I’m sure you’ve wondered what choral singers contemporary with, say, Bach, sounded like singing the Maestro’s music – a cantata a week in Leipzig, not to mention the Passions. And the Sistine Chapel Choir singing Palestrina for the Pope from the choir gallery, squashed around a central lectern.

Here’s is a fly-on-the-wall extract of today’s Sistine Chapel Choir in action singing the Offertory for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost at a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis with the Cardinal electors on 14 March 2013, the day after his election to the Papacy. It’s more for the visual spectacle than the sound quality.

Carol