# Sacred music that excites?



## Ingélou

I like Sacred Music, and it is often very moving and makes me reflect on the mysteries of life and death.
Because of the need for decorum, one doesn't imagine that there is much Sacred Music in the classical tradition that is exciting, happy, funny and so on. Gospel Music and other non-classical sacred music can do all that, of course.
But am I wrong? - That's pretty likely, come to think of it. :lol:
And the Missa Luba, for example, uses drums and is exhilarating enough. 

What sacred music, new or old, do you find 'exciting' in some way, and why?


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## hpowders

I find Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate exciting due to its exhilarating coloratura and extroverted nature.

I also find the Verdi Requiem exciting because of its incredible drama. For me the Verdi Requiem is the greatest of all Requiems. Please don't send me cards and letters.


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## Balthazar

I find "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah to be quite cheerful and uplifting. For a period of a few years I had Kathleen Battle's version (below) set as my morning alarm -- fantastic music to wake up to!


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## hpowders

Balthazar said:


> I find "Rejoice Greatly" from Handel's Messiah to be quite cheerful and uplifting. For a period of a few years I had Kathleen Battle's version (below) set as my morning alarm -- fantastic music to wake up to!


My wife sang it at our divorce hearing.


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## Guest

hpowders said:


> My wife sang it at our divorce hearing.


I refer you, Mr Powders, to the thread I launched about "Living minimalism" and getting rid of unwanted clutter !!!!!!


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## hpowders

TalkingHead said:


> I refer you, Mr Powders, to the thread I launched about "Living minimalism" and getting rid of unwanted clutter !!!!!!


I simply call it "psychologically healthy down-sizing", TH.


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## brotagonist

Penderecki's _Magnificat_


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## hpowders

hpowders said:


> My wife sang it at our divorce hearing.


Edit: FIRST wife!!!


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## Celloman

Poulenc's _Gloria_ is very humorous in places. In fact, many critics accused him of sacrilege because of the way he interpreted a traditional Latin text.

It's on the nominated list for the Top Post-1950 Works, if you want to vote for it...


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## isorhythm

-Bach's Magnificat: Not much to say about this one, but joyful from beginning to end.

-Vivaldi's Gloria: Underappreciated IMO. Those opening trumpet octaves are thrilling.

-Speaking of Poulenc, his Mass in G also has some very exuberant, upbeat passages...though my favorite part is the slow and haunting Agnus Dei.

-Bernstein's Chichester Psalms: Some will dismiss this as kitschy, but I've always loved it. The first movement fits the description.

-And finally this piece from 13th century Italy I recently came across:


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## Xaltotun

Romantic sacred music has a lot of exciting and/or happy moments, as well as classical! Haydn masses and oratorios, Mozart masses, Beethoven masses, Cherubini masses, Schubert masses (try the Gloria of the 5th), almost all of Dvorak's sacred music (the Te Deum is an adrenaline bomb), Liszt's masses (the Graduale of the Hungarian Coronation Mass...) and oratorios (the storm sequence in "Christus"...), Bruckner's Te Deum, Mendelssohn oratorios and his second symphony, etc. Just thinking of all those brisky fugues brings a smile to my face.

As a bonus I'll mention Wagner's (!) "Das Liebesmahl der Apostel" which develops slowly but gets positively hysterical at the end!


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## isorhythm

Couple more I should have included....

Poulenc's Exultate Deo: 




Many sections of Monteverdi's Vespers. Representative:


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## science

Verdi's and Berlioz's requiems.


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## Rhombic




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## Headphone Hermit

Ingélou said:


> one doesn't imagine that there is much Sacred Music in the classical tradition that is exciting


I almost choked on my lunch!!!! 

