Choirs (Le Cappelle Musicali) were born in the largest Italian cathedrals and churches around the mid-XVI century, almost by imitation from one city to the next. These groups of choristers were established for a very specific purpose: to perform polyphony.
Up to then, typical chants had been Gregorian chants, and cathedrals and monasteries had been the centres from which they spread everywhere. In the tenth century, the capitular dignitaries included, after the archipresbiter and thearchidiaconus also the canonicus cantor.
The name canto does not just mean a chorister, but someone who has executive functions in the education, direction and organisation of the solemn liturgy. This is the start of the great journey that through the centuries would lead the choirs (Le Cappelle Musicali) to honour the church service with the masterpieces of polyphonic art that we all still admire and appreciate today.
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