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Sacred music advice

13K views 44 replies 38 participants last post by  haziz 
#1 ·
Hello everybody,

I want to purify my ear listening just to Sacred music for two weeks. So I would like to collect your advices for a "must of" list.

Thanks in advance
 
#11 · (Edited)
Fauré's requiem, Bruckner's F minor mass, and Schubert's C major mass are particular favourites of mine.
I will second these picks.

I'd add Saint-Saëns' Requiem, Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil (vespers), Pärt's Te Deum, Josquin's Missa Panga Lingua, anything by Hildegard von Bingen, and my current favorite piece of music: Dona nobis pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Seriously. It gives me tingles.

The Hickox also comes with Sancta Civitas, which was suggested earlier.

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#4 ·
If you are looking for purity you need to listen to pieces for unaccompanied choir.

This lot should keep you going :)

Rachmaninov - Vespers
- Liturgy of St. John Chrysostum
Tchaikovsky - Liturgy of St. John Chrysostum

John Taverner (b. c. 1490)
Gloria Tibi Trinitas
Western Wind Mass

Tallis - Spem in Alium
 
#9 · (Edited)
For sacred music written by an atheist:
Vaughan Williams' Mass in G minor
Well, I had no idea Vaughan-Williams wrote a Mass, though I knew he was fairly massive. I would not have guessed this as RVW music on a blind hearing. It sounds quite historical to a layman's ears.

My pick for sacred music would be the Symphoniae Sacrae by Heinrich SchĂĽtz, especially this one:


I've pestered the forum a few times before, raving about this piece.
 
#10 ·
I second all the pieces listed. Especially "all the sacred music of Bach." That's more than two weeks' worth.

I would add Haydn's Seven Last Words - especially the string quartet version of the Lindsay String Quartet.
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a favorite of mine - it's so "human."
I also like Arvo Part's I Am The True Vine - it's short, in English, and illustrates his technique succinctly.
Szymanowki's Stabat Mater is evocative.
I would also suggest Schubert's Masses in Ab and Eb.
Listen to Biber's Missa Bruxellensis with your speakers all the way up.
If you can find Jos van Immerseel's Six Cantatas by Dietrich Buxtehude, it's a great performance.

I could go on and on, but that's enough for now.
 
#38 ·
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is a favorite of mine - it's so "human."
This is my favorite Beethoven work. I agree with the "human" adjective. The winds and whispers in the Et incarnatus section sound to me like a feeling of humble wonder facing that divine mystery. Then, the Et homo factus est, sung by the tenor alone, by an apostle alone if you will. And the guilt sung in Pontio Pilato section... Such an amazing work.
 
#14 ·
Koyannisqatsi, Philip Glass.
 
#15 ·
Cherubini: Missa Solemnis in D Minor, "Per il Principe Esterházy"
Cherubini: Requiem #1 in C Minor
Cherubini: Requiem #2 in D Minor
Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Praetorius: Magnificat
Monteverdi: Solemn Mass For The Feast Of Sancta Maria Della Salute
Monteverdi: Selva Morale E Spirituale
Palestrina: Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet
Palestrina: Missa l'Homme armé À 4
Ockeghem: Salve Regina
Haydn: Missa in Tempore Belli, H 22/9, "Paukenmesse"
Haydn: Missa in Augustiis, H 22/11, "Nelson Mass"
etc., etc.
 
#16 ·
If you really want to clear your head of all the later developments of western classical music, and zone out into a contemplative state, go for Gregorian Chants.

Monophonic, one note at a time, senza mensura -- often not sounding metered or boxed in by bar lines -- actually intended for those participating as a meditation -- clears out your head and your sinuses.
 
#19 ·
Yes. Many sacred works, particularly requiems, masses, passions, are actually quite aggravating.
 
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#17 ·
"Sacred Music" per se of course doesn´t exclude a varied or contemporarily influenced idiom; such music only has literary and religious sources in common.

Gorecki: choral works, including Miserere & Beatus Vir
Messiaen: 3 Petites Liturgies
Stravinsky: Psalm Symphony
Penderecki: Te Deum
Gubajdulina: 7 Last Words concerto
Schnittke: Requiem

Renaissance: Cantigas de Santa Maria
 
#18 · (Edited)
Some favorites:

J.S. Bach - St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Mass in B minor (the many church cantatas)
Buxtehude - Membra Jesu Nostri
Charpentier - Te Deum
Vivaldi - Dixit Dominus RV 595
Handel - Dixit Dominus HWV 232
Monteverdi - Vespers
Lully - Benedictus
Mozart - Requiem
Brahms - Requiem
Stravinsky - Mass
Janacek - Glagolitic Mass
Penderecki - St. Luke Passion
 
#20 ·
Some of my personal favs:
Vaughan Williams, Mass & Sancta Civitas
Arvo Pärt, Te Deum & Kanon Pokajanen
Herbert Howells, Hymnus Paradisi
Khatchatur Avetisyan [Avetissian], Oratorio in memoriam 1915
Gustav Holst, Hymn of Jesus
Maurice Duruflé, Requiem
Ēriks Ešenvalds, Passion and Resurrection
Karol Szymanowski, Stabat Mater
John Tavener (I'm not a fan of the composer, but this makes the exception):tiphat:, Lament for Jerusalem
 
#25 ·
The TC main screen has one line item with the works "Sacred music advice", while line item beneath it reads "Tomás Luis de Victoria"--one can do little better.

Throw in some Monteverdi, Lassus, Gabrieli (G & A!), Palestrina, Rameau, Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Porpora, Gossec, Cherubini, Hummel, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Liszt, Faure, etc., etc.
 
#28 ·
You'd better 'purify your mind' first, by re-examining what 'sacred' music is, and can be.
 
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