Am I a rarity in finding early church music exciting? Ockeghem, Josquin, Dufay, Dunstaple .... even Machaut, Perotin, Ludford and so on. The soaring notes, the chasing and interplay between the singers, the joy and extasy of a good performance ... yup, it can be exciting :tiphat:


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## Rhombic

Headphone Hermit said:


> I almost choked on my lunch!!!!
> 
> Am I a rarity in finding early church music exciting? Ockeghem, Josquin, Dufay, Dunstaple .... even Machaut, Perotin, Ludford and so on. The soaring notes, the chasing and interplay between the singers, the joy and ecstasy of a good performance ... yup, it can be exciting :tiphat:


Probably exciting wasn't the word that she was looking for. Hmm. I cannot think now of a word that conveys that feeling of light enjoyability, with a less pompous atmosphere than that of typical sacred compositions.


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## Guest

I've always been very fond of *Haydn's* _Missa Sancti Nicolai_, and I find the Gloria particularly exciting.


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## omega

I've just been listening to this on Spotify:

*Rautavaara*
_Lapsimessu - Children's Mass_

I was really touched by this mass. It starts with a very simple, childish and pure Kyrie, followed by a meditation.
Then comes a joyful Gloria, and another meditation.
The innocence of the Agnus Dei makes it a truly peaceful music. It is followed by another meditation.
The most surprising is certainly the Halleluja: it is darker and rather plaintive.

What excited me was this atmosphere of pure, joyful and simple faith from the Kyrie and the Gloria.

A very beautiful mass.


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## KAV

I have enjoyed many religious tradition's music. A temple cantor, the chant of Buddhist monks, Von Bingen after cloistering myself after a spell on an L.A. freeway with Lady Gaga or Snoop Dog blaring from the other autos ARE EXCITING.I look forward 
to CALL THE MIDWIFE for the all to brief Anglican liturgical chants by the nuns. I spent 3 happy years in an Anglican parochial school after my parent's divorce. I hold no particular affiliation. But this niche would be a most welcome CD on my shelf.


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## MoonlightSonata

Just about all Bach is exciting! His harmony is so clever, the counterpoint so fascinating, that I can't help but love it.


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## dwindladwayne

isorhythm said:


> Many sections of Monteverdi's Vespers. Representative:


I perfectly agree, I would add _Nisi dominus_ as an example 
Moreover a quite enigmatic listening is the music by Hildegard von Bingen, mystic mysterious character!


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## hpowders

Nothing excites me more than listening to one of the greatest of requiems, the Verdi Requiem.

Incredible!!


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## Manxfeeder

Hasse's Requiem is fun. Try to listen to the Introitus without tapping your feet or at least nodding your head. The guy it was written for must have been a hoot.


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## Lukecash12

Headphone Hermit said:


> I almost choked on my lunch!!!!
> 
> Am I a rarity in finding early church music exciting? Ockeghem, Josquin, Dufay, Dunstaple .... even Machaut, Perotin, Ludford and so on. The soaring notes, the chasing and interplay between the singers, the joy and extasy of a good performance ... yup, it can be exciting :tiphat:


Maybe a rarity, but certainly a rarity after my own heart. Some I days I just have to glut myself on modal church music and it truly is sumptuous fare. The "7/11" (seven words eleven times with zero musical substance) music I've grown accustomed to in churches is about as exciting to me as doing the dishes. Other classical lovers might find opera exciting, but my sweet spot is sacred music from medieval to late baroque.

If it didn't happen from the 5th to 18th century, and it didn't happen in church, then I guess I'll give it a chance but statistically speaking it probably won't be as exciting. And this is coming from a guy who defends the value of atonal music and loves composers such as Scriabin, Roslavets, Feinberg, & Schnittke.


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## Lukecash12

Rhombic said:


> Probably exciting wasn't the word that she was looking for. Hmm. I cannot think now of a word that conveys that feeling of light enjoyability, with a less pompous atmosphere than that of typical sacred compositions.


As soon as I see the word "pompous" here my brain literally curls into a question mark, but it's all a matter of one's perspective I guess. Unless I'm listening to something heavy about the passion, etc. I'm normally very merry when I listen to sacred music; it doesn't feel stuffy at all to me.

