# Recommendations for Tragic / Sad Choral Music



## Sennin

This is my first post here. Before I start I should probably admit that I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to choral music but I am keen to dig deeper.

I have noticed recently that the choral music that I have been drawn to tends to have particularly tragic themes. 
Looking at my favourite pieces it struck me that they seem to be littered with 'dolorosa' , 'lacrimosa' etc. I have a small and growing collection of stabat mater's and requiem mass's.
On the other hand the more jubilant / ecstatic choral pieces tend to grate on me (The hallelujah chorus sends me running for the 'change channel' button on the radio). I also tend not to like stuff that's too agitated (e.g. Verdi's Dies Irae - undoubtedly tragic and powerful but I can't quite fully enjoy it because its all a bit too much). 

So my question is this - 

Can you recommend me some of your favourite choral pieces with sad themes.

I tend to prefer earlier polyphony / baroque-y stuff and some of the more minimal modern composers over the more complex / busy stuff of the classical period (maybe I'm still too green to appreciate that as yet).

(Also bonus points if its a piece with a counter-tenor in it)


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## Blancrocher

Brahms' German Requiem comes to mind (its sadness being deepened by its biographical context). Rachmaninov's setting of the Russian Orthodox vesper service is filled with amazing, somber melodies. There are other wonderful darkly hued modern choral and choral/orchestral works by composers including Britten, Poulenc, Szymanowski, and Ligeti (I'd scan lists of their works looking for choral/vocal pieces or elements of pieces). I bet the recently discovered Stravinsky requiem for Rimsky-Korsakov is a must--in the meantime check out his religiously themed vocal works, including the Symphony of Psalms. I'm a big fan of Salonen's recent "Dona nobis pacem" for a cappella choir. 

Edit: Among lesser-known earlier repertoire with gorgeously dark music, you might try motets by Mondonville and Rameau. 

Welcome to the forum!


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## Sennin

Thanks a lot - this looks like a great little list. I'll start looking into those as soon as I get back tonight.

Thanks for the Salonen tip too - I've been wanting to discover more contemporary stuff.


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## Chordalrock

Gombert:






Penderecki:






Ockeghem:






Dufay:






Frank Martin:


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## Lukecash12

Handel's Saul oratorio, Act 3, Scene 5 chorus:

_Mourn, Israel, mourn thy beauty lost,
Thy choicest youth on Gilboa slain!
How have thy fairest hopes been cross'd!
What heaps of mighty warriors strew the plain!_






It's in there around 2:05:25. Saul's death march before this (see 2:02-ish), and this chorus, both bring about incomprehensibly black moods in me. With what I've associated this particular music with over my life, it isn't exactly the music I put on when I'm looking to stimulate myself with something sad or tragic. It is one of the things that I listen to specifically when I'm bereaved over someone, and I've been listening to it and other such music the last couple of days, because my grandfather died just this week.

Gladly, I've the Messiah and Zadok the Priest to look forward to participating in this month, so I can thank Handel for helping to brighten up a pretty depressing holiday season this year.


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## Xaltotun

I'm mainly a classical / romantic listener but I'll try to suggest some that fit your preferences and haven't been mentioned yet.

Bach - Mass in B minor - Crucifixus
Liszt - Via Crucis
Brahms - Nänie
Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky cantata - Field of the Dead


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## Heliogabo

Gilles' requiem, one of the most beautiful and touching I've ever heard.


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## Mandryka

Sennin said:


> This is my first post here. Before I start I should probably admit that I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to choral music but I am keen to dig deeper.
> 
> I have noticed recently that the choral music that I have been drawn to tends to have particularly tragic themes.
> Looking at my favourite pieces it struck me that they seem to be littered with 'dolorosa' , 'lacrimosa' etc. I have a small and growing collection of stabat mater's and requiem mass's.
> On the other hand the more jubilant / ecstatic choral pieces tend to grate on me (The hallelujah chorus sends me running for the 'change channel' button on the radio). I also tend not to like stuff that's too agitated (e.g. Verdi's Dies Irae - undoubtedly tragic and powerful but I can't quite fully enjoy it because its all a bit too much).
> 
> So my question is this -
> 
> Can you recommend me some of your favourite choral pieces with sad themes.
> 
> I tend to prefer earlier polyphony / baroque-y stuff and some of the more minimal modern composers over the more complex / busy stuff of the classical period (maybe I'm still too green to appreciate that as yet).
> 
> (Also bonus points if its a piece with a counter-tenor in it)


 I have a strong intuition that you will love the Manchicourt Requiem.


