listener to spend a little bit more time than the soundbites we often find around.\u00a0 I would suggest that you close your eyes and let this music wash over you for the next few minutes and let it bring a bit of calm and peace.<\/p>\n<h5 align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3s45XOnYOIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gregorio Allegri : Miserere Mei<\/a><\/h5>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div class=\"video-wrapper\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3s45XOnYOIw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Comments<\/em>\u00a0:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Howard J Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I heard this on Radio 3 this week, sung by the 16, but in what was an original version. There is scholarship to suggest that it evolved into this version that we know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>George McConnell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Indeed &#8211; haven&#8217;t heard the 16 version but wasn&#8217;t aware that the original could be sourced &#8211; will look it out. I guess that it was probably written originally on the 17th Century equivalent of the &#8220;back of a fag packet&#8221; \ud83d\ude01<\/p>\n<p><strong>Howard J Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>George, gorgeous music!<\/p>\n<p><strong>George McConnell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Howard I found the version you were talking about &#8211; it is quite different, but also lovely, even more plainchant-like I think (listening at the moment!). In searching I discovered that I was wrong about not knowing about it &#8211; there was a BBC documentary a few years ago with Simon Russell Beale charting the history of the music illustrated by The Sixteen. I also found this short interview with Harry Christophers talking about the &#8220;evolution&#8221; version<\/p>\n<h5 align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3s45XOnYOIw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gregorio Allegri : Miserere Mei<\/a><\/h5>\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div class=\"video-wrapper\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hAwzChKpDi0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am not intending this series to have much of a theme usually, but it seems right that over the next few days I post some music that fits in some way with Easter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[77,82,105],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-choral","tag-early-music","tag-religious"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2763,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/2763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systemsthink.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}