It all just depends on how you approach it. When I hear Bach saying to me _gratias agimus tibi_, _propter magnam gloriam tuam_ the subject matter itself is as fresh to me today as it was the first time I heard the Mass in B. It's like reading a psalm, always something exciting and new there, something personal that grips me across time barriers as if they were nonexistent.

The same love and utter fascination for God grips me as the author and I wonder "just how different are we after all". God sat down with people just like me and ate fish. How would you like it if you were one of the apostles, mourning the best friend you've ever had and the resurrected Lord suddenly came into your midst saying "would you like to have breakfast with me". Wait a second... God's a human being? I have a new family now and it's built purely on love itself? Who would be to busy to have breakfast with God? *I can't imagine anything more exciting.* You can call it stuffy all you like, I'm going to go have a game of catch with my Dad, Jesus Christ. 






_Wake ye maids! hard, strikes the hour,
The watchman calls high on the tower,
Awake, awake, Jerusalem.
Midnight strikes, hear, hear it sounding,
Loud cries the watch, with call resounding:
Where are ye, o wise virgins, where?
Good cheer, the Bridegroom come,
Arise and take your lamps!
Alleluja!
Ye maids beware:
The feast prepare,
So go ye forth to meet Him there._

The *marriage supper of the lamb*. Or as I like to think of it "the cosmic party".


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## Rhombic

Do you realise that we have posted virtually almost all well-known repertoire? This implies that, as a whole, we consider that AT LEAST the standard repertoire is very exciting. This, if true, would mean that the purpose of the original question is quite dubious, since nobody would ever ask any question of this type that can be answered with "the standard repertoire".

Just got me thinking.
Maybe too much.
Nevermind.
Forget this post if you don't get what I mean.
In fact, not even I know what I meant.
It's been a long day.
Listen to Tomás Luis de Victoria.


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## Prodromides

The religious opus which I personally find an exiting listen is Andre Caplet's 1923 _Le Miroir de Jesus_


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## Ingélou

Rhombic said:


> Do you realise that we have posted virtually almost all well-known repertoire? This implies that, as a whole, we consider that AT LEAST the standard repertoire is very exciting. This, if true, would mean that the purpose of the original question is quite dubious, since nobody would ever ask any question of this type that can be answered with "the standard repertoire"....


 Ah well! 
At least I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves...?


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## Guest

Well, funny coincidence, last night I attended a concert of *Rachmaninov's* _Les Vêpres_, op. 37. I was pretty impressed, and there were some very exciting sonorities. The work was quite new to me. Maybe *Omega* you were there, too?


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## ArtMusic

I love the first movement of Bach's Magnificat. It just sounds so uplifting and grand but in the most simple ways.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

One of the most exciting for me would have to be Haydn's The Creation.


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## Polyphemus

Penderecki 'Utrenja' stands out for me. Though I will admit to being a fan of sacred music, except oratorios.


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## Ilarion

Hello gentlepeople,

As a former westerner who now lives and works in Russia as a Chorister, I would like to know how many singers on this forum have experience singing Russian Choral Music in the Church Slavonic language. Furthermore, has anyone experienced the Passion according to St. Matthew or the Divine Liturgy by Met. Alfeyev?

From the Divine Liturgy:


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## TwoPhotons

Liszt - Alleluia...at least that's what he called it, I think a more fitting title would be "March of Satan".


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## Wunderhorn

Ilarion said:


> Hello gentlepeople,
> 
> As a former westerner who now lives and works in Russia as a Chorister, I would like to know how many singers on this forum have experience singing Russian Choral Music in the Church Slavonic language. Furthermore, has anyone experienced the Passion according to St. Matthew or the Divine Liturgy by Met. Alfeyev?


I'm not a singer, but I have a recording of Alfeyev's work. It is quite beautiful. He seems quite courageous to bring an orchestra into
church music, where that was and probably is forbidden in many places with the Russian Orthodox church. We need more of this!


