The Roman Pontifical Choir

Now in America and Singing for the First Time in History Out of Italy

NORVAL RICHARDSON

FOR the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church the Pontifical Choir can be heard outside of Italy. Formerly one had to be contented in reading of this choir or, if fortunate enough to be in Rome, one had to spend a great deal of time in obtaining tickets of admission to St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, the Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore or wherever the choir was to sing. Now this celebrated organization is in America. Special permission for the journey has been given by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XV. A tour is to be made of most of the American cities. The music of Palestrina has been taken over to the United States, and will be sung there by his own people.

The Pontifical Choir goes back to the earliest days of the Christian Church; one might say that it began its existence in Apostolic days; that it was one of the important forms in the ceremony of the early church; that wherever a gathering of Christians was found—either freedmen singing in the gardens of some lenient Roman nobleman, or less fortunate ones who were seeking refuge from persecution in the catacombs of the Campagna, or even those who were being martyred in the Coliseum— the sound of voices uplifted in singing praises to their new God was inevitable, and characteristic.

Singing seems to have been one of the most encouraging and exalting precepts of that small early group which was to carry on and spread Christianity across the world. A very touching description of the singing of that new group of religious worshippers is to be found in Pater's "Marius, The Epicurean," in which he tells us of the sound of many voices uplifted in song coming from the house of Cecilia and floating out across the Campagna and carrying a message of peace and joy to the whole world.

Out of this form of worship sprang the Schola Cantorum—the first body of choristers of the early Christian era. As the persecuted church emerged from the catacombs the Schola Cantorum began to flourish at once. As early as 314 A. D. it was a well known organization and lending great dignity to the solemn ritual in which Pope Slyvester officiated at St. John Lateran. The Lateran, head church and home of the Popes in those centuries which preceeded their departure to Avignon, and again the holy See up to 1870, when St. Peter's became the head church and the Vatican the official residence of the Popes, might be called the cradle of the Schola Cantorum—the Pontifical Choir. Here it was favored and sustained by successive Popes; here it saw its greatest development; here liturgical music flourished and laid the foundations for so much that has come down to us to-day in sacred music.

The Pontifical Choir abounds in interesting history. Legends surround it on all sides; picturesque lives and characters make its history romantic. It became of absorbing interest to Gregory I, who found time, among his other extraordinary labours, to endow it and interest himself in its music, even going, so far as to revise and rearrange many of its chants.

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina arrived in Rome about the middle of the XVI Century, fresh from his little hill town among the Sabines from which he derived his name. But it was not long before his talent became known and he was made director of music in the Julian chapel at the Vatican.

When the Council of Trent began its celebrated questions upon the desirability of music in churches and had almost reached the point of abolishing it entirely, Palestrina came forward, in defense of his calling, and submitted to the Council three masses which he had specially composed with the view of convincing them that ecclesiastical music was a necessary and spiritual part of the church service. So delighted were the cardinals, assembled to decide this momentous question, with the music which Pàlestrina submitted to them that a decision was reached at once.

Music remained a part of religious worship; Palestrina's masses fulfilled in the highest degree what was demanded by the Council. But an even greater honour was awaiting him. Immediately after the decision of the Council, Pius IV ordered these masses sung in the Sistine Chapel directed by Palestrina himself; and the delighted Pontif was so enthusiastic that he compared the music to that which St. John had heard in his vision of the new Jerusalem. From then on Palestrina remained composer for the 'Sistine Chapel and devoted the remainder of his life (he died in 1594) to those beautiful masses which are being sung to-day by the Pontifical Choir. Somehow, listening to the clear pure voices, one is carried off into another world, a world in which music is of the soul and very far removed from any sensually emotional quality.

The Pontifical Choir, as it now appears in America, consists of eighty voices: adult singers, boys, the director and his assistants. The boys range in age from eight to sixteen and sing the soprano parts. Among them are several soloists. Some of the older boys sing contralto and tenor parts, though most of the tenors are adult singers, as are the basses. The programmes consist mainly of Palestrina's compositions, Mottetti, written for "quatro voci dispari," as the original manuscripts are marked, meaning four different voices— soprano, contralto, tenor and bass. The programmes also contain compositions written by followers of Palestrina, among whom are noted specially representatives of the Venetian school of Music, Ludovico Grossi da Viadana and Marco Antonio Ingegneri and an exceptionally charming composer of Spain, Ludovico da Vittoria.

The choir is directed, and under the special supervision, of Monsignore Raffaele Casimiro Casimiri, the Master of the Chapel of Music of St. John Lateran and also the director of the Polyphonic Society of Rome.