19th, 20th C choral repertoire
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 350
    I want to expand the 'representation' of these periods in my choir's TLM repertoire of ordinary settings and motets. We are 85% classical polyphony at present, with some earlier and later works mixed in.

    I don't like giving the congregation and choir the impression that no other period has produced good sacred music, which I know is untrue even though I'm less familiar with those periods. I also want to expand my own horizons, and introduce some slightly different sounds at mass.

    Sorry if this has been covered before (a couple of searches turned up nothing), but could I get your suggestions for music from these centuries? If you know a previous discussion a link would be great too.

    Please regard nothing as too obvious to mention. I'm aware of some of the obvious ones (e.g. Durufle's Ubi Caritas, Frisina's Anima Christi, Remondi's O Sacrum Convivium, Bruckner's Locus Iste, etc.) but I'm sure there are many well-known pieces I have overlooked. The only constraint is that the music be choral and appropriate for use during a TLM. I'm even a little interested in somewhat unusual works like Stravinsky's Ave Maria.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,983
    https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Regina_coeli_(João_Baptista_Lehman)
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  • davido
    Posts: 1,231
    Salve Regina by Poulenc
    Lorenzo Perosi was a big deal around turn of the 20th century. Some of his music is still sung by the Sistine Choir
    Thanked by 2Chant_Supremacist Abbysmum
  • Quaerens
    Posts: 48
    A Prayer of Henry VI - Ley
    Jesu Salvator mundi - Menegali
    Christus factus est - Yon
    O Salutaris - Kastorsky
    Anima Christi - Cherion
    Pange lingua & Veni, veni Emmanuel - Kodaly
    Oculi omnium - Charles Wood
    Te Joseph celebrent & Pascha nostrum - Ravanello
    Cor Jesu, melle dulcius - Bortniansky
    Tollite hostias - Saint-Saens
    Panis angelicus & Ave Maria - Franck
    Hymn to the Virgin - Britten (macaronic)

    These are on the simpler side, excepting Kodaly's Veni, veni and the Britten.
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  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 205
    Lorenzo Perosi was a big deal around turn of the 20th century. Some of his music is still sung by the Sistine Choir


    Can confirm, Perosi has some great stuff.

    I really like Paul Jernberg as well, and Kevin Allen.

    We also love Trisagion for Roman Hurco (I think, I will have to check to spelling and will come back and edit if that's wrong). It's tough to find, and definitely has an eastern flavour, but just works so well, especially if you have a decent low voices section.

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  • m_r_taylor
    Posts: 398
    nicholaslemme.com has some good SATB works.
    Thanked by 3Chant_Supremacist MatthewRoth mmeladirectress
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 309
    Bernstein wrote a Missa Brevis late in his career. It sounds challenging, but in the right hands . . .

    https://youtu.be/566jFBephFY?si=qFSIAeUaseZjoQ_k

    There’s the Vaughan Williams Mass in G and the Ropartz Messe “Te DeumLaudamus”

    Finally for something rather recent, there is the LaRocca Mass for the Americas which has a version specifically written for the EF.

    Thanked by 2Chant_Supremacist CHGiffen
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 350
    Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far. Already found several that could work for us.

    Franck encapsulates what I find not entirely fitting in 19th C sacred music, which is not to say it's bad or that, due to my personal tastes, we would never sing it. I find it cloying. The Ravanello and Bortniansky imho are good examples of 19th C 'comfort food' sacred music that don't quite descend into the cloying.

    Britten's Hymn to the Virgin is my personal favourite so far, but I don't think we could pull it off for the time being - not to mention the vernacular, which the priest has vetoed in the past. I've added it to my personal 'special songs' playlist, though. The Trisagion is another good one that we wouldn't be able to sing in our TLM.

    We have sung Kevin Allen's Anima Christi in the past, and I may make it a permanent part of the repertoire at some point.
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  • Quaerens
    Posts: 48
    Arvo Part has some lovely pieces but the ones I am thinking of are in the vernacular... The Deer's Cry, and I am the True Vine.

    Ave maris stella by James Macmillan is fantastic, but comes with dissonances that might be seen as mildly adventurous for the TLM.

    There's a Latin version of Rachmaninoff's Bogoroditse Devo on CPDL, which might be worth investigating.
    Thanked by 1Chant_Supremacist
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,728
    George Malcolm was choirmaster at Westminster Cathedral; it’s he who commissioned Britten’s Missa Brevis, and Malcolm wrote several pieces. Our choir does them. He has done a Veritas mea in regular rotation here. His sometime successor Colin Mawby also writes music. (Kevin Mayhew publishes both, I think.)

    If you can do organ (one of these days even), this is a lovely Tantum ergo. The composer Jessica French* was trained at the Cathedral of the Madeleine as a child!

    In a similar vein, Stephanie Martin’s Ave Verum is also on our choir’s list. This is SATB.

