I have long stood in awe of the music of J.S. Bach. It demands the utmost from those who attempt to play and interpret it. Embroidered with elaborate detail and rich with gold-dense harmonies, the sheer craft of it is our greatest artistic treasure. We naturally revel in the heightened sense of execution the music demands, whether we’re performing it or listening to it; the challenge becomes part of the aesthetic experience. When it builds an intricate edifice of interlocking lines atop a foundational harmonic progression, Bach’s counterpoint exteriorizes his inner architectural genius. To see a Bach score on paper is to be dizzied by black ink; to hear a Bach score in the hands of experts is to be dazzled by the capabilities of the human mind and body. Two hundred and seventy years’ worth of musical and technological invention haven’t rendered the splendor of Bach’s creations any less brilliant.
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This playlist includes some of the most sublime moments from Bach’s choral-orchestral repertoire, with arias and choruses from the Mass in B Minor, the Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, and the Magnificat. It also highlights a few of his cantatas for solo voice, which feature not just the solo voice but also some of his most beautiful writing for solo instruments. Speaking of solo instruments—I had to include some of his works for unaccompanied cello and violin, wherein he dares to summon an ensemble’s worth of complexity from one player. You will also enjoy some of my favorite moments from his instrumental works—the concertos, Brandenburgs, and orchestral suites—as well as keyboard works.
At all times, but especially now, when “coming by evening through the wintry city” to attend a concert isn’t possible, Adrienne Rich’s “At a Bach Concert” beautifully sums up my feelings about this composer, and the essence of his work.
At a Bach Concert
Coming by evening through the wintry city
We said that art is out of love with life.
Here we approach a love that is not pity.
This antique discipline, tenderly severe,
Renews belief in love yet masters feeling,
Asking of us a grace in what we bear.
Form is the ultimate gift that love can offer –
The vital union of necessity
With all that we desire, all that we suffer.
A too-compassionate art is half an art.
Only such proud restraining purity
Restores the else-betrayed, too-human heart.
I love the choral-orchestral repertoire, but it was a cappella motets that first made me fall in love with choral music. This playlist includes the first motets to catch my ear when I was twelve or thirteen, which have stayed with me ever since, and others that I’ve fallen in love with over the years. It features motets and anthems from the Renaissance, the golden age of a cappella choral music; some gems from the Romantic period, full of echoes of the long vocal arcs of the Renaissance, thickened by richer harmony; melodies that made me fall in love with spirituals; and some of my favorite a cappella works to emerge from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Listen to the playlist on YouTube HERE:
Palestrina: Sicut Cervus
The motet—and CD—that launch my lifelong love of Renaissance polyphony. A perfect representation of Palestrina’s smooth, suave style.
Stanford: Beati Quorum Via
The first anthem to draw me into the world of English cathedral repertoire. A masterfully crafted miniature by Stanford. The bass Fb at 1:45 is quite possibly my favorite note to sing in the Romantic repertoire.
Josquin: Ave Maria Virgo Serena
Elegant points of imitation that beautifully elucidate the text. Serenity in sound without losing motion.
Victoria: O Magnum Mysterium
My favorite motet by Victoria, a contemporary of Palestrina who wrote in a similar style but whose works bear a signature mystical quality. The haunting opening figure—dropping down a fifth, back up, and then up a half step—perfectly captures the great mystery of the text.
Arr. William Dawson: My Lord What a Mourning
I first learned this spiritual as arranged by baritone and composer Harry T. Burleigh, but love this arrangement by William Dawson. Beautifully sung and recorded by The Aeolians of Oakwood University, in a prismatic and powerful performance.
Holst: Ave Maria
This sumptuous setting of the Ave Maria inspired all of the work I’ve done in my career with women’s choruses. Makes stunning, full use of that texture, from low F to top Bb, in eight parts.
Shaw: To the Hands, mvmt. 2, In Medio
In graduate school, I had the distinct pleasure of conducting a choir Caroline Shaw sang in (I was also once her T.A.!). With her on violin, we performed Buxtehude’s haunting Membra Jesu Nostri. I’ll never forget her ornamentation in the third cantata, Ad Manus (“to the hands”). Years later, she was asked to write a response to that cantata by The Crossing. You’ll hear direct quotes from the Buxtehude, enmeshed in Shaw’s beguiling musical language. I had the pleasure of performing this work with Amor Artis and look forward to doing it again soon.
