Olivier Messiaen, "O sacrum convivium"

Maurice Durufle's Four Motets on Gregorian Themes (Op. 10): Ubi Caritas, Tota pulchra es, Tu es Petrus, and Tantum ergo.

Poulenc's 4 Christmas motets are wonderful.

Hmm. In my reading, "motet" has meant a huge range of things. Let's limit it to antiphons. "Psalm settings" is an intuitive group unto itself. I'll post a thread on that sometime.

Ian W, Thank you for the clarification re "lengthy" Lauridsen. I should have read the thread more closely. . . now my response seems rather out of place, if not a bit shallow.

moconnor's definition of a motet helps clarify the issue as well.

IanW, those Poulenc motets are to die for...

moconnor

Just a note that, if you want to delineate, Salves are really settings of the Marian antiphon and since they were/are sung polyphonically in a liturgical setting, they don't really qualify as motets, which are extra-liturgical by nature.

BTW the Poulenc motets by name are:

O magnum mysterium
Quem vidistis pastores
Videntes stellam
Hodie Christus natus est (which might actually be an Introit setting)

Timor et tremor
Vinea mea electa
Tenebrae factae sunt
Tristis est anima mea

moconnor

G,
The accepted term for English "motets" is anthem, which interestingly is derived from the word "antiphon". Your work, btw, is of the highest value. It's easy to do chant and polyphony where its wanted, but to introduce into a typical OCP parish is the highest of all callings. Keep up the good work. As for the choir anthems, why don't you program a short communion song one day and have the choir sing something to fill the space remaining?

moconnor

House keeping

Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium, Ave dulcissimi Maria, Ubi caritas et Amor, Ave Maria

Macmillan's Christus Vincit (Also, listen to Seven Last Words from the Cross, definitely not a motet but worth listening Hyperion Label CDA 67460)

Gorecki's Totus Tuus, Amen and Miserere (perhaps too long for liturgical setting)

Panufnik's Deus, Deus Meus

Part motets (I am the True Vine, Dopo la vittoria (italian), Triodion) - Hyperion Label CDA 67375
Part's De Profundis (perhaps too dark, Cisterican monastery only, maybe)

John Tavener's (contemporary one) Christmas Proclamation, also it's not a motet but he's got a very nice Our Father

Harris' Faire is the Heaven (where happy souls...)

Britten's "Hymn to the Virgin"

Howell's "Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks"

Also, try to listen to Villette, almost unrecognized by many people (Hyperion label Compact Disc CDA67539)

Poulenc's Quatre Petites Prières de Saint François D'Assise

and not forgetting:

O magnum mysterium
Quem vidistis pastores
Videntes stellam
Hodie Christus natus est (which might actually be an Introit setting)

Timor et tremor
Vinea mea electa
Tenebrae factae sunt
Tristis est anima mea

Keep it up guys,
Isaac

...This is going to be my final one for this hour, apologies for not thinking before posting, but I left this out too:

Franz Biebl's Ave Maria

I know we're all very keen on sharing our different experiences of new music, but we should nevertheless talk about it too. In other words, please don't just say listen to this listen to that. Let's talk about some of the music we've heard, even if it's personal, it gets the thread going. And evidently, there's nothing quite as special as meeting different viewpoints on the same subject - that's what a forum is for.

Ok, I'll start with what Pes' recommended. Thanks very much for pointing us to that link. I have so far never heard the entire Mass in G major by Poulence, and the Quatre Petites Prières de Saint François D'Assise is quintessentially Poulenc. Poulenc along with many other French composers in the 20th century represent to me a very defining moment in liturgical music. I find that despite the numerous accidentals and changes in key, there is so much honesty to all that complexity. And truth as well. To me, it sort of evokes the turbulent and 'modern' conditions on one hand (with the doubts and despairs of wars and social upheavals) and the Truth that in the midst of this beauty and truth still prevails. But I do know a lot who like me, struggle with this music and don't come or see that light. To many, the 20th century French composers just made life difficult on the singer. I beg to differ.

So in a nutshell:
Messiaen's a mystic!
Poulenc's music is like bright mediterranean whites battling (nay cutting through) a turbulent world. The accidentals are the complexities of the world, but the overall harmonies are the beauty still triumphantly shining through!

Isaac.

Just looked it up. Hodie Christus natus est is the antiphon to the Magnificat of Christmas Vespers, so fair game for a motet!

moconnor

I don't know those. What are the texts?

moconnor

a nice Christmas motet:

Lux Aurumque

music by Eric Whitacre
text sung in latin but original text in english

Light,
warm and heavy as pure gold
and the angels sing softly
to the newborn baby.

Vigilate, nice catch!
LUX ARUMQUE is one of Whitaker's few works that can be successfully negotiated by a capable, even modest SATB choir. The text is technically un-liturgical, but I wouldn't deem it at all inappropriate within a liturgy.
For weddings: Whitaker's FIVE HEBREW WEDDING SONGS is a gorgeous medley.

Samuel, is Hallock the fellow who wrote something called the Ionian Psalter? I've sung things from that. Very nice.

