Introduction to Musical Listening: A Guide to Recorded Classical Music, Part XI: Choral Music from the Beginnings through the Seventeenth Century

The earliest music in the Western world of which we have exact texts is vocal music unaccompanied by instruments, and most of it is sacred choral music sung in churches and cathedrals. This music goes far back into the medieval period, and its chief representatives are the Gregorian chants. Though these sound quite strange to us now, I suggest first reading the section on the medieval period in any standard history of music and then listening to some of them. There are at least a dozen records of Gregorian chants currently available, usually sung by monks or nuns; look in the Schwann catalog under “Collections,” then under the subheading, “Choral,” then under the further subheading, “Gregorian Chants.” Any of the listed records will give you the flavor of the music of this period.

Two remarkable (anonymous) pieces of music of the medieval period are the twelfth-century “The Play of Daniel,” excellently performed by the New York Pro Musica on Decca 79402, and “The Play of Herod” by the same group on the two-record Decca set, DXS-7187. (It is also on Nonesuch 71181.) Turnabout 34070 contains medieval Lent and Easter music, and Nonesuch 71171 has “Voices of the Middle Ages.” The New York Pro

CHARPENTIER: TE DEUM; MAGNIFICAT / LR Price: $2.95 (List $3.98)

PALESTRINA: ASUMPTA EST MARIA; MISSA BREVIS / LR Price: $5.95 (List $6.98)

TALLIS: TUDOR CHURCH MUSIC / LR Price: $5.95 (List $6.98)

VICTORIA: REQUIEM MASS; FOUR MOTETS / LR Price: $5.95 (List $6.98)

Musica performs “Medieval Roots” on Decca 79438, and “Spanish Medieval Music” on Decca 79416. Argo ZRG-673 has “Music of the Crusades,” and the late medieval period is represented by Nonesuch 71292, “Music in Honor of St. Thomas of Canterbury.”

Choral music of the Renaissance is also well represented in anthologies, and it usually requires less of a listening effort. Sacred music of Dunstable (1370-1453) and others is on Turnabout 34058. A good sample of “Sacred Music of the Early 16th Century” is Nonesuch 71084 (Issac, Des Pres, Di Lasso), as is “O Great Mystery” (Nonesuch 71026), unaccompanied choral music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

An especially lovely performance of Renaissance choral music (fifteenth through seventeenth centuries) is on Argo ZRG-5365, “Evensong for Ash Wednesday,” performed by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. The intense spirituality of this music comes through movingly here. In fact you could make no mistake if you picked up an Argo catalog and bought everything performed by the King’s College Choir. For exciting choral music by a larger choral group, I particularly recommend “Double Chorus Motets of the Old Masters” (fifteenth century to Bach) by unaccompanied choirs, on Mace M-9054. Also particularly good is a collection of Christmas music from the Middle Ages to Bach, “A Nonesuch Christmas” (Nonesuch 71232), which you will find worth listening to over

Now to recorded music by the major individual composers, in approximate chronological order:

Sacred music by Perotin (1158-1200) and Machaut (1300-1377) is performed by the Deller Consort on Bach 5045 and Vanguard HM-1. Some of these harmonies are too “close” for our ears, which are adapted to music less subtle, but a few hearings will introduce you to a kind of musical experience whose nature you had not previously suspected.

Various masses by Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) are on Lyrichord 7150, 7190, and 7233. Good performances on low-cost labels are Nonesuch 71171 and Odyssey 32160178. Do not be disturbed if they sound strange at first; they will repay continued listening.

A fifteenth-century master of choral composition was the German composer, Johannes Ockeghem (1425-1495). The great subtlety and structural complexity of his music is astonishing, and the effects of the a cappella voices singing so many different parts is quite stunning. Two great masses by Ockeghem are on DG-ARC 198406 and 2533145. Also worth hearing are fine masses by two German composers, Jacob Obrecht (1450-1505) on Vanguard HM-2 and DG-ARC 198406, and Johannes Tinctoris (1436-1511) on Nonesuch 71048.

Spanning the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is the French musical giant, Josquin Des Prez (1456-1521), whose choral music is well represented on records. A musical “must” is his “Missa Pange Lingua” on Turnabout 34431. Also worthwhile are his masses on Turnabout 34437 and Vanguard HM-3, with motets (also by Des Prez) on the second side of each record. A record referred to above, DG-ARC 2533145, has a mass by Ockeghem on the first side and Des Pres’ magnificent “Deploration sur la Mort d’Ockeghem” on the other.

