The Sistine Chapel Choir is a choir based in Vatican City and is one of the oldest religious choirs in the world. For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers Vatican City, officially the State of the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano is a Landlocked sovereign City-state whose territory "The world " is a proper noun for the planet Earth envisioned from an Anthropocentric or Human Worldview, as a place
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History
Middle Ages (c. 600-c. 1300)
Although it is known that the Church, from her earliest days, employed music, it was not until the time of her emergence from the catacombs that she began freely to display her beauty and splendour in sacred song. The first Burial galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. As early as in the pontificate of Sylvester I (314-35) we find a regularly-constituted company of singers, under the name of schola cantorum, living together in a building devoted to their exclusive use. The word "schola" was in those days the legal designation of an association of equals in any calling or profession and did not primarily denote, as in our time, a school. It had more the nature of a guild, a characteristic which clung to the papal choir for many centuries. A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers
Hilarius (461-8) ordained that the pontifical singers live in community, while Gregory the Great (590-604) not only made permanent the existing institution attached to St. John Lateran and including at that time in its membership monks, secular clergy, and boys, but established a second and similar one in connection with the Basilica of St. Peter. The Basilica of St John Lateran ( Italian: Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano) is the Cathedral of the church of Rome and the official MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective In the Catholic Church, secular clergy are religious ministers such as deacons and priests who do not belong to a religious order. The Basilica of Saint Peter (Basilica Sancti Petri officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St The latter is supposed to have served as a sort of preparatory school for the former.
For several centuries the papal "schola cantorum" retained the same general character. Its head, archicantor or primicerius, was always a clergyman of high rank and often a bishop. A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight While it was his duty to intone the various chants to be followed by the rest of the singers, he was by no means their master in the modern technical sense.
Rome, Avignon, & Rome again (c. 1300-1471)
It is at the time of the transfer of the papal see from Rome to Avignon in the thirteenth century that a marked change takes place in the institution. In the History of the Roman Catholic Church, the Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1377 during which seven Popes all French, resided in Avignon Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Avignon (/aviɲɔ̃/ in French) ( Provençal: Avinhon in classical norm or Avignoun in Mistralian norm is a commune Innocent IV did not take his schola cantorum with him to his new abode, but provided for its continuance in Rome by turning over to it properties, tithes, and other revenues. Pope Innocent IV, born Sinibaldo Fieschi was Pope from June 28, 1243 to December 7, 1254. Community life among the singers seems to have come to an end at this period. Clement V (1305-14) formed a new choir at Avignon, consisting for the most part of French singers, who showed a decided preference for the new developments in church music — the "déchant" and "fauxbourdons" ("falsibordoni"), which had in the meantime gained great vogue in France. Pope Clement V' (About 1264 &ndash April 20, 1314) born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled de Gouth and de This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.
When Gregory XI (1370-8) returned to Rome, he took his singers with him and amalgamated them with the still-existing, at least in name, ancient schola cantorum. See also Vicedomino de Vicedominis, a pope-elect who took the name Gregory XI. Before the sojourn of the papal Court at Avignon, it had been the duty of the schola to accompany the Pope to the church where he held station, but after the return to Rome, the custom established at Avignon of celebrating all pontifical functions in the papal church or chapel was continued and has existed since.
The primicerius of former times is now no longer mentioned but is replaced by the "magister capellae", which title, however, continues to be more an honorary one held by a bishop or prelate than in indication of technical leadership, as may be gathered from the relative positions assigned to various dignitaries, their prerogatives, etc. Thus the "magister capellae" came immediately after the cardinals, followed, in the order given, by the "sacrista", "cantores", "capellani" and "clerici". A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church.
Renaissance & the First Golden Age (1471-1545)
With the building by Sixtus IV (1471-84) of the church for the celebration of all papal functions since known as the Sistine Chapel, the original "schola cantorum" and subsequent "capella pontificia" or "capella papale", which still retains more or less of the guild character, becomes the "capella sistina", or Sistine Choir, whose golden era takes its beginning. Pope Sixtus IV ( July 21, 1414 &ndash August 12, 1484) born Francesco Della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484 Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina is the best-known Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. Up to this time the number of singers had varied considerably, there being sometimes as few as nine men and six boys. By a Bull dated November, 1483, Sixtus IV fixed the number at twenty-four, six for each part. A Papal bull is a particular type of Letters patent or charter issued by a Pope.
After the year 1441 the records no longer mention the presence of boys in the choir, the high voices, soprano and alto, being thenceforth sung by natural (and occasionally unnatural) soprani falsetti and high tenors respectively. This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. Membership in the papal choir became the great desideratum of singers, contrapuntists, and composers of every land, which accounts for the presence in Rome, at least for a time, of most of the great names of that period.
The desire to re-establish a sort of preparatory school for the papal choir, on the plan of the ancient schola, and incidentally to become independent of the ultramontane, or foreign, singers, led Julius II (1503-13) to issue, on 19 February 1512, a Bull founding the capella Julia, which to this day performs all the choir duties at St. Pope Julius II (5 December 1443 &ndash 21 February 1513 born Giuliano Della Rovere, was Pope from 1503 to 1513 Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum Peter's. It became indeed, and has ever since been, a nursery for, and stepping-stone to, membership in the Sistine Choir. The high artistic aims of its founder have, however, but rarely been attained, owing to the rarity of the truly great choirmasters.
