 He may be held accountable for the immediate rendering of the music, showing the course of the melody by movements of the hand(s) ("cheironomia"), similar to a conductor.Before and after the Second Vatican Council, a "cantor" in the Roman Catholic Church was the leading singer of the choir, a "bona fide" clerical role.The medieval cantor of the papal Schola Cantorum was called "Prior scholae" or "Primicerius".