The Sistine Chapel choir

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EphelDuath

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Hello, I was recently looking to buy a CD from the Sistine Chapel choir, because I was interested in liturgical music as presided over by the Holy Father. Curiously I could only find one real album widely available, which apparently received poor reviews due to its sound quality.

Anyway, my Google search brought me to an old Fr. Z post: wdtprs.com/blog/2012/03/whats-up-with-sacred-music-in-rome-nothing-good-it-seems/
Further below on this page is a critical review with the byline of an outstanding musicologist and musician, Alessandro Taverna. His judgments on the choir of the Sistine Chapel directed by Palombella are, naturally, debatable. But when, for example, he points out that by the end of an a cappella piece “the singers [had] dropped a good three steps,” he is presenting a fact, not an opinion.
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Wow, that’s pretty shocking! :eek: The article and comments really baffled me. I was under the impression that the choir was the most prestigious in the whole world, but apparently they have an awful reputation (among some, at least):
I’m sorry . . . it’s shameful but true: the choir that ought to be a showpiece of the Church is awful. Any decent musician will tell you the same thing. They are called the “Sistine Screamers” for a reason.
I’m not sure that Westminster Abbey’s choir will embarrass them, they are so bad they probably don’t even realize it.
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I’ve never quite understood why Sandro Magister does these ‘disaster’ pieces about the Sistine Chapel choir, as if we were in danger of losing some recent golden age. The Sistine chapel choir has been awful for longer than anyone can remember, regardless of the maestro and his views on sacred music. It would certainly be a great thing for the Church if the musical quality got better, but it could hardly get much worse.
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And really, a Sistine choir that sounds good is hardly a Sistine choir at all. Criticizing the Sistine Choir’s for bad performances is like criticizing the White House for being too white.
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As for the SisChap choir, the problem there appears to go back to the beginnings of the paleolithic period. No news here. Not even PX could fix this problem.
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Are there any accuracy in these claims? Anywhere I can read some sort of history of the SSC? Sorry for my naivety on the issue…

God bless 🙂
 
Just listen to them online - e.g., youtube - they aren’t that good. The cathedral choirs of England are far better.
 
EphelDuath said:
But WHY is it bad? :confused:
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I sang in an award winning all-boys choir as a kid in England.

A few things were drilled into us relentlessly - breathing techniques, finishing words properly without snatching their endings in order to take a breath, enunciation, staying on key (not winding up to the note from beneath but hitting it from above), precision, not being lazy, power and sweetness in our voices, eyes on the conductor at all times etc., etc.
 
So historically, why has (what should be) the most prestigious choir in the Western world not employ these techniques, like practically every other professional music group does?
 
I’m not sure. Fr. Z’s column and the comments have a few suggestions.

I personally think they rested on their laurels and were content for visitors to the Vatican to give undeserved praise.

The Vatican relied on Castrati until well after everyone else had stopped, and they used their last castrati as a very showy (but not objectively very good) singer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Moreschi
 
Sicut cervus! Maybe my favorite Palestrina piece.

That Sistine choir link was… difficult to listen to, for sure.
 
My cousin (who was actually quite a famous knabbensporano 'til his voice broke) was in Westminster Cathedral Choir School from the age of seven.

He sings on this. I won’t use his name -he has a different life now, but if you look up the album you will see his name.

http://o.scdn.co/300/2deed1f7bff6ba4badf34fc853ba2c78e354b949

There was very stiff competition to get in since not only did the boys sing in one of the world’s best choirs they also got a fantastic Catholic education too.

All the best choir schools have similarly high entrance requirements and many applicants. I’m not sure this is the case at the Vatican.
 
The Sistine Choir is MUCH better than they were before the reign of BXVI!
 
To me (and this might have something to do with t.v. audio), they don’t seem to blend well. The choir often sounds like a large group of Italian tenors belting out an operatic aria. It sounds like a group of soloists trying to outsing one another.
The boys sound like they are wailing.

I really, really like the sound of this choir: youtube.com/watch?v=xRobryliBLQ
 
So is there some editorial or history book I can read which explains the history of the choir…?
 
Art, architecture, and music should all work together well to celebrate God’s glory through His creation- as well as His glory through his apostles and their successors. These musicians, at least in the recordings I’ve heard, sound like good amateurs and most churches would be glad to have them. This is the Sistine Chapel though, and the choir should be the best of the best.
 
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