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How did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart reproduce Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere after hearing it in Rome?
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, oil on canvas by Barbara Krafft, 1819.
During his visit to Rome for Holy Week in 1770, the 14-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart heard the famous Miserere by Gregorio Allegri performed by the Sistine Choir. Although the work was considered the choir's exclusive preserve and its notation was strictly guarded, Mozart was able to reproduce the composition by writing it out entirely from memory after hearing it.1