It can be anything: cantata, missa, chorale...anything sacred.

I'm going to say Bach's "Herz Und Mund Und Tat Und Leben" (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, BWV
147).

Talk about hard to answer! Sacred music is surely some of the most beautiful ever written - I think it is an amazing thing to listen to a piece of music inspired by a person's faith. Even as an atheist, I love sacred music more than most other musical types! But picking a fave piece is a toughy...

From a performance perspective, I do find "Let the Bright Seraphim" by Handel most enjoyable to sing, and for its sheer beauty, "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth". It's hard to beat Messiah Love it to death. Also from Messiah, the amazing "Why Do the Nations", especially sung by James Milligan on the recording by Sargent with the RLP. Magical!

For pure listening pleasure, the majesty and power of Tallis' "Spem in Alium" is something to behold. Off topic, wouldn't it be awesome to assemble a "Dream Choir" of the 40 best Renaissance voices currently performing, to do a special performance of this work?

probably some william billings or 'amazing grace'.
i prefer it simple.

dj

Yes. Yes it would. Let's do it!

Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms.

~josh

John Rutter's Requiem and Te Deum

Marvelous! I love all of those. As a Catholic, it's interesting because many of these songs are liturgical works that I hear on a regular - or semi-regular - basis.

Just a few other sacred works that come to mind as personal favourites, just some odds & ends:

Kedrov's deeply moving setting of the Our Father

The Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem (the whole thing is wonderful, but the Pie Jesu especially)

Ubi Caritas by Durufle (which is really an interesting harmonisation of an old plainchant)

The Call from Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs (which I sang back in my music school days)

Stravinsky's Mass

Arvo Part's Berliner messe (especially the Sanctus & Agnus Dei)

The very end of Bernstein's Mass and the "Simple Song" also (this isn't really a mass, but sort of a musical about a mass-- I remember the shock when I first heard the Kyrie with marching band and kazoos! I originally thought it was supposed to be an actual mass & I thought it was awful! LOL It is a somewhat dated work now, but I still rather like it, perhaps more for sentimental reasons now)

~josh

__________________
"There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.” ~ Claude Debussy

Sacred work?

Sacre du Printemps.

ROFL

LOL

Are you serious, Maestro Rohac?

Keeping Beat,
4/4player

HAHA



Sacre du Printemps; not quite the sacred work I was looking for

I have a recording of music by Hildgard von Bingen. I believe this is on it. Her music is extraordinary!!

brittney spears "oops I did it again".... oh wait no! oh yeah yeah, thats corect...

Brahms, A German Requiem. Need I say any more?

Very difficult to narrow down;
Here are some favorite suggestions,

Allegri, Miserere
Palestrina, Missa Benedicta es
Biber, Missa christi resurgentis
Faure', Requiem
Bach, Magnificat
Bach, Mass in B-Minor (the other masses are good too)
Vivaldi, Gloria
Vivaldi, Nulla in mundo pax sincera
Rachmaninoff, Sacred Vespers