Choral

Choral music, particularly in the religious sphere, is the oldest form of music that has come down to us from antiquity and is the chief cornerstone of the Western classical tradition. Gregorian chant, a form of a capella singing (without accompaniment), dating from the early Medieval era is the first such choral music to be codified and takes its name from Pope Gregory I who, it was claimed, catalogued the works of that period. As the Medieval era progressed so choral music became ever more elaborate as scholars and singers sought to exploit the expressive qualities of the human voice. This reached a peak with the development of polyphony, which featured two or more melodies sung together, in the later Medieval and early Renaissance eras. The music was as rich with detail as the churches and cathedrals in which it was sung. The Reformation of the sixteenth century introduced a more monodic style of choral music in the newly created Protestant church while Roman Catholicism directed its composers to write in a simpler style so that the religious texts could be more clearly heard by the congregations. The early 18th Century was a high-point for Protestant choral music with J.S. Bach's Passions and cantatas and Handel's oratorios but a trend was occurring that would find its fruition in the 19th Century wherby choral music became increasingly part of the secular domain, moving out of the church and into the concert hall. The great oratorios of the Victorian era were paens to industry and the middle classes rather than to God specifically. The decline in religious belief in the 20th Century also saw a concomitant decline in religious choral output although there were notable successes in the secular sphere. At the grassroots level, however, choral singing has always remained popular up to and including the present day, as the large number of amateur choral societies testifies.

Key Works: Allegri: Miserere, J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Berlioz: Grande messe de mort (Requiem), Brahms: Eine deutsches Requiem, Byrd: Masses for 4 & 5 Voices, Dvorak: Stabat mater, Dufay: Mussa L'homme armé, Handel: Israel in Egypt, Medelssohn: Elijah, Messiah, Saul, Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten, Die Schöpfung, Josquin: Missa de Beata Virgine, Lassus: Missa L'homme armé, Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame, Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine, Mozart: Great Mass in C major, Requiem, Orff: Carmina burana, Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli, Pergolesi: Stabat mater, Schoenberg: Gurrelieder, Schutz: Musikalische Exequien, Vivaldi: Stabat Mater