Gott ist nicht tot. The sacred in post WW2 music.

[DaveF]

James MacMillan has written a large amount of sacred music, much of it intended for liturgical use.  Some is very loud, and all very proud (he's a Roman Catholic).  I sang the Magnificat last week:

Congregation was a bit stunned at the end.  Lots of Messiaenic birdsong in it.

[San Antone]

Barber : Agnus Dei
Voces8

[Mandryka]

Ralph Shapey's Praise contains settings of central Jewish liturgical texts like The Shema and the Kedushah as well as some psalms. I can't recommend it more highly, I'm a bit of a Shapey fan and this is one of his more astonishing pieces.

Some more info here, it's streaming everywhere.

https://www.newworldrecords.org/products/ralph-shapey-praise

[Mandryka]

I also want to mention Scelsi's Quattro illustrazioni sulle metamorfosi di Visnu, which are musical metaphors for four traditional incarnations of Vishnu. Todd McComb's comments here

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/scelsi/4illus.php

and a random performance on youtube

[AnotherSpin]

I also want to mention Scelsi's Quattro illustrazioni sulle metamorfosi di Visnu, which are musical metaphors for four traditional incarnations of Vishnu. Todd McComb's comments here

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/scelsi/4illus.php

Are there four parts, one for each? Lord Vishnu, the preserver within the Trimurti, is said to possess innumerable incarnations. Among the most renowned are Rama and Krishna.

[aukhawk]

I want to mention Britten's War Requiem.  There is a whiff of irony in the juxtaposition of the Mass and the poems of Wilfred Owen, but even so ...   
Britten has also given us several works based on Biblical content, such as Burning Fiery Furnace and Cantata Misericordium.

Equally epic is Penderecki's St Luke Passion.

The majority of Messiaen's music is devotional in nature, often explicitly so such as Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jésus, and L'Ascension, etc.

Likewise Tavener - Celtic Requiem etc.

Not believing in Gott does not, as far as I know, affect my enjoyment of any of this music.

[Mandryka]

Anyone who thinks that serial music is inexpressive or cerebral or ugly hasn't heard Krenek's Lamentations. It's gorgeous. The reviews on Amazon say better than I can what this music is like.

There are at least three recordings and two are streaming. Creed does seem a bit special actually- that's the one that's not streaming unfortunately.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Krenek-Lamentatio-Jeremiae-Prophetae-Lamentations/dp/B001927MJ0

[steve ridgway]

Equally epic is Penderecki's St Luke Passion.

Penderecki composed a number of religious pieces; Credo is quite pleasant.

Stravinsky also wrote a few in his later years.

[Todd]

A couple years ago I did a mini survey of post war requiems.  I ended with Helga Pogatschar.  It is an amazing work, though I suspect many people will dislike it.

Full scribbling: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?msg=1506862.  The other works covered came before for a couple weeks.

[Mandryka]

George Crumb's Lux Aeterna - I'd love to actually see this because the title is "Lux Aeterna, after a 13th century Requiem Mass, for five masked musicians."

[André]

I listened to Messiaen's Vingt regards sur l'Enfant Jésus. Over 2 hours of piano music with little obvious variety. The 'sacred' in this work is more in the subtext (Messiaen's description of the pieces) than in anything the music itself carries. As it unfolds though there is a sense of the mystic, an aspiration to the sublime. I was quite impressed and definitely more involved than in most of his other pieces.

Quatuor pour la fin du Temps is another overtly religious piece (based on the Book of Revelation) where the music (sublime) needs to be listened to with the composer's stated intent in mind. Because the music alone will not carry that message.