I've been listening to a lot of choral music recently and I wanted a place to organize my favorites and to see what other good stuff is out there. List choral symphonies, requiems, etc. Basically, anything with a chorus (with or without an orchestra).
Here's my eccentric list, containing things from the mid-1400's right up until 1972-3 ("Clocks and Clouds")
1. Ligeti -- "Clocks and Clouds"
2. Ockeghem -- "Missa Prolationum"
3. Debussy -- "Trois Nocturnes: III. Sirenes"
4. Beethoven -- "Missa Solemnis"
5. Haydn -- "The Seasons"
6. Mahler -- "Symphony No. 2"
7. Ligeti -- "Requiem"
8. Ockeghem -- "Requiem"
9. Mendelssohn -- "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
10. Ives -- "Symphony No. 4"
Off the top of my head, one per composer (so not only Bach on the list)
1. Rakh Vespers
2. Schnittke Choir Concerto
3. Bach Matthäus-Passion
4. Berlioz Requiem
5. Bruckner Te Deum
6. Shostakovich 13
7. Schönberg Gurre-Lieder
8. Janacek Glagolitic Mass
9. Mussorgsky St. John's Night on Bare Mountain
10. Zelenka Missa Votiva
Quote from: North Star on July 15, 2014, 02:06:23 PM
Off the top of my head, one per composer (so not only Bach on the list)
1. Rakh Vespers
2. Schnittke Choir Concerto
3. Bach Matthäus-Passion
4. Berlioz Requiem
5. Bruckner Te Deum
6. Shostakovich 13
7. Schönberg Gurre-Lieder
8. Janacek Glagolitic Mass
9. Mussorgsky St. John's Night on Bare Mountain
10. Zelenka Missa Votiva
You're killing me... You were the one to introduce me to the LvB "Missa Solemnis" a few months ago, yet it isn't on your list? :o
And no renaissance/early music? :o And Schnittke before Ligeti? :o
(it's cool)
Early music is a genre I really need to explore more. I think Ockeghem is in my top 20 composers. I ordered a box of old (literally, falling apart) scores on eBay which arrived today for $2.50. One of them is Josquin des Prez. Usually getting a score serves as a reason to get to know the music well.
Quote from: EigenUser on July 15, 2014, 03:52:14 PM
You're killing me... You were the one to introduce me to the LvB "Missa Solemnis" a few months ago, yet it isn't on your list? :o
I
said off the top of my head. ;)
QuoteAnd no renaissance/early music? :o And Schnittke before Ligeti? :o
(it's cool)
Early music is a genre I really need to explore more. I think Ockeghem is in my top 20 composers. I ordered a box of old (literally, falling apart) scores on eBay which arrived today for $2.50. One of them is Josquin des Prez. Usually getting a score serves as a reason to get to know the music well.
I could easily have included more older music (
Josquin for sure, maybe
Monteverdi's
In Illo Tempore,
Domenico Scarlatti's
Stabat Mater), but then I would have had to leave out something else (in addition to Prokofiev's
Seven, They Are Seven,
Martinů's folk cantatas &
The Epic of Gilgamesh,
Pärt Stabat Mater, and more
Janáček. 0:)
1. Beethoven - Missa Solemnis
2. Mahler - Song of the Earth
3. Brahms - German Requiem
4. Bruckner - Te Deum
5. Mendelssohn - Midsummer Night's Dream (although I like the incidental music more ;) )
6. Handel - Messiah
7. Haydn - The Creation
8. J.S. Bach - The Passions (no preference really)
9. Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915
10. Mozart - Requiem
Stravinsky - Requiem Canticles & Les Noces
Mozart - Requiem (except the Süssmayr bits)
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis
Schubert - Eb Major Mass (D950)
Bach - B Minor Mass
Messiaen - Cinq rechants & Le Transfiguration
Ligeti - Lux aeterna
Xenakis - Nuits
Some pre-Bach composer - something
I swear we had this thread already
Yeah, I thought that I saw this thread a while ago, but when I searched the poll board for "choral", nothing relevant came up.
Quote from: amw on July 15, 2014, 05:46:30 PM
Stravinsky - Requiem Canticles
I need to hear this again. I heard it a while ago and it left me cold, but so did many other things that I now love. Or maybe that was "Threni"... I forget.
Quote from: amw on July 15, 2014, 05:46:30 PM
Messiaen - Cinq rechants & Le Transfiguration
I haven't heard these yet! Messiaen is a favorite of mine, so I should.
