Choral Choir (Mixed) - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1014330 Composed by Michael A. McKay. A Cappella,Contemporary. Octavo. 22 pages. Michael A. McKay #6088247. Published by Michael A. McKay (A0.1014330). Miserere Mei, Deus is a setting of Psalm 51 for a cappella choir, but it is no motet. It is an expressionistic piece in the horror genre, at times creepy and unsettling, at times dark and violent; it is extremely dramatic.The piece was commissioned for a concert commemorating the late-Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo. In it, Gesualdo implores God to have mercy on him for his murdering his wife and her lover in flagrante. He recalls the brutal slaughter, recreated in operatic Sprechstimme by half of the choir, while the other half wails and moans, but as he begs for forgiveness, his own words to his wife come back to haunt him: Pieta?! Non avra la mia pieta! (Mercy?! You will have no mercy from me!). He whips himself furiously and sinks to the floor exhausted, murmuring the groans for forgiveness that opened the work. It is left unresolved whether he has received forgiveness. .
