CANTORIA. – In general, the place in a church intended for the singers; more particularly, however, in present usage, it is a gallery situated in some part of the sacred building and not strictly connected with its architectural structures; this gallery is connected with the organ, forming a single decorative element.
Practical acoustical requirements, the development of the liturgy, and the introduction of the organ in fact led to its being moved to an elevated position and to different locations. Sometimes, as in the Morronese Abbey at Sulmona (17th century), the c. took on a character of elegant monumentality. Particularly fine are the marble c. in the form of projecting parapets made for S. Maria del Fiore in Florence and now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera of that Cathedral: one was executed by Donatello, who, behind paired columns, sets the playing putti in festive and continuous movement; the other is the work of Luca della Robbia, who, in his static vision of form, isolates the musical putti within rigid panels; the similarity of the theme
makes these works excellent points of comparison for understanding the individual artists. During the 16th century the c. still had modest proportions and relatively unobtrusive architectural forms. From the end of the century, the technical refinement of the organ and the new impetus given to sacred music meant that a suitable place had to be sought for the instrument’s grand array of pipes. Instead of the presbytery walls and small choir galleries, which allowed too little expansion of the voices, the broad wall containing the principal entrance door was gladly chosen, and the organ pipes were arranged there with a strong decorative sense. Among the 17th-century c., those of S. Maria in Vallicella and S. Maria della Vittoria in Rome—the latter based on a design by the Bernini follower Mattia de Rossi—are the ones that display the greatest magnificence and the most thoroughly conceived decorative sense. Conceived as wooden theatre boxes, often gilded, and supported by brackets with large modillions, they have a curved balustrade with grilles concealing the singers; stuccoes, rays, festoons, and figures of winged putti form part of the decorative apparatus around the organ pipes, with that sense of sumptuousness and transience typical of certain Baroque works. The 18th-century c. is sometimes more restrained in line and colour, often following a concave curve so as to facilitate its connection with the building’s side walls. Later, the c. became more austere in line, often finding direct support from the ground in the entrance vestibule. In modern buildings the c. has been given various rationally studied solutions according to the plan of the church itself, often concealing the organ, which may be operated remotely.