Next Sunday (24 February) at St Peter’s, Rome, The Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School will join the Basilica’s own choir, the Cappella Giulia, to sing Capitular Mass and Vespers. 2013 marks the 500th anniversary of the Cappella Giulia’s foundation and during the course of the year, this venerable choir will be joined by others from around the world to sing at St Peter’s. Next Sunday is the first such collaboration. At Mass, the Ordinary will be sung by both choirs and the Propers will be sung by the Cappella Giulia. The Motets, by Spanish renaissance composer Cristobal de Morales and the English Tudor composer William Byrd, will be sung by the Schola Cantorum. At the end of Mass, both choirs, situated opposite each other in the two transepts of the Altar of the Chair, will sing the sublime double-choir motet Adoramus te, Christe by the late renaissance Slovenian composer Jacob Handl.
At Vespers, the Hymn, Psalms and Magnificat will be sung to Gregorian Chant with polyphonic alternatims by Ingegneri, Cima and Lassus. At the close of Vespers, the Schola will sing Ave Maria by the English Tudor composer Robert Parsons. The full music list is as follows:
The England-Rome Reapproachment Continues
Charles Cole’s schola spent some time in Rome singing with the St. Peter’s schola. And next Sunday