Looking for choral pieces
  • CindyCeciliaCindyCecilia
    Posts: 65
    Our Parish will begin celebrating its 150th anniversary this year on the Feast of St. Michael. I am looking for ideas for choir pieces to sing as a prelude to Mass - smallish choir, but devoted - all voice parts (SATB), but nothing overly tricky. Thanks!
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    Locus Iste- Bruckner
    Thanked by 3CindyCecilia Joseph Mendes gregp
  • YellowRoseofTexasYellowRoseofTexas
    Posts: 91
    Ave Verum - Saint-Saens
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    A nice English anthem I have used is "Lauda Anima - Praise my soul, the King of Heaven," by Mark Andrews. It is not very difficult and the melody is quite pretty.

    I should have mentioned that the accompaniment near the end can be tricky to play. It can be modified a bit. I found this anthem much more difficult to play than to sing.
    Thanked by 1CindyCecilia
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    If it might be of help, I have added a page to the Catholic Choirbook Anthology 1 site that is a sort of graduated worklist for choirs. Possibly that might be helpful?

    It's based on a simple version followed by more difficult of ones using the same text so you can skip through the list and evaluate which ones might fit your choir.

    The Bruckner and SS are both in the book - good suggestions - and the book is always free for downloading and printing copies of legally.


    Worklist

    Many congratulations on 150 years, that parish has undoubtedly seen and experienced everything good and bad about Catholic music over the years...and with you, is definitely in a good phase once again!
    Thanked by 2francis CindyCecilia
  • Cantate
    Posts: 33
    If you have a reasonable organist and want something in English, consider "Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men"...but it's not in the public domain...
  • francis
    Posts: 10,821
    fnj

    we are grateful for your wonderful resources! thank you.
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    If Latin-language material is feasible, then don't overlook, CindyCecilia, Lorenzo Perosi's motets. Lots of these are now out of copyright and therefore available gratis via such sites as the Petrucci Music Library. All, in my experience, sound effective even with small forces; none, in my experience, presents undue technical problems for singers.

    http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Perosi,_Lorenzo

    Also: Some time back, Jeffrey Tucker made available on Musica Sacra the following collection of short, eminently approachable choral pieces for the liturgy:

    http://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/secunda.pdf
  • CindyCeciliaCindyCecilia
    Posts: 65
    Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful suggestions and help. You all are a great resource to have! Thank you! :)
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