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## Ilarion

Wunderhorn said:


> I'm not a singer, but I have a recording of Alfeyev's work. It is quite beautiful. He seems quite courageous to bring an orchestra into
> church music, where that was and probably is forbidden in many places with the Russian Orthodox church. We need more of this!


Hello gentleperson Wunderhorn,

Thank you for sharing. Just as a point of information, the Russian Orthodox Church does not let music instruments perform during any Divine Liturgy, Evening Service, or any other service for that matter. Concerts of Russian Sacred Music with instruments in the Concert Hall or other public venues are totally accepted and encouraged. But in the Liturgical Service it is strictly the Human Voice that provides the music. One of the main reasons being that according to New Testament tradition it is vocal music that supports the spoken liturgy or intoned liturgy. It is seen as a unnecessary distraction to have musical instruments calling attention to themselves, as if they are more important than the spoken liturgy. Yes, it seems odd to many westerners. As a former organist who grew up with Bach it was somewhat odd for me too but after I converted to Orthodoxy it became all clear for me. Btw, the Greek Church does use the organ but in a very circumscribed role. On a final note, Met. Alfeyev loves the music of Bach and Met. Alfeyev plays the organ and violin too.

Respectfully yours...


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## Ilarion

Chanticleer did a smashing job with Tavener's Lamentations and Praises back in 2001. Imo, it is a "barebones"(minimum of fluff) type of music which an openminded ear will provide the "flesh" to cover the bones. It definitely startled me after I bought it, however, it took many replays(years of intensive listening) before I got the hang of Tavener's music. I have a notion that his spiritual mother (Thekla) provided him with insight into the question of "music for the soul" which led him explore more deeply the meaning of a life lived in the Light and in Truth.

Respectfully yours...


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## Wunderhorn

Ilarion said:


> Hello gentleperson Wunderhorn,
> 
> Thank you for sharing. Just as a point of information, the Russian Orthodox Church does not let music instruments perform during any Divine Liturgy, Evening Service, or any other service for that matter. ... As a former organist who grew up with Bach it was somewhat odd for me too but after I converted to Orthodoxy it became all clear for me. Btw, the Greek Church does use the organ but in a very circumscribed role. On a final note, Met. Alfeyev loves the music of Bach and Met. Alfeyev plays the organ and violin too.
> 
> Respectfully yours...


Thanks, Ilarion, yes, I know about the limitation to voices in the Orthodox church that's why it is so hard to find serious choral works that at least sound like Russian Orthodox with orchestra. I personally find the Russian Orthodox chants to be some of the most beautiful things on earth. And I just love the idea of having that in context with the excitement of orchestral textures.
BTW. May I ask you where you originally moved from? Actually, I think I am going to send you a PM as I have a question which wouldn't belong to this thread.

I did have the impression that Alfeyev is also inspired a lot by Baroque music. There is a beautiful new recording of some of his works which I got - This one: http://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-4&qid=1432695009


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## EDaddy

Mozart's Missa Brevis in F major K192. Outstanding!


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## Jorge Hereth

Four examples of mine:

José Maurício Nunes Garcia's _Missa de Santa Cecília_:





The _Matinas de Quinta-Feira Santa_ by Souza Queiróz:





Silva Gomes' _Concert Mass for the Christmas Night_:





Lobo de Mesquita's _Blessing of the Ashes and Mass_:


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## Steatopygous

We are up to post 41 and no one has mentioned Rossini's Stabat Mater. Very operatic, very lovely, very exciting.


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## brotagonist

Janáček Glagolitic Mass


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## Jorge Hereth

By Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), a Brazilian composer who was principally an operist:

Missa de São Sebastião (1854):





and Missa de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, which premiered Friday, February 25, 1859 in Campinas, SP (sorry, no complete performance found).