Religious music of unusual sensitivity and quiet splendor (again, perhaps too subtle for our ears at first hearing) is by Pierre de la Rue (14??-1518). His beautiful “Requiem” is on the other side of the record, Turnabout 34431, the first side of which contains the “Missa Pange Linqua” by Des Prez. (Also consider Telefunken S-9471, with fine performances of de la Rue’s “Requiem” and “Laments.”)

A neglected master of the early sixteenth century is Adrian Willaert (1490-1562), samples of whose choral music are on CSP C32160202. But the sixteenth-century composer, Thomas Tallis (1505-1585), and the seventeenth-century William Byrd (1542?-1623) are the two great masters of English choral music. (Byrd will be discussed below.) An excellent sample of Tallis’ music (including his 40-part motet, “Spem in Alium”) is movingly performed by the King’s College Choir (plus two organs) on “Thomas Tallis: Tudor Church Music.” Even if you have refrained from buying any records on the list up to this point, be sure that you possess this one; to say that it is “deeply moving” is far too vanilla-flavored a description for this ethereal music. More fine works in the same genre by Tallis are on Argo ZRG-5479 (including his “Lamentations of Jeremiah”) and Argo ZRG-5237. Vanguard HM-5 has fine performances of Tallis by the Deller Consort, and Decca 79404 by the New York Pro Musica. It is a good idea at this point to steep yourself in Tallis’ music for a while before proceeding further.

Turning now to the latter half of the sixteenth century, and from England to Italy, we encounter the figure who in the opinion of many musicologists is the musical giant of the Italian Renaissance and the paradigm of intense religious feeling, Giovanni Palestrina (1525-1594). Entirely lacking in pomp and ceremony, and imbued with a pure and radiant spirituality, this music has been an inspiration to listeners for 400 years. Listen, for example, to his “Magnificat” on Oiseau S-283; two of his sublime masterworks, “Missa Papae Marcelli” and “Missa Brevis,” both on Seraphim 60187, performed by the King’s College Choir. His “Assumpta Est Maria,” performed by the St. John’s College Chorus is paired with the “Missa Brevis” on the recording available from the LR Book Service. A mass and motet by the same performers are on Argo ZRG-578; and still other masses, with motets on the second side, are on Odyssey 32160122. His lovely “Super Flumen Babylonis” is no longer available in the Schwann catalog, nor is the most affecting of all his works, “The Song of Solomon,” Bach Guild 5059. But there is a new four-record set of Palestrina’s sacred music, DG 2711013, which you will find worth even DG’s high prices.

Another sixteenth-century master is Orlandus de Lassus (1532-1594), two of whose masses of pristine spiritual quality are on Nonesuch 71053. De Lassus motets are on Nonesuch 71084.

Tomas Victoria (1549-1611) is the greatest of all Spanish composers. This sombre brooding genius, the Mahler of the early seventeenth century, has written works of such moving intensity as to defy description. For getting hooked on this marvelous music, I suggest beginning with “Victoria: Requiem Mass; Four Motets”—a “must” for your collection—containing his requiem mass, performed with ethereal splendor by the St. John’s College Choir, Cambridge. Then listen to his masses on Oiseau S-270, the “Magnificat” on Oiseau S-283, and the mass “O Quam Gloiriosum” on Argo ZRG-620. His “O Magnum Mysterium” (“O Great Mystery”) is on Orion 7022, and his “Psalms for 12 Voices on Nonesuch 71016. If you saturate yourself in this music for a while, you will find yourself in a different (and more pleasant?) world.

William Byrd was primarily a composer of choral music. The “Mass in Three Parts” and the “Mass in Four Parts” are both done splendidly by the Deller Consort on Vanguard HM-6 and by the King’s College Choir on Argo 5362, and the “Mass in Five Parts” by the King’s College Choir on Argo 5226, together with the great “Ave Verum Corpus” and “Magnificat.”

The complete “Cantiones Sacrae” are on three records, Oiseau S-311/3, together with the cantiones of Thomas Tallis.