    Don’t exclude vernacular as you have preludes, postludes, other occasions…
    Thanked by 2Chant_Supremacist tomjaw
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 350
    Oh, I like that Ave Verum. And you're right, there are other occasions where vernacular will be an option.
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 350
    @Querens
    That Ave Maris Stella would go over fine here. The congregation likes Garau's In Monte Oliveti, which is at least as adventurous.
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  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,486

    There are some very nice and fresh little motets by Alan Hovhaness which would be just the thing for young choirs. One that comes to mind is 'Praise Ye the Lord', which would be nice for a special day. These are about three or four pages long and are in 'motet' style with easy imitation. They are about as difficult as 'If Ye Love Me'.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,110
    Two composers from the late 19th / early 20th-century who wrote music in Latin that could be sung at a TLM come to mind: C. V. Stanford (Four Motets, op. 38) and Herbert Howells (Mass in the Dorian Mode). Contemporary composers who have written for the liturgy in Latin include Peter Kwasniewski, Christopher Mueller, Jeffrey Quick and Nicholas Wilton.

    And don't forget hymns by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Sine Nomine, King's Weston, Down Ampney), Howells (Michael), John Ireland (Love Unknown), Parry (Laudate Dominum, Repton), R. R. Terry (Billing), Sydney Nicholson (Crucifer), and others.
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  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 205
    There's one that I haven't sung yet but is on my "to do" list - If Ye Love Me by Philip Wilby. I love the Tallis one, but the Wilby intrigues me to no end.
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  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,728
    I forgot something. I love Richard Burchard’s music. He has a really lovely Creator Alme siderum. (Also for men!)

    His concert Muserere (SSAATTBB!) premiered at the parish where I spent over a decade, in Louisville. He has other nice stuff but I haven’t listened to every last piece.
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  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,281
    Thanks for the plug, rich_enough

    Obscure guys worth a look, stating with the US:
    Bruno Oscar Klein (1858-1911). Student of Rheinberger (who should also be on your list) and doesn't fall far from the tree. His Beati Omnes (Op. 29/1, 1891, SATB org, at cpdl) recaps the Proper of the Nuptial Mass without actually being the Proper. Most of his motets are not readily available, but the Ordinaries, especially the Christmas mass Op. 44 (imslp) are worthwhile. The things for women tend to be less strong musically.

    Eugeniusz Walkiewicz (1880-1946), active in the Midwest. The earlier works are more interesting. There's an Ave Maria SATB org. which is nice. Ordinaries range from the St. John Cantius Mass Op, 38 which to me is everything a mass for 2-equal and organ should be, to the Missa in honorem S. Josaphat Episcopi et Mart., Op.45, in 7 parts, a workout for any choir.

    Germans:
    J. K. Aiblinger deserves more love than he gets. Sort of the missing link between Michael Haydn and Rheinberger

    There's been a minor renaissance for Max Filke, largely due to Nick Botkin.

    Elsewhere:
    J.M. Nunes Garcia of Brazil. There's a nice little Immutemur Habitu setting SATB, and a lot more. Haydnesque, but with a softer slightly ethnic flavor.

    George Malcolm's Missa ad praesepe

    Domenico Bartolucci wrote a lot of music, most unknown, not all compelling perhaps. But I've always been a sucker for his Crux Fidelis.

    Daniel Knaggs has written >20 Ave Maria settings and some Ordinaries

    Frank La Rocca's "calling card" piece tends to obscure his other Mass settings, and his motets, of which I have done and can recommend Diffusa est gratia.

    I could go on. So much music, so little time, so few singers.
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  • OrganistRob320OrganistRob320
    Posts: 181
    Highly second Nicholas Wilton
    There are several wonderful works found at SJMP
    I would also second George Malcolm and James MacMillan.
    You might look at some of the works by:
    Carl Rutti
    Charles Wood - Oculi Omnium
    Ralph Vaughan Williams - Three Motets (Beati Quorum Via is gorgeous)
    Edward Elgar - two different settings of O Salutaris in addition to the well known Ave Verum setting
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  • Xopheros
    Posts: 154
    The Swiss composer Johann Baptist Hilber (1891-1973) wrote several effectful and reverent masses, which are quite accessible for rural parish choirs. Some movements have sections reminiscent of Gregorian chant. Here is an example.
    Thanked by 4davido M. Jackson Osborn Chant_Supremacist irishtenor
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,728
    I guess contemporary women composers is my major contribution.

    Julianna Horton Charnigo wrote an Anima Christi (video link here); hearing it at Saint Martin’s was a formative experience for me.

    https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/7027/pieces-on-youtube/p1

    someone should get her to publish it. I know that she was looking at getting some organ pieces published, and while she doesn’t have many pieces (choral or otherwise) I think that they’re quite nice.
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  • AnimaVocis
    Posts: 234
    I (and my choir) ADORE Francis Xavier Witt and Rheinberger! There are so many good options, but those two are absolutely divine!
    Thanked by 2cesarfranck Roborgelmeister
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,133
    Bruckner (Locus Iste),
    Faure (Ubi Caritas),
    Niels la Cour (Hodie)
    Theodore Dubois (Ave Maria)

    so much music so little time - exactly.
    when will I have time to explore these, Nicolas Lemme, Kevin Allen....
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 309
    You could try the masses of Guy Ropartz.
    Thanked by 1Jeffrey Quick
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 350
    That Ave Maris Stella would go over fine here. The congregation likes Garau's In Monte Oliveti, which is at least as adventurous.

    We'll be singing MacMillan's piece at Assumption. Having now spent more time with it, I think it's somewhat more adventurous than the Garau, but the choir likes it, which I hope means the congregation will too.
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