My favorites are: Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Beethoven's Op. 86 and Op. 123, Messe de Notre Dame, Bach's Mass in B minor, Puccini's Messa, Mozart's Great Mass K. 427 and Palestrina's Missa ***** sum, Missa Papae Marcelli and Missa Viri Galilaei. Victoria's Missa Gaudeamus. Haydn's Nelson Mass.
If we are not including Requiem settings then I'd go for Bach's in B minor (his shorter mass settings are also delightful), Mozart's K427, Schubert's no. 6, Bruckner's (mature) no. 3 and, from more modern times, the masses of Hindemith and Stravinsky.
I have a lot of exploring to do as far as masses go, but my current favourite is Liszt's great Missa Solennis. It is one of his most underrated works and widely considered a masterpiece - and one of his greatest works - by Liszt scholars.
Liszt is surely one of those composers I need to delve into further. In a way I think that with the exception of Chopin, Schubert... and if you include him, Beethoven, the early Romantic composers as a whole are somewhat underrated: Liszt, Berlioz, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Weber, etc...
Bach's Mass in B minor is certainly my favorite and as EG pointed out his shorter Mass settings are also wonderful. Another one I really like (also mentioned by EG), is the Stravinsky Mass:
1. Moz in c minor
2. Moz requiem
3. Bach b minor
4. Beet missa solemnis
5. Pergolesi stabat mater
My first encounter with the C minor mass is one of those key moments in life. It also made me aware how necessary is live performance where choirs are concerned if you want the full impact. It was a few years after I really got into M but I did not really know the c minor. It was a university perf and the choir was massive. You would never think a univ choir could be so good. The Gloria just blew my head off - almost literally. I can hear it even now. Pity M never completed it - but even so - my favourite mass it remains.
Monteverdi- Mass for four voices; Mass for Six voices 'In Illo Tempore'
Palestrina- Missa Ave Maria; Missa Hodie Christus natus est; Missa Papae Marcelli; Missa brevis Allegri- Miserere Pergolesi- Stabat Mater Guillaume Dufay- Missa Ave Maris Stella Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber- Missa Salisburgenis; Missa Bruxellenis; Missa Christi Resurgentis Jan Dismas Zelenka- Missa Votiva ZWV 18
Charpentier- Te Deum et Messe de Minuit- J.S. Bach- Mass in B minor J.C. Bach- Missa da Requiem Joseph Haydn- Missa in Angustiis ("Nelson Mass"); Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae ("Cäcilienmesse"); Missa in tempore belli ("Mass In Time of War" aka "Paukenmesse"); Theresienmesse; Harmoniemesse Michael Haydn- Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismundo; Missa Sanctae Ursulae W.A. Mozart- Coronation Mass; Great Mass in C-minor; Requiem Mass Luigi Cherubini- Requiem in C minor for Mixed Chorus; Mass in C L.v. Beethoven- Messe in C; Missa Solemnis Gioachino Rossini- Petite Messe solennelle Franz Schubert- Mass in A flat Major, D 678; Mass in E flat major, D 950; Verdi- Requiem Mass Berlioz- Requiem mass; Messe Solennelle Gounod- Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile Gabriel Faure- Requiem Mass Johannes Brahms- Ein Deutsches Requiem Bruckner- Mass nos. 1-3 Dvořák- Requiem Mass; Stabat Mater Herbert Howells- Hymnus Paradisi, An English Mass, Missa Sabrinensis, Requiem Maurice Duruflé- Requiem Benjamin Britten- War Requiem Frank Martin- Mass Arvo Pärt- Berliner Messe John Tavener- Requiem John Rutter- Requiem James MacMillan- Mass; Miserere David Briggs- Mass for Notre Dame Pascal Dusapin- Requiems
Of course there all all the other related genre of sacred choral works: Stabat mater, Magnificat, Miserere, passions, motets, Te Deum, Gloria, Ave Maria, Vespers, various oratorios, etc...
I'd say that my favorites are that of Cherubini, Bach, Ockeghem, and Josquin. Bach's b minor mass, I would consider the standard of excellence. The level of polish and symmetry, the parodies, and the theological synthesis between the Lutheran cross and Catholic reverence, drives it up to the top in terms of religious music. Most masses will give me a genuine religious experience, but not one as substantial as Bach produces.