Had not Bach followed and overshadowed him, the choral music of the seventeenth-century German composer Henrich Schütz (1585-1672) would be better known today than it is. He was certainly a major composer. His “Magnificat” (with the “Magnificat” of Monteverdi on the other side) is on Turnabout 34099. His “Deutsche Magnificat” (again coupled with one by Monteverdi) is on Nonesuch 71134. The “St. Matthew Passion” is beautifully performed on Argo ZRG-689, and the “Christmas Oratorio” on Argo ZRG-671 and on Turnabout 34088. You will find the choral passages inspiring, if you can live through the solo recitatives. There are three, three-record sets of Schutz’s music: on Vox SVBX-5101, you get the “Christmas Oratorio,” “Deutsches Magnificat,” and “Easter Oratorio”; on 5102, the “St. Luke Passion,” “St. John Passion,” and “St. Matthew Passion”; and on 5103, the “Cantiones Sacrae,” the Italian madrigals, the Psalms, and the “Symphoniae Sacrae.”

Most of the music of Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) is secular, and has already been discussed under that heading. But his “Magnificat for Six Voices” and one of his masses are available together on Oiseau S-263. The “Magnificat” is also available with one by Vivaldi on Angel 36012, and with one by Schütz on Turnabout 34099. Monteverdi’s major choral work, “Vespro del Beata Vergine,” is beautifully performed, conducted by Harnoncourt, on a two-record set, Telefunken S-9501/2.

All the music described so far has been religious music in its purest sense—with an intense otherworldly spirituality that one seldom finds later. Turning now to the late sixteenth-century Italian, Giovanni Gabrieli (1551-1612), we are in a world (much more familiar to us) of pomp and ceremony, with choral singing that is usually secondary to instruments, often a full orchestra plus organ. His “Processional and Ceremonial Music” is well rendered by the Gabrieli Festival Orchestra and Chorus on Vanguard HM-8. For a lavish spectacle in superb sound, try Columbia MS-7071, Gabrieli’s music for multiple choirs, brass, and organ. Then turn to his motets for choir, brass, and strings on Angel 36443, and other motets on Columbia M-30937 and MS-7334, and on Telefunken S-9456. (Compared with the items described earlier they are about as religious as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth!)

Outstanding among the German choral polyphonists of this period, including chorus but primarily instrumental, is the great composer of the turn of the seventeenth century, Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). On Westminister WST-14090 are a series of German motets for double chorus, brass, and organ, beginning with one by Praetorius. This stunning vocal and orchestral piece, with two choruses, orchestra, organ, and brass choirs, will absolutely knock you out of your seat—it’s the seventeenth-century precursor to the Berlioz “Requiem.” Having said all this, I must add that this record is a discontinued item, in spite of its having won the French Grand Prix National du Disque. So you will have to beg, borrow, or steal it, unless you can get the work on the French Erato label, where it is still available. In any case, Nonesuch 71242 has some lovely Christmas music by Praetorius. His dance pieces are combined with works of Lassus on a single disc, Decca 79424, and his “Christ Came to the River Jordan,” a work for solo organ, is contained in a fine three-record anthology of organ music, Vox SVBX-5316.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1634-1704) is a master of musical pageantry, as anyone knows who has listened to his instrumental work described earlier in this series. As a musical architect he is among the greatest. Next to Bach he is perhaps the greatest master of baroque music, with an exciting ornateness and a sense of drama and theater, which (I have found) endears him to practically any contemporary listener who is exposed to his music, even for the first time. The amazing thing is that in his choral works—which in my opinion are the finest works to come from his pen—he is also able to convey an effect of spiritual grandeur. My advice is get hold of the catalog of the French record label Erato, and order at once, Erato LDE-3009, containing his magnificent “Te Deum” (for soloists, two choirs, organ, and orchestra) as well as the “Marche de Triomphe” and “Air de Trompette”; and Erato LDE-3017, containing his “Grand Magnificat” (two choirs, soloists, orchestra, and organ) and his “Salve Regina” (for three choirs, soloists, harpsichord, continuo, and organ). (And while you are about it, order the “De Profundis” by Andre Campra [1660-1744], on Erato LDE-3102, which is unavailable in the U.S.) These pieces far outstrip Charpentier’s instrumental music, stirring as that is. If you cannot get the Erato records, you can get the “Magnificat” and “Te Deum” on a single record from LR; the “Mass” and “Assumpta Est Maria” on Pathe Vox PL-8440; the “Christmas Oratorio” on Nonesuch 71082; the “Midnight Mass” on MHS 522; and the deeply moving and quietly simple and unadorned “Tenebrae Lessons for Holy Wednesday” on Nonesuch 71040. No one with any claim to appreciate music can be unacquainted with at least some of these great choral works of Charpentier. (Next month: Choral Music of the Eighteenth Century.)