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Views from the Choir Loft

Sistine Chapel Choir has made Great Improvement

Andrew Leung · November 12, 2015

FEW WEEKS AGO, Veronica shared on her post about the new CD that the Sistine Chapel Choir is releasing. The CD, Cantate Domino is now available on Deutsche Grammophon and I have just received my CD. I have listened to it more than three times now and I am just amazed by the improvement they have made! You can hear the differences if you compare these two recordings below.

(1) Palestrina’s Reges Tharis et insulae from 2011:



(2) Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus from the 2015 CD:



HE SISTINE CHAPEL CHOIR sounds like a British boys’ choir! The recordings in this CD are definitely the best ones I have ever heard from the Italian choir. The balance, blending and tuning is perfect! This is the first time that the Sistine Chapel has been used for a commercial recording. The music recorded in the CD was written specifically for the Sistine Chapel Choir for papal celebrations. The choir has recorded both Gregorian Chant and polyphonic pieces in this album.

What do you think about this new album? Do you like the way they are singing now? Feel free to leave comments on the Facebook page.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another… It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. […] Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, may get good from both and belong to neither.”

— Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman (May of 1879)

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