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## Aleksandar

Bach - Magnificat
Haydn - Lord Nelson Mass
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis

It is not uncommon for me to listen to them all back to back.


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## Wood

TalkingHead said:


> I've always been very fond of *Haydn's* _Missa Sancti Nicolai_, and I find the Gloria particularly exciting.


Indeed such was the 'exciting' and profane nature of Haydn's masses that they incurred disapproval from church authorities into the twentieth century. Salieri accused Haydn of 'gross sins against church style' whilst Charles Burney complained of them as being 'light airs and turbulent accompaniments.'

All of which suggests that Haydn's sacred music is actually quite racy. I would certainly consider that to be the case. :tiphat:


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## Jorge Hereth

Wood said:


> Indeed such was the 'exciting' and profane nature of Haydn's masses that they incurred disapproval from church authorities into the twentieth century. Salieri accused Haydn of 'gross sins against church style' whilst Charles Burney complained of them as being 'light airs and turbulent accompaniments.'
> 
> All of which suggests that Haydn's sacred music is actually quite racy. I would certainly consider that to be the case. :tiphat:


And the Catholic church authorities had boys castrated as choir singers into the 20th Century. But well, in the Vatican they had castrated themselves mentally from Centuries before. I believe the castration of boys by Catholic church in Italy was just a physical outcoming of clergy's own mental castration. So: sorry, I won't give a sh.. about what these mental eunuchs had to say about Haydn.

Because Haydn had it right: we are both, Godly and profane. We're body and soul, as Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse had it so right:





We are human beings, and Haydn points it out so finely: guess there was a need of a superior brain like Amy Winehouse's to figure it out for our today's times.

And for Salieri: I don't buy that stuff of him having poisoned Mozart, no way! But I acknowledge he was - right to the contrary of Tony Bennett who identifying Amy Winehouse's intellect and musical capabilities decided to use his name to give her a mayor hand - a very jealous man whose jealousy impeded him from coming out greater in Music's history.

By the way, one month before she deceased, Amy Winehouse chose Brazil to make a tournée she thought it would recover her. Regrettably that one wouldn't happen, but I believe she could still be alive had Brazil's health authorities and the world taken that one more seriously January 13, 2001: 



(The bassist knew English and Amy told him something before she fell: what was it?)

And I love that one by Haydn:


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## Tasto solo

One of the greatest (and most underrated) composers of happy and uplifting sacred music was Jan Dismas Zelenka. His music is more emotional and human than Bach's and in fact during his time his music was praised for giving the listener a "foretaste of heaven". Judge for yourself, you won't be disappointed!

In terms of exciting moments, there are so many. A good introduction to exciting mid-career Zelenka would be the Missa Sancti Josephi which is throughout a simply dazzling work. The opening and final movements of the Gloria are particularly exciting, and the Sanctus including a d''' for the soprano soloist, wow:

Gloria: 



Cum Sancto Spiritu: 



Sanctus: 




In his late career Zelenka seems to have perfected a major shift in style. His works are less baroque or even roccoco and his writing for the orchestra is almost classical. His last masses can be considered as his legacy, just like the late symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven. There are too many exciting moments to mention. A good introduction is the gloria of the Missa Dei Filii, simply awesome:






Another great work is the credo of the Missa Votiva:






It is interesting to note the similarities between the opening chorus and the credo of Bach's b-minor mass which was composed *after* the Zelenka work!


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## Dim7

I'm more into boring stuff personally.


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## millionrainbows

I always get uplifted when I hear Simple Gifts quoted in Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. Also, Hildegard von Biingen's music really excites me.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Haydn's The Creation, The Seasons and his masses, Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's St. Paul and Elijah, Bach's Mass in B minor, Mozart's Requiem, Michael Haydn's Requiem, Telemann's Messiah, Passionsoratorium - all excellent and exciting pieces. I would also recommend Zelenka's 'Missa Dei Filii' and 'Litaniae Lauretanae', a very underrated composer.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Haydn's The Creation, The Seasons and his masses, Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's St. Paul and Elijah, Bach's Mass in B minor, Mozart's Requiem, Michael Haydn's Requiem, Telemann's Messiah, Passionsoratorium - all excellent and exciting pieces. I would also recommend Zelenka's 'Missa Dei Filii' and 'Litaniae Lauretanae', a very underrated composer.


