Top Ten Favorite Sacred Music Composers

[Florestan]

What is sacred music? I mean, I know a necessary condition is that it's designed to be used in a religious ritual, but is that a sufficient condition?

Did Bach ever write his cantatas for any other audience than a faithful Lutheran congregation and for any other venue than a Lutheran church? Did he ever conceive the notion that those cantatas  will someday be listened to by agnostic/atheists in the privacy of their homes and with an awe directed at him personally rather than at God Almighty?

Did Mozart ever think that, say, his Weisenhausmesse was suitable for any other occasion than the consecration of the new Orphanage Church in Vienna and for any other audience than a faithful assembly of Catholics? Did he ever conceive the notion that it will someday be listened to by agnostic/atheists in the privacy of their homes and with an awe directed at him personally rather than at God Almighty?

[Mandryka]

The music, certainly -- but not the words. For example

Davide penitente, K. 469 (also Davidde penitente), is a cantata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to texts by Saverio Mattei [it]. The cantata was commissioned by the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät, and first performed on 13 March 1785 in the Vienna Burgtheater. Most of the music is derived from the unfinished Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (1782–83) . . . The theme of the work is based on the Psalms and the First Book of Samuel of the Old Testament.  (wiki)

So I suggest: there was nothing intrinsically sacred about sacred music for Mozart. What was sacred about the mass was the words.

[Florestan]

The music, certainly -- but not the words. For example

Davide penitente, K. 469 (also Davidde penitente), is a cantata by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to texts by Saverio Mattei [it]. The cantata was commissioned by the Wiener Tonkünstler-Societät, and first performed on 13 March 1785 in the Vienna Burgtheater. Most of the music is derived from the unfinished Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 (1782–83) . . . The theme of the work is based on the Psalms and the First Book of Samuel of the Old Testament.  (wiki)

So I suggest: there was nothing intrinsically sacred about sacred music for Mozart. What was sacred about the mass was the words.

Of course. Mozart would have been the first to acknowledge it. The essential thing in a Mass is the words, not the music. God, not I; Jesus Christ, not oneself; the Holy Ghost, not one's personal thoughts and feelings. This is why the Romantic era produced nothing even remotely comparable with the sacred / religious masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras.

[LKB]

Of course. Mozart would have been the first to acknowledge it. The essential thing in a Mass is the words, not the music. God, not I; Jesus Christ, not oneself; the Holy Ghost, not one's personal thoughts and feelings. This is why the Romantic era produced nothing even remotely comparable with the sacred / religious masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras.

I must disagree, as the Romantic era gave us:

Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Berlioz Requiem and Te Deum
Verdi Requiem
Brahms Deutsches Requiem
Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle
Schubert masses
Bruckner masses, motets and Te Deum
Tchaikovsky Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
Mendelssohn oratorios and various other works

And undoubtedly others l am failing to remember.

As per the thread:

Josquin
Palestrina
Di Lasso
Victoria
J.S. Bach
Bruckner
Brahms
Berlioz
Mendelssohn
Rachmaninoff

[Jo498]

So I suggest: there was nothing intrinsically sacred about sacred music for Mozart. What was sacred about the mass was the words.

For all I know this is/was also the position of the church (or maybe most strictly speaking the actions during the service are sacred as the words can differ, although many churches kept liturgical languages for centuries). This obviously didn't stop century-long debates about (in)appropriate music in church.

There are borderline cases. Such as instrumental music with an explicit religious topic (Biber's Rosary, Haydn's 7 Last Words, Messiaen etc.). Or songs for private devotion/entertainment, like some pieces from Bach's Büchlein for his family members or maybe Beethoven's Gellert settings.

[Mandryka]

Yes Joe.

It does seem reasonable to define a category of music which were written to function in religious ceremonies or to support private practice. The Biber sonatas are probably included, as is Stockhausen's Gesange Der Junglinger.

Sometimes it feels to me as though musical historians make a case out for almost everything Bach wrote being infused with Christian symbolism - but that doesn't make, for example, the toccata of the 6th keyboard partita, or the violon chaconne, examples of Scared Music.

[Florestan]

I must disagree, as the Romantic era gave us:

Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Berlioz Requiem and Te Deum
Verdi Requiem
Brahms Deutsches Requiem
Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle
Schubert masses
Bruckner masses, motets and Te Deum
Tchaikovsky Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
Mendelssohn oratorios and various other works

And undoubtedly others l am failing to remember.

I definitely had a momentary lapse of reason.   

[LKB]

I definitely had a momentary lapse of reason.   

It happens to us all, my friend. In my case, frequently abetted by quality time with my favorite Whiskey.