Cappella Giulia choir sings at St Peter's Basilica May 1. Photo credit: CatholicVote (McKenna Snow)
VATICAN CITY // The Vatican choir today sang sacred music about Easter in St. Peter’s Basilica, filling the church with a beautiful declaration about Christ’s triumph over death amid the sixth day of formally mourning the passing of Pope Francis.
Just beneath Bernini’s Chair of St. Peter in the back of the basilica, the Cappella Giulia choir sang compositions by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a renowned Italian choirmaster and composer from the 16th century. Concert attendees sat in pews behind the main altar’s baldacchino while the choir’s song carried throughout much of the church, even if faintly, catching tourists and pilgrims’ attention as they journeyed through the basilica.
A number of people stopped where they simply had a good view of the choir. Parents helped their little children find openings near the front of the crowd so that they could see better.
Palestrina, a lifetime resident of Rome, served as choirmaster at the Basilica of St. John Lateran and at St. Mary Major at different times in his life, according to a foundation dedicated to him. He also served for several years as the maestro of the Cappella Giulia. Palestrina composed liturgical music for Masses and motets, becoming a leading composer for polyphonic music — in which various melodies sung simultaneously work in harmony.
The voices in St. Peter’s Basilica accomplished this masterfully, with some instrumental accompaniment in between pieces.
Almost immediately at the start of the Easter season, the Universal Church found herself suddenly in a sede-vacante (“empty seat”) period following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday morning. His funeral was held the following Saturday, which began the Novemdiales, the traditional nine-day period of mourning the death of a pope.
On May 1, the Cappella Giulia sang of Easter as Vatican personnel worked to prepare the church for the sixth Novemdiales Mass to be celebrated for Pope Francis’ soul. The Mass would begin about an hour after the concert.
As the Universal Church prays for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis this week, she also looks ahead in prayer to the beginning of the conclave to elect the next pope. The Easter songs filling the Basilica today provided a harmonic reminder of the hope provided by Christ’s Resurrection amid this unique and uncertain moment in the life of the Church.
The choir concluded its 30-minute concert with a rendition of Palestrina’s Regina Caeli, the lyrics of which are the Latin prayer recited in place of the Angelus during the Easter Season:
V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For the Son whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.