O great Haydn fan, HaydnBearstheClock, what recording do you recommend of The Seasons? I was under the impression that it was a secular work....but maybe I'm just silly.


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## Ingélou

Haydn's Seasons is based on James Thomson's famous poem, which has a deistic world-view in keeping with eighteenth-century pastoralism. So, in my view, HaydnBearstheClock is entitled to bunch it together with Haydn's more specifically-sacred works, especially as this whole thread is based on personal response - but you are not silly to question it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasons_(Haydn)

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/text/3549.html


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## Genoveva

I think that Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 takes the top prize for me in the spine-tingling stakes. I have several versions of this wonderful work, which are all very good. The one I like best of all is a live recording from the 2010 BBC Proms at the Albert Hall, performed by the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner. I particularly like the motet "Pulchra Es", psalm "Laetatus Sum", "Ave Maris Stella".

This is closely followed by Schubert's Mass in E flat (D 950). In my opinion this is is the best of all Masses by any composer (whether a High Mass or a Requiem). The best version I've heard is by Sawallische, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. It has a particularly wonderful "credo".

Bach's Magnificat in D minor, BWV 243 is next favourite. I think that the Ricercar Consort version is the best I have.

Among literally hundreds of smaller scale sacred works by many other composers, I would perhaps single out "Pange Lingua Gloriosi", the RC hymn with words by Saint Thomas Aquinas, I recall from my school days. It was sung on Good Friday, and as far as I recall at some Benediction services, as well as at various "feast days" including Corpus Christi.


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## Steatopygous

Jorge Hereth said:


> And the Catholic church authorities had boys castrated as choir singers into the 20th Century.


This is definitely news to me. My reading suggests the practice was ended decades before the 20th century. What leads you to claim that?


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## hpowders

Excites? Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. Verdi's Requiem. Mozart''s Great c minor Mass. Any of the Haydn late Masses.


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## Pugg

​For me this are the most intriguing pieces, not sure if I can call it religious though.


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## Bellinilover

I love the fourth of Brahams' "Four Serious Songs." A very exciting piece rhythmically, it somewhat resembles the second part of Florestan's Aria from Beethoven's FIDELIO.


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## Vaneyes

*Verdi* Requiem; *Szymanowski* Stabat Mater; *Penderecki* St. Luke Passion; *Tammy Wynette's* D-I-V-O-R-C-E.


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## Plotinian

I think my personal catalogue may be full of more of religious choral music than anything else. But to keep the list short, pertaining to the pieces of religious music that I love the most (in no particular order):

Perotin's Viderunt Omnes 
Josquin's Ave Maria
Tallis' Spem in alium
Palestrina's Missa brevis (but especially the Agnus Dei)
Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers 
Biber's Requiem in A major
Bach's B minor mass 
Faure's Requiem (which I've been obsessing over again lately)
Kedrov's Our Father setting
Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms

...And a great deal of Arvo Part's music (not all, but much of it-- the Passio, Berliner messe, Stabat Mater, Te Deum stand out for me)

OK, I should stop!


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## Pugg

​Sacred and beautiful:tiphat:


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## Ferrariman601

I suppose an appropriate answer to this thread depends on what we deem to be the definition of "exciting." There are a great many sacred works that are awe-inspiring in terms of beauty, ferocity, and scale, yet there are also a great many that excite by means of their etiquette and sheer appropriateness for their intended use. Personally, I tend to like pieces that blend power with virtuosity, so I'm a big fan of the mass settings of Mozart and Joseph Haydn, as well as Händel's numerous oratorios.


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