A term applied principally to the choir that sang during solemn papal ceremonies in the Middle Ages. Architectural historians sometimes use ‘schola cantorum’ to refer to a large marble choir enclosure that stood in the nave of some medieval Roman churches, but these structures had no connection with the papal singers.
The origins and early history of the Schola Cantorum are obscure. Its foundation has been associated since the 9th century with Pope Gregory I (pontificate 590–604), but most modern scholars are sceptical of these legends. Neither the Liber pontificalis nor the earliest biographies of the pope mention a ‘schola cantorum’. The first reference to an organized body of singers at Rome occurs in the biography of Pope Sergius I (687–701), who was assigned to the ‘priori cantorum’ for his education. Liturgical reforms implemented in the 670s, just at the time when Sergius first arrived in Rome, might have included provisions for a permanent choir of papal singers. The Schola Cantorum certainly existed by the beginning of the 8th century, since its liturgical functions are described in detail in the ceremonial books known as the Ordines romani. The Schola Cantorum was associated with an orphanage, and it is likely that it served as a training institute for musically talented young boys, who might also be preparing for clerical careers.
The organization of the Schola resembled that of other Roman bureaucracies. Its chief administrative officer was the prior, but the quartus (also called archiparaphonista) seems to have exercised primary musical responsibility for directing the singers. The secundus and tertius are mentioned much less frequently in the Ordines; presumably they performed the solo portions of graduals, alleluias and offertories. Isolated instances in the Ordines of the term paraphonistae and paraphonistae infantes do not imply the singing of polyphonic music, although later sources attest that on some occasions the Schola sang chant with improvised organal embellishment.
The Schola Cantorum took a leading role in the transmission of Roman chant to the Frankish kingdom during the reign of Charlemagne (see Plainchant, §2(ii)). Italian chroniclers claimed that the Franks corrupted the authentic Roman tradition they received from the Schola, while Frankish writers accused the Romans of sowing discord by teaching different chant repertories in different places. The manner in which the Schola communicated its musical repertory to the Franks has become a topic in the modern scholarly discussion of oral transmission of chant repertories.
The Franks adopted the term ‘schola cantorum’ for institutions founded after the Roman model, and in modern times the name has been revived by educational institutions, for example, the Parisian Schola Cantorum (Vincent d’Indy, 1894) and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (August Wenzinger, 1933), as well as by choirs specializing in the performance of music from the Renaissance and earlier periods.
See also Rome, §II, 1.
MGG2 (J. Dyer)
F.X. Haberl: ‘Die römische “schola cantorum” und die päpstliche Kapellsänger bis zur Mitte des 16 Jahrhunderts’, VMw, iii (1887), 189–296
J. Smits van Waesberghe: ‘Neues über die Schola Cantorum zu Rom’, Katholische Kirchenmusik II: Vienna 1954, 111–19
S.J.P. Van Dijk: ‘Papal Schola “versus” Charlemagne’, Organicae voces: Festschrift Joseph Smits van Waesberghe angeboten anlässlich seines 60. Geburtstag, ed. P. Fischer (Amsterdam, 1963), 21–30
J. Dyer: ‘The Schola Cantorum and its Roman Milieu in the Early Middle Ages’, De musica et cantu: Helmut Hucke zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. P. Cahn and A.-K. Heimer (Hildesheim, 1993), 19–40
P. Bernard: Du chant romain au chant grégorien (Paris, 1996)
JOSEPH DYER