Opera Nut

I started this thread since the Russian Orthodox one was veering into musical tastes.
There is a lot of fabulous church music out there that doesn't get performed except possibly in a concert hall or maybe a really good church choir.

Interesting history legend:
The Allegri Miserere was supposedly so sensuous that the church would not let it out in print. Then one day allegedly Mozart went to church, memorized it and went homeand wrote it out longhand, and it was outside the church. This is just a story.

Some of the Masses are very theatrical. Missa Solemnis by beetoven is a real barn burner. So are the berlioz and verdi requiems. Berlioz also wrote La Infance du Christ.

Some that are very tender are the mozart requiem, Faure Requiem, Durufle Requiem, Brahms German Requiem, and some of the Mendelssohn stuff. Tchaikovsky, mussorgsky and Rachmaninoff wrote soem great choral stuff.

The Missa Secunda by Hans Leo Hassler is very moving and rather obscure. I sang it in high school at music camp.
Hassler wrote the hymn O Sacred Head Now Wounded which is also Because All Men Are Brothers, by Peter Paul & Mary, and American Tune by Paul Simon was kinda borrowed from it.
In the regular hymnbook Bach harmonized it so there is lots of moving parts.

The War Requiem of Benjamin Britten is neat.

Anonymous 4 has dredged up a lot of great polyphonic stuff that nobody had heard in centuries. Very soothing. I don't like gregorian chant, no harmony, too monotonous for me.

The Tallis Scholars are good also.

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I don't speak for anyone else's taste.
My music appreciation "classes" consist of "Here, you need to listen to this, this is good stuff!"
No explanation needed, no matter what the genre.
My BF was amazed when I introduced him to some good Kinks stuff.
He didn't run off screaming either, when I made him listen to tapes in my car for hours for music appreciation. That helped. I didn't even have to lock the car doors and hide the key!

Rousseau_CHN

I post 'blasphemous' articles at my local Catholic Church. Whenever I do the editing on my computer, I couldn't help but sing Church songs. My favorite being "Lamb of God".

Waning Moon Conrad

Yes I noticed that too! I have no idea how it happened.

Monteverdi, Vivaldi, William Mundy and Allegri would have to be my favourite composers of church music. Francois Couperin was pretty okayish too, when he wasn't composing for the harpsichord which seems to have been his forte.