AKA: Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismundo... on my list. Member HarpsichordConcerto led me to that marvelous work on this disc:
Handel dixit dominus?
Well... it's not actually a "mass" but rather a psalm setting... but it is one of my favorite choral works.
As always, you demonstrate fairly even tendencies across large spans of time.
Perhaps more-so in this genre than some others... because I'm a real choral music fanatic. Vocal music is my passion... and choral music above all else... perhaps even opera.
Machaut - Messe de Notre-Dame;
Josquin Desprez - Missa Pange Lingua;
Palestrina - Missa Papae Marcelli, Missa Viri Galilaei ;
J.Ockeghem - Requiem;
Bach - Mass in B minor, Mass in F;
Mozart - Great Mass in C-minor, Requiem, Coronation Mass;
Cherubini - Requiem;
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis/Mass in C;
Faure - Requiem;
Dvorak - Stabat Mater;
Bruckner - Mass No. 2;
Arvo Part - Missa Syllabica/Berliner Mass;
This thread has become something like "which is your favourite choral work". Requiem, Stabat Mater and some more are different subgenres of choral music.
From the actual Masses, the Bach's Great Mass in b minor is a colossal work of perfect writing. Mozart's Great Mass in c minor is also a monumental work. Schubert's in A flat is a superb work and the one in E flat a true substantive masterpiece of grand scale.
The rest may follow...
Yes - picked up on that, thanks. Actually it was that which inspired me to try & inject a few 'new' favourites into the equation.
Got it on now...might need to grow on me !
Sven-David Sandström produced an unusual modern High Mass. Delius' Mass of Life while no longer very modern is quite a departure from the normal, although I didn't like it much. Bernstein's mass is another whole mass of crazy with bongos, banjos and bottles.
Apparently Dave Brubeck has written a mass coooool have to find the whole of that sometime
On a more traditional note Josef Rheinberger's sacred works are worth hearing, seems he made 12 masses, not many are are recorded though I think.
Strange requiem masses seem quite common including the Requiem of Reconciliation written by 14 composers which sounds like one of those games of consequences where you write a story without knowing how the story is written so far. Also this looks interesting, Leonardo Balada's agnostic requiem.
Since the thread keeps being "the most favourite choral work" and since "Requiems" seem to be an easy way out in preference, some of the least known on the two sides of the spectrum:
From the very early ones, you may try the newly released by Hyperion Richafort's Requiem. A work of luxuriant and spectacular choral writing leading to the metaphysic and meditation.
In the same period, Du Caurroy's Requiem: Excess of austerity, but with a large palette of vocal and instrumental beauty.
For the more contemporary (for our Clive):
Try Greif's Requiem (of 1999): a modern masterpiece!
In the same vein, Bussotti's The Rara Requiem (1969): a meditation on the beauty and the fragility, the life and the death through the charm of music, the mystery and the quality of the timbres and the sonorities. All these in the austerity of a writing strictly atonal!
There are some thousands of Requiems only. As for the Masses, forget it. Life is short.
Great suggestions, Quack/Principe; thanks ! Don't think I'm quite as sold on contemporary as you may have felt, but have the 'Rara' & enjoy 'some' of it; Sandstrom certainly looks worth investigating.
Rheinberger of course is lovely. Do you know the Ropartz works ? Well worth a 'dip' if not !
Ropartz's Requiem is a very French as for the harmonies and its "colours", subscribing both to the double foundation of Berlioz and Faure. Quite strict, since it never distracts the listener from the sacred text which is the source, the means and the end.
Another great, or at least quite interesting, Requiem is the one of Weinberg (in a recent recording on NEOS).
In a different vein, Bob Chilcott's Requiem (composed in 2010) is a marvel of beautiful, melodic and almost entirely tonal work. It exists on Hyperion.
More to follow, if anyone is interested.
Currently, I'm head-over-heels in love with Frank Martin's Mass for Double Unaccompanied Choir.
This recording is rather slow, but it's still powerful.
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