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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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
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
Handel's Messiah just totally tops my list! Two and a half hours Meditating on the Word of God!
Beethoven Missa Solemnis (Mass in D) and Mass in C.
Vivaldi's Glorias.
Haydn's Missa Brevis.
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.
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