We got hold of the Tallis Scholars' new recording of Allegri's Miserere last week, after seeing a local choral society performing it in the chapel of All Saints Pastoral Centre at London Colney (see the photo on the website, and you'll realise what a great setting it is). Miserere is very possibly my favourite piece of music, sacred or secular. The mythology and mystery which surround it, the beauty of the music, the feelings evoked as the soloist repeatedly hits top C (remarkably not part of the original setting). It is also one of the few pieces of music that could be claimed to have changed my life - or at least my perspective of music. A friend of my father gave me an original copy of the - arguably definitive - Kings College Cambridge recording from 1963 when I passed the voice trial to get into the Minster Choir when I was 10 (unfortunately, if you give a potential collectors item to a 10 year old, it may not retain it's value. I still own it, but it's been fairly well trashed). I recall the shiver down my spine as I listened to it - I came close to tears as I often have done since. This is the point at which I fell in love with sacred music and began to understand the feelings of transcendence which it can induce. No wonder the Pope tried to keep it for himself. The Devil doesn't always have the best tunes.
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