Editing Gregorio Allegri (section)

==Life==
He studied music as a ''puer'' (boy chorister) at [[San Luigi dei Francesi]], under the ''[[maestro di cappella]]'' [[Giovanni Bernardino Nanino]], brother of [[Giovanni Maria Nanino]]. Being intended for the Church, he obtained a benefice in the cathedral of [[Fermo]]. Here he composed a large number of [[motet]]s and other sacred music, which, being brought to the notice of [[Pope Urban VIII]], obtained for him an appointment in the choir of the [[Sistine Chapel]] at Rome as a [[contralto]]. He held this from 6 December 1629 until his death. Allegri is said to have been a virtuous man, as well as good-natured and generous to the poor and to prisoners.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Allegri, Gregorio|volume=1|page=690}}</ref><ref>"In addition to his virtue, he had singularly good nature. He gave generous alms to the poor, who were always on his doorstep, as well as to prisoners, whom he visited daily, as I was assured by one of his pupils, a man worthy of belief, who is still alive." (''Era anco aggiunta alla sua virtù una singolar bontà di costumi. Tanto a i poveri, che aveva sempre alla sua porta di Casa, quanto a i carcerati, che quotidianamente visitava, faceva larghe limosine, come mi ha attestato un suo scolare ancor vivente Uomo degno d'ogni credito''), [[Andrea Adami da Bolsena|Andrea Adami]], ''Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro della cappella pontificia'', Antonio de' Rossi, Roma, 1711, pp. 199–200.</ref>

Among Allegri's musical compositions were two volumes of concerti for five voices published in 1618 and 1619; two volumes of motets for six voices published in 1621; an edition of a four-part [[sinfonia]]; five [[mass (music)|masses]]; two settings of the ''[[Lamentations of Jeremiah]]''; and numerous motets which were not published in his lifetime. He was one of the earliest composers for [[string instrument|stringed instruments]], and [[Athanasius Kircher]] has given one specimen of this class of his works in his ''[[Musurgia Universalis]]''.<ref name="EB1911"/> Most of Allegri's published music, especially the instrumental music, is in the progressive early Baroque [[concertato]] style. However, his work for the Sistine Chapel is descended from the [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]] style, and in some cases strips even this refined, simple style of almost all localised ornamentation. He is credited with the earliest [[string quartet]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hull |first1=A. Eaglefield |last2=Allegri |first2=Gregorio |date=1929 |title=The Earliest Known String-Quartet |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/738307 |journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=72–XI |doi=10.1093/mq/XV.1.72 |jstor=738307 |issn=0027-4631}}</ref>