SITIFIS
30
SITJAR
functions in the papal church or chapel was con-
tinued and has existed ever since. The primicerius
of former times is now no longer mentioned but is
replaced by the magister capclla; which title, however,
continues to be more an honorary one held by a bishop
or prelate than an indication of technical leadership,
as may be gathered from the relative positions as-
signed to various dignitaries, their prerogatives, etc.
Thus the magister capdlm came immediately after
the cardinals, followed, in the order given, by the
sacrisia, canlores, capellani, and clerici.
With the building by Sixtus IV (1471-84) of the church for the celebration of all papal functions since known as the Sistine Chapel, the original schola cantor um and subsequent capella pontificia or capella papale, which still retains more or less of the guild character, becomes the capella sistina, or Sis- tine Choir, whose golden era takes its beginning. Up to this time the number of singers had varied considerably, there being sometimes as few as nine men and six boys. By a Bull dated November, 1483, Sixtus IV fixed the number at twenty-four, six for each part. After the year 1441 the records no longer mention the presence of boys in the choir, the high voices, soprano and alto, being thenceforth sung by natural (and occasionally unnatural) soprani falsetii and high tenors respectively. Membership in the papal choir became the great desideratum of singers, contrapuntists, and composers of every land, which accounts for the presence in Rome, at least for a time, of most of the great names of that period. The desire to re-establish a sort of preparatory school for the papal choir, on the plan of the ancient schola, and incidentally to become independent of the ultra- montane, or foreign, singers, led Julius II (1503-13) to issue, on 19 February, 1512, a Bull founding the capella Julia, which to this day performs all the choir duties at St. Peter's. It became indeed, and has ever since been, a nursery for, and stepping-stone to, mem- bership in the Sistine Choir. The high artistic aims of its founder have, however, but rarely been at- tained, owing to the rarity of truly great choir- masters. Leo X (1513-21), himself a musician, by choosing as head of the organization a real musician, irrespective of his clerical rank, took a step which was of the greatest importance for the future. It had the effect of transforming a group of vocal virtuosi on equal footing into a compact vocal body, whose in- terpretation of the greatest works of polyphony which we possess, and which were then coming into existence, became the model for the rest of the world, not only then but for all time. Leo's step was some- what counteracted by Sixtus V (1585-90), who ordered the singers to elect their leader annually from their own number. Paul II (1534-49) on 17 November, 1545, published a Bull approving a new constitution of the choir, which has been in force ever since, and according to which the choir-master proposes the candidates for membership, who are then examined by the whole company of singers. Since that time the state of hfe of the candidate has not been a factor.
While the Sistine Choir has, since its incipiency, undergone many vicissitudes, its artistic and moral level fluctuating, like all things human, with the mutations of the times, it has ever had for its purpose anil object to hold up, at the seat of ecclesiastical authority, the highest model of liturgical music as well as of its performance. When the Gregorian melodies were still the sole music of the Church, it was the papal choir that set the standard for the rest of Christendom, both as regards the purity of the melodies and their rendition. After these melo- dies had blossomed into polyphony, it was in the Sistine Chapel that it received adequate interpreta- tion. Here the artistic degeneration, which church music suffered in different periods in many countries,
never took hold for any length of time. The use
of instruments, even of the organ, has ever been ex-
cluded. The choir's ideal has always been the
purely vocal style. Since the accession of the present
pope, and under its present conductor, the falsetto
voices have been succeeded by boys' voices, and the
artistic level of the institute has been raised to a
higher point than it had occupied for the previous
thirty or forty years.
Habehl, Bausieine fiir Musikgeschichte, III, Die rOmische Schola Cantortim iliid die pdpstlichen Kapellsdiiger his zut Mitte des 16. Jahrkunderts (Leipzig. 1888); Schelle, Die pUpslliche Sanger- schule in Rom (Leipzig, 1S72) ; Kienle, ChoraUchule (Freiburg, 1899); Baini, Memorie storico-critiche delta Vila e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Paleslrina (Rome, 1828).
Joseph Otten.
Sitifis, TiTOLAR See of (Sitifensis) , in Mauretania Sitifensis. Sitifis, situated in Mauretania Coesaren- sis, on the road from Carthage to Cirta, was of no im- portance under the Numidian kings and became prominent only when Nerva estabUshed a colony of veterans there. When Mauretania Sitifensis was created, at the close of the third century, Sitifis be- came its capital. Under the \ andals it was the chief town of a district called Zaba. It was still the capital of a province under Byzantine rule and was then a place of strategic importance. Captured by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was almost ruined at the time of the French occupation (1838). It is now Setif, the chief town of an arTondissemenl in the Department of Constantine, Algeria. It contains 15,000 inhabitants, of whom 37()0 are Europeans and 1600 Jews; it has a trade in cattle, cereals, leather, and cloths. Interesting Christian inscrip- tions are to be found there, one of 452 mentioning the relics of St. Lawrence, another naming two martyrs of Sitifis, Justus and Decurius; there are a museum and the ruins of a Byzantine fortress. St. Augustine, who had frequent relations with Sitifis, informs us that in his time it contained a monastery and an episcopal school, and that it suf- fered from a violent earthquake, on which occasion 2000 persons, through fear of death, received baptism (Ep., Ixxxiv; Serni., xix). Five bishops of this see are known: Severus, in 409, mentioned in a letter of St. Augustine; Novatus, present at the Council of Carthage (411), where he opposed the Donatist Marcian, present at the Council of Carthage (419), dying in 440, mentioned in St. Augustine's letters; Lawrence, in 452; Donatus, present at the Council of Carthage (484), and exiled by Huneric; Optatus, at the Council of Carthage (525).
Smith, Did. of Greeic and Roman Geog., s. v. Sitifi: MOller, Notes a Ptolemy, ed. DiDOT, I, 612; TouLOTTE, Giog. de V Afrique chritienne: Mauretanie (Montreuil, 1894), 18.5-9; DiEHL, L' Afrique bymnline (Paria, 1896), passim.
S. P^TRIDfes.
Sitjar, Buenaventura, b. at Porrera, Island of Majorca, 9 Dec, 1739; d. at San Antonio, Cal., 3 Sept., 1808. In April, 1758, he received the habit of St. Francis. After his ordination he joined the College of San Fernando, Mexico. In 1770 he was assigned to California, arriving at San Diego, 21 Maj', 1771. He was present at the founding of the Mis- sion of San .Antonio, and was appointed first mission- ary by Father Junipero Serra. He toiled there until his death, up to which time 3400 Indians had been baptized. Father Sitjar mastered the Telame lan- guage, spoken at the Mission of San Antonio, and compiled a vocabulary with Spanish exi)Ianations, j
published at New York in 1801. Though the list I
of words is not sis long as Arroyo de la Cuesta's die- I
tionary of 2884 words and sentences in the Mutsun idiom of Mi.ssion San Juan Bautista. Sitjar's gives the pronunciation and fuller explanations. He also left a journal of an exploring expedition which he j
accomi)anied in 1795. His body was interred in the ■
sanctuary of the church. '