Quote from: North Star on July 15, 2014, 04:52:18 PM
[...] and more Janáček. 0:)
A good reason to keep the one-per-composer rule! >:D >:D >:D
(Sorry, Ken moment ;))
Quote from: Scion7 on July 15, 2014, 05:14:00 PM
2. Mahler - Song of the Earth
I didn't think about including things with only soloists, but it doesn't matter. If we are, then my list changes. I'll insert the Mahler DLvdE between the LvB and Haydn, knocking off the Ives at the end. So, including
any kind of voice, my list becomes:
1. Ligeti -- "Clocks and Clouds"
2. Ockeghem -- "Missa Prolationum"
3. Debussy -- "Trois Nocturnes: III. Sirenes"
4. Beethoven -- "Missa Solemnis"
5. Mahler -- "Das Lied von der Erde"
6. Haydn -- "The Seasons"
7. Mahler -- "Symphony No. 2"
8. Ligeti -- "Requiem"
9. Ockeghem -- "Requiem"
10. Mendelssohn -- "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
Also, Luciano Berio's "Sinfonia" wouldn't make top 10, but it wouldn't be far away, either.
Tallis Spem in Alium
Handel Dixit Dominum
Bach Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Cantata number something or other)
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Brahms German Requiem
Verdi Reqiuem
Puccini Turandot Act I
Mahler Symphony 8
Elgar Dream of Gerontius
Part Adams Lament
Quote from: EigenUser on July 15, 2014, 03:52:14 PM
Early music is a genre I really need to explore more. I think Ockeghem is in my top 20 composers. I ordered a box of old (literally, falling apart) scores on eBay which arrived today for $2.50. One of them is Josquin des Prez. Usually getting a score serves as a reason to get to know the music well.
:)
*bites back several enormous Itoldyasos*
Good timing [asin]B008BT104M[/asin]
Quote from: North Star on July 15, 2014, 02:06:23 PM
Off the top of my head, one per composer (so not only Bach on the list)
1. Rakh Vespers
2. Schnittke Choir Concerto
3. Bach Matthäus-Passion
4. Berlioz Requiem
5. Bruckner Te Deum
6. Shostakovich 13
7. Schönberg Gurre-Lieder
8. Janacek Glagolitic Mass
9. Mussorgsky St. John's Night on Bare Mountain
10. Zelenka Missa Votiva
Cool list, though I've not listened to the
Zelenka yet . . . .
Quote from: karlhenning on July 16, 2014, 05:21:33 AM
Cool list, though I've not listened to the Zelenka yet . . . .
Oh dear. What
Zelenka have you heard,
Karl, if any?
Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 15, 2014, 06:26:02 PM
Tallis Spem in Alium
Handel Dixit Dominum
Bach Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (Cantata number something or other)
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Brahms German Requiem
Verdi Reqiuem
Puccini Turandot Act I
Mahler Symphony 8
Elgar Dream of Gerontius
Part Adams Lament
Cool list, too. And do I recall aright,
Jeffrey, that you were one of the advocates for the
Gardiner recording of the
Verdi? A stick of dynamite.
Quote from: North Star on July 16, 2014, 05:23:32 AM
Oh dear. What Zelenka have you heard, Karl, if any?
None, as yet! I have friends who sang in a recent-ish Boston performance of the
Missa votiva, but I was unable to attend.
Quote from: karlhenning on July 16, 2014, 05:25:38 AM
None, as yet! I have friends who sang in a recent-ish Boston performance of the Missa votiva, but I was unable to attend.
Well, better now than later. 8)
https://www.youtube.com/v/VEqnWcsGXvI
[asin]B001AS6A9G[/asin]
Quote from: North Star on July 16, 2014, 05:30:06 AM
Well, better now than later. 8)
https://www.youtube.com/v/VEqnWcsGXvI
[asin]B001AS6A9G[/asin]
Thanks for the aid! Will give a listen soon (-ish)!
In no particular order:
Beethoven: Symphony No.9
Mahler: Symphony No.8
Shostakovich: Symphony No.13
Bruckner: Te Deum
Brahms: German Requiem
Schnittke: Symphony No.4
Haydn: Die Schöpfung
Debussy: Sirenes from Nocturnes
Verdi: Requiem
Elgar: Dream of Gerontius
Easier to quote myself from favorite sacred works thread:
Quote from: Drasko on October 09, 2013, 04:36:42 AM
Liturgy of St.John Chrysostom - Ioannis Koukouzelis et al
Messe de Notre-Dame - Guilleme de Machaut
Missa L'homme arme - Antoine Busnois
Missa Pangue lingua - Josquin Desprez
Missa Hercule Dux Ferrariae - Josquin Desprez
Miserere - Josquin Desprez
Vespro della Beata Vergine - Claudio Monteverdi
Miserere - Jean Baptiste Lully
Te Deum - Michel-Richard Delalande
Requiem - W.A.Mozart
Requiem - Giuseppe Verdi
All-night Vigil - Sergei Rachmaninov
Motets pour le temps de penitence - Francis Poulenc
Of secular stuff: Mahler 2, Stravinsky Persephone, Poulenc Figure Humaine, Schnittke Choir Concerto ...