Ave Verum Corpus by Imant Raminsh (born 1943) is also great piece.

Isaac, I've only sung and heard a few of Hallock's settings for the Psalter. The reason I like them is that they're Anglican-style chant rendered with new-sound cadences. I think. My experience with all this is limited. For example, I remember their mediant cadences often had intervals of seconds in them, so that you'd have these remarkable mid-points of tension which the final cadences resolved. They sounded more daring and colorful than other Anglican chants I had heard, more like the more modern psalm settings of Walford Davies (which I love) and David Willcocks. Prayerful and musically satisfying. I look forward to visiting my sister-in-law in Seattle so I can pray Compline with his choir. Alas, I haven't heard anything else by him.

There are several great 20th century motets that our choir has loved:
Ave Verum Corpus: Colin Mawby ("one of the finest 20th century works: Richard Proulx")
Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester: Malcolm Archer (also has some other good things)
Ave Verum Corpus, Great is the Lord: Elgar:(others too)
Miserere Mei: Calvin Schenck (Cantica Nova)
Advent Anthem: Richard Proulx
E'n So Lord Jesus Come: Mainz
Cantique de Jean Racine: Faure
Advent Message: Martin How

I guess i'm getting carried away.Will stop.
GH

The Oxford Book of European Sacred Music is worth a look. It's a good source of music from a number of periods, but in relation to this thread it includes a number of 20th century works: Casals (O Vos Omnes), Poulenc (Salve Regina), Rachmaninov (Ave Maria), Reger (unser lieben Frauen Traum), Stravinsky (Ave Maria).

Dear ghmus7, thanks for reviving this thread. I very much enjoy 20th & 21st century motets, especially those written by composers who truly understand the liturgy and the spirit of chant. A matter of housekeeping, though: Many of the items you listed are accompanied by organ. Are we focusing this discussion on unaccompanied motets and anthems, or are we opening it up to accompanied works?

IanW, I couldn't agree with you more about Poulenc's "Vinea Mea Electa" -- it's one of the most moving pieces ever written. I was reminded of it last year when I made my first trip to the Napa Valley, and stood looking at grapevines growing as far as the eye could see, knowing that some vintner cares very deeply about each one of those plants, that they are the pride of his life's work. I think Poulenc captures this "breast swelling with pride" sort of feeling when he opens the with "vinea mea electa, ego te plantavi," which makes the heartbreaking setting of "quomodo conversa es in amaritudinem, ut me crucifigures et Barrabam dimitteres" all the more poignant. The bitterness of betrayal is communicated without an ounce of anger -- simply the utter sadness of a broken, sacred heart.

May I add to this list a few unaccompanied modern motets I've enjoyed conducting this year:

Healey Willan's "O Sacred Feast." It's much more accessible than the Messiaen for the average choir, and it's in English (which you should appreciate, G!). Many of Healey Willan's pieces, though conceived for the Anglo-Catholic church, are perfectly suited for the Roman rite. "Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One" is another splendid unaccompanied motet, perfect for a wedding.

Leo Nestor should be included here. Here's a recording of my church choir singing Nestor's "The Call," available from ECS Publishing: http://www.uccmedfield.org/Assets/audio/music/TheCall.wma
We're starting to rehearse Nestor's "Come Risen Lord" (Oxford) but it's going to take some time.

And, in the category of "these unaccompanied motets beat the knickers off their Glory & Praise equivalents":
Compare McCabe's "I Am the Living Bread" to Toolan's harder-to-sing-than-the-national-anthem version.
Compare Schalk's "He Who Dwells in the Shelter of the Most High" to Joncas's overdone Wings.
Compare Grotenhuis's "Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace" to Sebastian Temple's celebrated ditty.

Both wonderful pieces, btw

Kevin Allen's DOMINE NON SUM DIGNUS in Motecta Trium Vocum is a masterpiece: structurally and melodically.

Marcel Dupré's TWO MOTETS of 1958 are admirably crafted, though to perform them in a liturgical context would need not only an exceptionally sharp-witted choir accustomed to tangy Gallic a cappella harmonies, but a first-rate soprano soloist. So they're quite a big ask. They are, nevertheless, fully worthy to rank beside Dupré's far better known organ compositions.

Also, in my experience a few of Jean Langlais's Mass settings are revived occasionally - more in concert than in church - but when was the last time you heard (or even heard of) Langlais's wartime DEUX DÉPLORATIONS with organ accompaniment, to Latin texts (respectively LIBERA ME for STB and MISERERE for SATB)? I should think they'd appeal to anyone who has cultivated a taste for, say, Poulenc.

Please add the to this list Geoffrey Burgon, a contemporary Englishman. His "A Prayer to the Trinity" and "But Have been Found Again" are wonderful, but difficult pieces. He also has a psalm setting of Ps. 147 that is terribly difficult but stunning. He is more know for writing the music to the BBC television series "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy" but has written some wonderful church music.
My 02.

Thanks, Jeffrey... I wonder if anybody else who tried had any problems, because I downloaded the file again and everything came up just fine. Are you using the latest version of Acrobat Reader?