Howells: Requiem, mvmt. 3
The greatest a cappella extended work of the 20th century (imo). Written for King’s College, Cambridge, the kaleidoscopic harmonies on “et lux perpetua” in this movement were meant to evoke the similar effect of colors mixing as light streaming through that building’s magnificent stained glass.
Learn more about Howells’s Requiem on this podcast.
Byrd: Ne Irascaris Domine/Civitas Sancti Tui
Byrd’s most devastatingly gorgeous motet. The homophonic statements are especially arresting amidst the pleading, fluid polyphony.
Allegri: Miserere
Unforgettably atmospheric. Long ago, this motet, with its famous high C, awoke in me a wonder about the endless possibilities of the human voice.
Esenvalds: Only in Sleep
Living Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds has a marvelous understanding and control of choral sonority. Dense but never opaque, as heard in this deeply touching setting of Sara Teasdale.
Learn more about Esenvalds in this podcast
Tallis: Gaude gloriosa
Thomas Tallis on his most colossal, sweeping scale. Splendid polyphony as ornate as the fan vaulting on the ceilings in the spaces where it might have been sung.
Learn more about Tallis, and this motet, in this podcast
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord
As a kid, this spiritual, with it’s “oh” melisma, was the most impactful part of Holy Week celebrations at my parents’ church. I’d always wanted to arrange it, and finally did a few years ago. It’s presented, here, by three of my favorite singers at a Monmouth Civic Chorus concert.
Parry: There is an Old Belief
Exquisite compositional craft matched by exquisite choral artistry.
Learn more about Parry and his Songs of Farewell in this podcast
Lassus: Justorum Animae
Flowing, shapely setting from another Renaissance giant Lassus. The suspension at 0:50 is as spine-tingling now as it was the first time I heard it, twenty-five years ago.
Farrant: Lord for Thy Tender Mercy’s Sake
A charmingly straightforward gem of an anthem, with one of the most beguiling amens in the repertoire. This recording features the beautiful work of Dr. Amanda Quist.
Schütz: Selig sind die Toten
My favorite of Schütz’s motets, with beautiful dissonance treatment to set “arbeit” (labor).
Byrd: Mass for Four Voices - Agnus Dei
Byrd’s polyphony in this mass setting (one of three) feels like an intimate conversation among individuals, as each of the parts plead for peace.
Harris: Bring Us, O Lord God
A marvelously crafted setting of Donne, in an outstanding performance by Voces8.
Sheppard: Audivi vocem de caelo
An exquisite example of Sheppard’s expansive polyphony, luxuriating in the radiance of upper voices.
Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - Kyrie
Pristine polyphony, in a richly-voiced performance by New York Polyphony.
Betinis: Be Like the Bird
An ascending major seventh interval in Bb minor! The first time I heard this canon by Abbie Betinis I was completely haunted and immediately found a way to program it.
Stanford: the Blue Bird
My favorite English part-song, still and serene, then sweeping.
Byrd: Mass for Five Voices - Agnus Dei
The second of Byrd’s three settings, for Five Voices.
Whitacre: a Boy and a Girl
Whitacre’s music beautifully captures the tenderness of Paz’s poetry.
Chesnekov: Salvation is Created
A lovely piece from the Orthodox repertoire, at once dark and soaring.
Sheppard: In pace
I’ve always been enchanted by Sheppard’s arcing, flowing melismas in this flowing compline motet.
Pearsall: Lay a Garland
Suspensions, suspensions, suspensions.
Parry: My Soul, There is a Country
The first of Parry’s Songs of Farewell.
Learn more about the Songs of Farewell on this podcast.
Tallis: O Sacrum Convivium
My favorite motet of Tallis’s works written in the time of Elizabeth I.
Holst: Nunc Dimittis
I love the way this setting moves from an atmospheric opening to a radiant, glorious ending.
Rheinberger: Abendlied
The harmonic rhythm and pace of this motet are just perfect, heard here in a gorgeous performance by the Westminster Kantorei.