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## isorhythm

And something newer:






Edit - reading your post more closely, I bet you already know the Part, but here's another 20th century thing you might like. Not exactly minimal, but....


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## Lukecash12

Xaltotun said:


> I'm mainly a classical / romantic listener but I'll try to suggest some that fit your preferences and haven't been mentioned yet.
> 
> Bach - Mass in B minor - Crucifixus
> Liszt - Via Crucis
> Brahms - Nänie
> Prokofiev - Alexander Nevsky cantata - Field of the Dead


See 1:02:33; 1:05:38; & 1:08:39.






_Crucifixus_ here has an incredible emotional contrast and sense of fulfillment culminating in the next movement. _Et incarnatus_, _crucifixus_, and _et resurrexit_, all within twelve minutes or so, collectively manage to encapsulate the whole Christian experience. I didn't even comprehend that I could have those emotions before I listened to it. Not to delve to far into cheery music, but it isn't the kind of superficially sweet and bubbly kind of sensation that you seem to be describing in the OP when you mention the hallelujah chorus, it's more of a full blown "I just met God" kind of experience. _Cujus regni non erit finis_!

Getting back to Crucifixus, though: it has this dreary and implacable continuo line that chromatically pictures the cross, while often not even sounding harmonically consonant with the rest, making this undifferentiated part of it even more profound to me then the choral parts. The bass singers mirror and compliment the line a lot until it gets towards the end and the continuo line really starts to stick out.

Another piece worth mentioning is Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. The whole thing is dripping with melancholy refrain sections, and the theme of Mary's own emotions at Golgatha is quite a theme indeed.


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## gprengel

I strongly recommend to you Cherubini's Requiem in c-minor. Beethoven regarded this even higher than Mozart's Requiem...





Some of my favourite parts are the famous Dieas Irae at 10:13 ... or the tender passage at 23:00 ...

Then above all the deep Agnus Dei from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.


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## Orfeo

John Foulds' "A World Requiem" comes to mind.
Dmitry Kabalevsky's Requiem
Shostakovich's Symphony no. XIII "Babi Yar."
Weinberg's Sixth, Eighth, and Eighteenth Symphonies.


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## elgar's ghost

Górecki's _Miserere_.


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## Bayreuth

Berlioz - Requiem, Te Deum
Britten - War Requiem


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## TxllxT

The saddest choirs I know are in Shostakovich's Symphony no. 13 'Babi Yar'


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## Ivanbeeth

Sennin said:


> I tend to prefer earlier polyphony / baroque-y stuff and some of the more minimal modern composers over the more complex / busy stuff of the classical period (maybe I'm still too green to appreciate that as yet).
> 
> (Also bonus points if its a piece with a counter-tenor in it)


I think you'd like Vivaldi's Stabat mater. It is for countertenor solo and orchestra. It was one of the first works I liked in this music's world, when, as you say, I was still too green to appreciate more complex stuff.


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## Pugg

Verdi: Requiem / Karajan · La Scala Orchestra and Chorus of Milan :tiphat:


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## Asterix77

Bach is at his best when composing sad music. You can find a lot of sad/tragic choral music in his cantata's:
BWV 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, nicknamed the "Actus Tragicus" which is a funeral cantata
BWV 21, Ich hatte viel Bekummernis
BWV 12, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
BWV 38, Aus tieger Not schrei ich zu dir.
BWV 198, Trauerode

And of course the opening choir of the St Mattthew passion (BWV 244)

I'm just scratching the surface here, there is a lot to discover...


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## dzc4627

Brahms 4


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Try F. J. Haydn's Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross:


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