Quickly, a few things which came to mind:
Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden
Barber's Agnus Dei (which uses his Adagio for Strings ).
Bruckner's Helgoland.
Howells: Hymnus Paradisi (prob my favourite, a deeply moving response to the death of his young son in the 1930s but not heard until the 1950s)
Vaughan Williams: Sancta Civitas
Vaughan Williams: Epithalamion
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm
Britten: War Requiem
Bliss: Morning Heroes
Foulds: A World Requiem
Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible (from film/movie score)
Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1914
Holst: The Cloud Messenger
Apologies for the list being rather Anglo-centric.
Could have included Sibelius's Kullervo Symphony.
Quote from: James on July 26, 2014, 11:36:13 PM
Fauré's Requiem (pass the kleenex);
Oddly, I don't find the Faure requiem sad -- just very beautiful and very moving. Although not choral, something I find
extremely sad is the finale (adagio) to Mahler's 9th.
I've had the Faure requiem stuck in my head all day today for some reason.
Well, here are my two cents worth:
1) Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine
2) Bach Johannes-Passion
3) Debussy Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orleans
4) Honegger Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher
5) Falla Atlántida
6) Dallapiccola Canti de Prigionia
7) Walton Coronation Te Deum
8 ) Krenek Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
9) Stravinsky Requiem Canticles Canticum Sacrum
10) Cristóbal Halffter Preludio para Madrid 92
These are the first that sprung to mind, and I think that is a good indicator of the position of these works have in my "canon". I've deliberately excluded operas (if not, Parsifal and Meistersinger would both have appeared on the list) and symphonies (Mahler's Second would have made it as well).
Oddly enough, some composers who wouldn't usually appear in "favourites" lists of mine, do appear here..
Quote from: ritter on July 27, 2014, 10:57:53 AM
9) Stravinsky Requiem Canticles
I may just prefer
Threni.
Quote from: karlhenning on July 27, 2014, 11:36:59 AM
I may just prefer Threni.
Well,
Threni is a major work, but I find it a tough nut to crack..."arid" is the word that comes to mind (but I do admit that the more I lsten to it, the more it "gets" to me)...
Having said this, I also realize just now that a work that I do love, and probably rate higher that the
Requiem Canticles, is the
Canticum Sacrum... I've editied my list accordingly... ;)
Quote from: EigenUser on July 27, 2014, 10:29:57 AM
I've had the Faure requiem stuck in my head all day today for some reason.
Think of it as recompense for the Ligeti that used to be there. >:D :laugh:
Quote from: ritter on July 27, 2014, 11:44:22 AM
Well, Threni is a major work, but I find it a tough nut to crack..."arid" is the word that comes to mind (but I do admiyt that the more I lsten to it, the more it "gets" to me)...
Having said this, I also realize just now that a work that I do love, and probably rate higher that the Requiem Canticles, is the Canticum Sacrum... I've editied my list accordingly... ;)
The
Canticum sacrum is a beauty, and thou art at liberty 8)
For anyone who wants to continue basking in the glories of choral works from Stravinsky's latter years, the fee can be paid by mailing me a few choice CD's. >:( 8) >:D
It's a while since I heard Threni - or any of the others - but they sure are some beautiful, and at times very tough, pieces..
In no particular order, except for the first which has been simply haunting me lately:
Bruckner: Mass in E minor. Simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music.
Bruckner: Te Deum
Bach: B minor Mass
Mahler: Symphony #8
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Mozart: Requiem
Carlo Gesualdo: Moro lasso
Brahms: German Requiem
Kodaly: Te Deum
And, despite anticipated accusations of being cheesy:
Handel: Messiah. (If this weren't so overplayed, we might remember what a fine piece of music it is!)
Quote from: jochanaan on July 27, 2014, 08:55:58 PM
In no particular order, except for the first which has been simply haunting me lately:
Bruckner: Mass in E minor. Simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music.
Yesterday I watched a performance of the Bruckner F minor mass (No. 3) and really liked it. I shall like to hear the E minor. I have the score to both.
Quote from: EigenUser on July 28, 2014, 03:11:17 AM
Yesterday I watched a performance of the Bruckner F minor mass (No. 3) and really liked it. I shall like to hear the E minor. I have the score to both.
The F minor is lovely too, but there's a timeless quality to the E minor that sends shivers through me every time! :)