Leo X (1513-21), himself a musician, by choosing as head of the organization a real musician, irrespective of his clerical rank, took a step which was of the greatest importance for the future. Pope Leo X, born Giovanni de' Medici (December 11 1475 – December 1 1521 was Pope from 1513 to his death It had the effect of transforming a group of vocal virtuosi on equal footing into a compact vocal body, whose interpretation of the greatest works of polyphony which we possess, and which were then coming into existence, became the model for the rest of the world, not only then but for all time. Leo's step was somewhat counteracted by Sixtus V (1534-49) on 17 November 1545, published a Bull approving a new constitution of the choir, which has been in force ever since, and according to which the choir-master proposes the candidates for membership, who are then examined by the whole company of singers. Pope Sixtus V ( December 13, 1521 &ndash August 27, 1590) born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590 Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Since that time the state of life of the candidate has not been a factor.
Baroque & Gradual Decline (1545-1898)
While the Sistine Choir has, since its foundation, undergone many vicissitudes, its artistic and moral level fluctuating, like all things human, with the mutations of the times, it has ever had for its purpose and object to hold up, at the seat of ecclesiastical authority, the highest model of liturgical music as well as of its performance. Liturgical music originated as a part of Religious Ceremony, and includes a number of traditions both ancient and modern When the Gregorian melodies were still the sole music of the Church, it was the papal choir that set the standard for the rest of Christendom, both in regard to the purity of the melodies and their rendition. History Gregorian chant was organized codified and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries with later additions Christendom usually refers to Christianity as a territorial phenomenon After these melodies had blossomed into polyphony, it was in the Sistine Chapel that it received adequate interpretation. In Music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent Melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice ( Monophony Here the artistic degeneration, which church music suffered in different periods in many countries, never took hold for any length of time. The use of instruments, even of the organ, has ever been excluded. The choir's ideal has always been that purely vocal style.
The Second Golden Age and Decline (1898-1956)
The accession of the Pope Pius X, arguably the most musical pope since St. Saint Pius X ( Latin: Pius PP X) ( June 2, 1835 &mdash August 20, 1914) born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the Gregory the Great, caused a complete turn-around in the quality of music in the Vatican. Under the directorship of Pius's long-time friend, the legendary composer/conductor Don Lorenzo Perosi, the artistic level of the Sistine Choir was raised to a higher point than it had occupied for the previous thirty or forty years. Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi ( 21 December 1872 - 12 October 1956) was an Italian Composer of Sacred music and the only
Only two months after his coronation in 1903, Pius released his Motu Proprio (co-written, no doubt, by Pius's great friend Perosi, whom had been Maestro di Cappella since 1898 and was now promoted to "Maestro Perpetuo"). A motu proprio ( Latin "on his own impulse" is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi ( 21 December 1872 - 12 October 1956) was an Italian Composer of Sacred music and the only Falsetto voices were succeeded by boys' voices. The term falsetto (Italian diminutive of falso, false refers to the Vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the Modal voice register and One of the reasons for this was that Pius was fervently against the practice of human castration. Castration (also referred to as Gelding, Neutering, Fixing, orchiectomy, and orchidectomy is any action surgical, chemical Thus, he declared that only "whole men" should be allowed to be choristers or priests. Thus ended the castrati's place in Roman Catholic choir lofts and pulpits. A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, or Contralto voice produced either by Castration
The choir's repertoire consisted heavily of the compositions of Don Perosi himself, the greatest composer of sacred music of that time and, arguably, one of the greatest Italian composers in history. There is no question that 1898 until the First World War marked the Golden Age of the Sistine Choir. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All
Though Maestro Perosi's title was "Perpetual," meaning that he held it until his death in 1956, he suffered from chronic mental problems resulting in various interregna of his directorship. These problems manifested themselves around the First World War and continued, on and off, till Perosi's death. Naturally the same high musical standards could not be maintained during Don Perosi's absences, regardless of his "title".
Recent History (1956-1997)
Perosi was succeeded by Domenico Bartolucci. Though Bartolucci retained much of Perosi's music in the choir's repertoire — music which he genuinely respected — Bartolucci was a different musician to Perosi. In particular, his tempos were slow. However his most famous composition, the "Missa de Angelis" is a bright and glorious piece for four voices (SATB), and organ.
Within a decade of Bartolucci's assumption of the directorship, the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) brought drastic changes to every aspect of the liturgy. The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twentieth century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Music was certainly no exception. The glory days of Pius X and Don Perosi were now something of the distant past.
The Choir Today
Father Giuseppe Liberto is the current director of the Sistine Chapel Choir. He has spoken candidly about the problems of music in the Catholic Church since Vatican II. "Any kind of guerilla action against Vatican II does not produce good fruits. The council's principles by now are untouchable. "
This article incorporates text from the entry Sistine Choir in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia
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