# Which choral works have you sung in that you find intense & wonderful?



## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

I'm an operatically trained bass-baritone and for several years I sang with a very fine choral society. Works we performed that sent me into 7th heaven were Mozart Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Faure Requiem, Messiah, and Carmina Burana.

Carmina Burana was intense, a big production. Our choral group was about 200 strong, all having to pass auditions to join, and many were professionally trained. Added to that was a large school district adjunct choir (mostly the lighter voices, soprano, alto, tenor, since they were teens) of 175, a child's choir of maybe 50, and an 80 piece orchestra. The intensity was palpable and while singing "Oh Fortuna" I was essentially drenched in perspiration, my tux soaked. As you know, Carmina is a very powerful piece and we were all swept up into the music.

The Mozart Requiem has its own tremendous power. The great early fugue of "Kyrie eleison" was electric. Of course, Messiah is one of the most stunning vocal pieces ever. I especially liked "He trusted in God" which has some very vicious energy.

What choral works have you sung in that have particularly moved you?


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Had not particularly expected to enjoy Mendelssohn's Elijah, but was pleasantly surprised how involving some of those choruses were.
Love the German Requiem, but have now decided, after years of writing off the soprano solo as an irrelevance, that it's my favourite( & transposes quite well for bass solo practice !).
Favourite bass/baritone aria 'Grosser Herr' from Bach Christmas Oratorio - one day I might even crack it !
Love to hear others' ideas of bass/baritone pieces from choral works which are inspiring.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

...violadude sang "For the Beauty of the Earth." I remember this very well. I still think it's a very pretty, even moving song.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Well, cj, re. bass solos that are inspiring, I suppose one of my faves is "Why do the nations" from Messiah. And of course "Refiner's fire" from the same. But "Trumpet shall sound" is by far the best. Over the course of years, I've learned all 3. Fun to sing, too.


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Mr. Katdad - thanks for replying; had hoped perhaps to assume that everyone here knew Messiah, and quite probably the Mendelssohn, Brahms & Bach that I mentioned, well enough to move on from !
Could be I haven't sung in most of the choral works that move me as much as anything - Ropartz, Florent Schmitt, Neukomm, Taneyev, Grechaninov, Frank Martin etc.. Does that make them, & others, ineligible for this thread ?


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Well, I was primarily interested in personal singing experience, which is always different from being an audience member or listening to a CD, but hey, thread drift is always welcome! Go for it.

Particularly, though, it's how the singer personally reacts to being immersed in the music, the (mostly) choral society gathering and working together toward a concert that I was asking about.


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## rborganist (Jan 29, 2013)

I too never tire of Messiah. And as fine as the bass arias are that have been listed, don't forget "The People That Walked in Darkness." Mendelssohn's other oratorio, which is done far too seldom, is "St. Paul." There is a particularly lovely contralto aria "But the Lord is Mindful of His Own." The Bach Passions are hard to beat, and I have been fortunate enough to sing both the St. John and the St. Matthew Passions. A particularly powerful experience was singing the premiere of "A Requiem for Eagles" by [the late] Dr. David Lingle, which he wrote for the 25th anniversary season of the Alamo City Men's Chorale. Toward the end of the piece is a place where the names of our local servicemen who lost their lives in the recent Middle East wars were read as the choir first sings, then hums "The Lone Wild Bird in Lofty Flight." Unfortunately it is not yet published, nor is their any way to know if it ever will be, but it was overwhelming.


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

katdad said:


> I'm an operatically trained bass-baritone and for several years I sang with a very fine choral society. Works we performed that sent me into 7th heaven were Mozart Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Faure Requiem, Messiah, and Carmina Burana.
> 
> Carmina Burana was intense, a big production. Our choral group was about 200 strong, all having to pass auditions to join, and many were professionally trained. Added to that was a large school district adjunct choir (mostly the lighter voices, soprano, alto, tenor, since they were teens) of 175, a child's choir of maybe 50, and an 80 piece orchestra. The intensity was palpable and while singing "Oh Fortuna" I was essentially drenched in perspiration, my tux soaked. As you know, Carmina is a very powerful piece and we were all swept up into the music.
> 
> ...


The ecce gratum is great to sing, gives me a real buzz. I've always loved singing in the chorus and share a lot of your favourites - Mozart, Verdi, Faure and Durufle Requiems - during Handel's Messiah practice I was pulled out to sing the tenor solo parts, so that was fun and scary.

One of my all time favourites and even listening to other choirs sing it sends tingles down my spine is the Всенощное бдѣніе Bogoroditse Devo from Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil.


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## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> ...violadude sang "For the Beauty of the Earth." I remember this very well. I still think it's a very pretty, even moving song.


Which version did he sing and where can I find this


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## musicphotogAnimal (Jul 24, 2012)

Carmina Burana, Judas Maccabeus (the latter because I was able to sing with my now late father who was a former chorister with the Vancouver Bach Choir). Mahler's 8th Symphony. John Rutter's Gloria, in Victoria, BC under the baton of John Rutter himself.

The one oratorio that I would have liked to perform with my father was the Messiah, however it wasn't to be.


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## Bas (Jul 24, 2012)

The Messiah is a very interesting piece, especially for choir. The "he shall purify" and "for unto us a child is born" come to mind, as an addition to the wonderful choir pieces already mentioned.


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## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

Here is one I haven't sung, but it has incredible power. "Curse Upon Iron" by Veljo Tormis.


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## jvardon (Apr 22, 2013)

The Haydn Lord Nelson Mass was incredible to sing.^_^.


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## SteveSherman (Jan 9, 2014)

The People That Walk in Darkness is the only Handel I've ever had the guts to sing in public. As a soloist I'm more at home in Gilbert and Sullivan, though in my younger days I might have dared The Lord is a Man of War (from Israel in Egypt) if I'd found another bass willing to risk my dragging him down to my level.

But really I'm a chorister by disposition and inclination, though I do love singing one-on-a-part, from Byrd's Masses to barbershop.

The choral repertoire in inexhaustible, fortunately. One work I've found especially rewarding that is not at all well-known (and that I mentioned in another thread) is Franck's Seven Last Words. It ranges from the operatic to the contemplative and repays the efforts of both soloists and choir, especially the soprano and a very high tenor.


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