Hello Everyone,

I just found this forum and i hope to participate in your community. I'm a music nut, i have a massive collection of most genres available. I don't discriminate between genres, good music is good music. And as such in inevitable that i would love classical.

Dvořák No. 9 is a absolute favorite of mine. As of late however i have been very interested in a sub-genre i really don't know much about and I'm hoping some of you are be kind enough to assist. A few years ago i found Dale Warland Singer's Cathedral Classics album. In a brief search i found the following works that i also love:

Adorate Deum - Gregorian Chant From The Proper Of The Mass

Victoria: O Magnum Mysterium; Ascendens Christus In Altum

What I'm looking for is more along these lines; Hymns sung in Cathedrals. I love the sound of Latin (etc) sung aloud boldly with such acoustics causing mesmerizing re verb. Its that combination that i love. I bet its clear from this post that I'm ignorant of this topic and its intricities, but i hope some of you might have a similar taste and knowledge you can impart.

Thank you.

Welcome to the HUGE world of Classical music.

IMO, the Dvorak 9th is a good introduction--it's retained it's popularity for very good reasons. Dvorak might also become a good introduction to the music of other 19th Century mid to late Romantic composers. I might suggest Brahms (his 2nd Symphony) or Tchiakovsky (his Second or Fifth Symphonies) to further explore that particular musical Era. This might lead you to Beethoven or Mozart, and back a little further to either Bach or Vivaldi.

As to your interest in music of the Catholic Church--I might reccommend that you look for recordings of the choral works of composers like Gabrielli, Palestrina, Victoria (which you seem to have a sampling of) Thomas Tallis and Joaquin desPrez. Most of the great unaccompanied polyphonic (multi-voiced) choral music for the Church was written during or after the Reniassance, starting about 1400. Contemporary music for the Church (at least since Vatican II) tends to be of a different nature, at least that used in the Liturgies--everything from pseudo-Folk to Gospel.

However, there are a number of choral/orchestral settings of Catholic Masses by famous Classical and Romantic composers that are fairly standard literature, though many of them are designed for Concert, rather than Liturgical performances. Among the ones I would DEFINITELY reccommend for 'starters', would be:
Vivaldi: GLORIA
Verdi: REQUIEM
Mozart: REQUIEM
Beethoven: MISSA SOLEMNIS
Faure: REQUIEM

For some fine Chant, you might look for recordings of the Medieval composer Hildegarde von Bingen. They're quite progressive for their time, but quite fascinating.

Just some suggestions.

Tom

Heya Tom.

Thank you for your replay, I'm going to check out all of those. After hearing some samples, i'm particularly interested in Hildegarde von Bingen. I'll get one or two CDs of von Bingen shortly. i so appreciate your detailed information. I participate in a number of music forums and rarely can an individual articulate so specifically an area of interest. Basically, you are cool.


I have another question though that is unrelated. I have an MP3 on my computer of a classical piece that i have had for at least 7 years. I have no information on it. If one of you could please identify it i would be very grateful. This is a link from my personal site where i hosted the mp3 temporarily. Many browsers can play it without downloading.

http://www.izaktaylor.com/notsure.mp3

Thank you

It seems you like earlier choral works. You might wish to check into the following:













...

Vocal music is my chief passion among the genre of classical music... and choral music perhaps first among the forms of vocal music. Of course there are marvelous examples of choral music... in Latin and any number of other languages... for liturgical and other purposes... that date from the Middle Ages to the middle of last week. Choral music is far from being a sub-genre, rather it accounts for a great deal of some of the best music ever composed.

Sounds like an instrumental version of the aria O mio babbino caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Puccini.

hi!

i recommend some 'anonymous 4' recordings.
hildegard's music as presented on the 'visions' cd from emi is very entertaining, if not exactly what she had in mind.

dj

Izak:

Opal's right, that's an instrumental version of the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's one-act opera "Gianni Schicci". It's a comic opera, and actually, the only time it really 'calms down' is for that particular aria, LOL.

StLukesGuild has given you a real treasure chest of choral recordings in his suggestions.
Might I also add the Rachmaninov "Vespers" ("All Night Vigil"), one of the absolute masterpieces of Russian Orthodox liturgical choral music. It's absolutely overwhelming, at least IMO.

Tom