Summer’s here, which means it’s time to start planning music for the next season, especially choral repertoire.
Of course, the best first step in planning is to reflect on the most recent past season. What went well? What pieces did the choir enjoy? Were there pieces that the congregation reacted to especially positively? Were there pieces that didn’t seem to quite fit the liturgy? Would it be good to give a new piece that didn’t go well another chance? What have we learned together from the selections we have sung, and where might we want to go in the upcoming season?
Many choir directors include “choral classics” in their repertoire every year. While the term means different things to different people, in general we can agree that these are pieces that have stood the test of time and are considered part of the treasury of the Church. These works are excellently crafted, offering choirs an opportunity to grow in their skills. They are often settings of Latin texts, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be sung in English if a good translation exists. Often they are unaccompanied works, but, again, that doesn’t prohibit an organist/pianist from doubling the parts for support. Some choral classics are centuries old, but even our current, fairly young century has its share of works that fit this description.
A little less than two years ago, MorningStar assembled a panel of four choral directors from Catholic cathedrals and parishes to discuss the topic of choral classics, and the starting point for our discussion was a list of such pieces from the panel. The list, organized by time period, shows some basic information about the piece: Composer, title, season/use, and difficulty level, and the initials of the director who suggested the piece. Sometimes publisher was included, but many of these pieces can be found in the catalogs of more than one publisher. It is interesting to note how many of the pieces were held in common among the four participants (noted by bold type), and of course there were also many held by three or two of the four.
This list is a great resource to have available as you’re trying to craft the ideal season. We’re happy to share it with you, and hope that it proves helpful as you choose repertoire in the future.
In Tune blog 
Thanks so much for this list, fascinatingly compiled. Alas, most of these pieces, extremely familiar to me, represent the glories of my choral past, since my present choir is severely limited (tenors & basses cannot read music, or retain much, or even match pitch in some cases). Sigh. But it’s good to be reminded.
One quibble: you have Jacob Arcadelt listed among the Romantics! True, the “Ave Maria” revision of his very secular love song “Nous voyons que les hommes” sounds romantically pretty, but as Wikipedia says, Jacques Arcadelt (also Jacob Arcadelt; c. 1507 – 14 October 1568) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active in both Italy and France….
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