Greatest Vocal Music

(except operas and lieder)

selected by Piero Scaruffi


Back to the Essentials | Selected discography | Greatest compositions

Requiems

  1. Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem
  2. Johannes Brahms: "Ein Deutsches Requiem"
  3. Hector Berlioz: "Grande Messe des Morts"
  4. Benjamin Britten: "War Requiem"
  5. Gyorgy Ligeti: Requiem
  6. Wolfgang Mozart: Requiem
  7. Krysztof Penderecki: Polish Requiem
  8. Eduard Tubin: Requiem
  9. Alfred Schnittke: Requiem (1975)
  10. Gabriel Faure: Requiem
  11. Maurice Durufle: Requiem
  12. Tomas Luis de Victoria: Requiem "Officium defunctorum"
  13. Luigi Cherubini: Mass in D Minor (requiem for himself)
  14. Roger Sessions: "When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd" (1970)

Masses and Oratorios

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor
  2. Leos Janacek: "Glagolitic Mass"
  3. Georg Handel: "Messiah"
  4. Johann Sebastian Bach: "St. Matthew's Passion"
  5. Ludwig van Beethoven: "Missa Solemnis"
  6. Krysztof Penderecki: "Saint Luke Passion"
  7. Olivier Messiaen: "La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ" for 100-voice ten-part choir, seven solo instruments and large orchestra
  8. Johann Sebastian Bach: St. John Passion
  9. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli
  10. Joseph Haydn: "The Creation"
  11. Josquin des Prez: Missa Pange Lingua
  12. Joseph Haydn: Mass No. 11 in D minor "Nelson"
  13. Guillaume de Machaut: Messe de Notre Dame
  14. Wolfgang Mozart: Mass in C minor "Great"
  15. William Byrd: Mass for 5 Voices
  16. Joseph Haydn: Mass No. 9 in C major, in tempore belli "Paukenmesse"
  17. Josquin Des Prez: Missa l'homme arm‚
  18. Hector Berlioz: "L'Enfance du Christ"
  19. Heinrich Schutz: Christmas Oratorio
  20. Guillaume Dufay: Missa se la face ay pale
  21. Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio
  22. Wolfgang Mozart: Mass in C major "Coronation"
  23. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa Brevis
  24. Edward Elgar: "The Dream of Gerontius"
  25. Franz Schubert: Mass No. 5 in A flat
  26. Joseph Haydn: Mass No. 14 in B flat "Harmoniemesse"
  27. Anton Bruckner: Mass No. 2 in E minor
  28. Orlande de Lassus: "Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales"
  29. Leonard Bernstein: Mass (1971)

Other Vocal Compositions

  1. Alfred Schnittke: "Faust Cantata" (1983)
  2. Bela Bartok: "Cantata Profana"
  3. Claude Debussy: "Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien"
  4. Pierre Boulez: "Le Marteau Sans Maitre"
  5. Arnold Schoenberg: "Pierrot Lunaire"
  6. Caroline Shaw: "Partita for 8 Voices" (2013)
  7. Lou Harrison: "La Koro-sutro" for choir, percussion, harp, organ and gamelan instruments
  8. Karlheinz Stockhausen: "Stimmung" for six vocalists
  9. Michael Tippett: "The Mask of Time"
  10. Luigi Nono: "Canto Sospeso" for vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra
  11. Meredith Monk: "Dolmen Music"
  12. Steve Reich: "Drumming" (1971)
  13. Gustav Mahler: "Das Lied von der Erde"
  14. Louis Andriessen: "De Tijd"
  15. Morton Feldman: "Rothko Chapel"
  16. Igor Stravinsky: "Histoire du Soldat"
  17. Carl Orff: "Carmina Burana"
  18. Karlheinz Stockhausen: Cantata "Momente"
  19. Arvo Part: "Kanon Pokajanen" (1998)
  20. William Walton: Belshazzar's Feast
  21. Olivier Messiaen: "Harawi"
  22. Krzysztof Penderecki: "Utrenia"
  23. Igor Stravinsky: "Symphony of Psalms"
  24. Joseph Haydn: "The Seasons"
  25. Hector Berlioz: "La Damnation de Faust"
  26. Pierre Boulez: "Pli Selon Pli" (1962)
  27. Peter Maxwell Davies: "Eight Songs for a Mad King"
  28. Arnold Schoenberg: "Gurre-Lieder" for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and orchestra
  29. Henry Purcell: Ode for St. Cecelia's Day
  30. Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of 1610)
  31. Johannes Brahms: Alto Rhapsody
  32. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 140, Wachet Auf
  33. Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria
  34. Thomas Tallis: "Spem in Alium" (1570)
  35. Michael Tippett: "A Child of Our Time"
  36. Antonin Dvorak: Stabat Mater
  37. Anton Bruckner: Te Deum
  38. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
  39. Francis Poulenc: Gloria
  40. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vespers
  41. Roger Sessions: "When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom'd" (1970)
  42. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Stabat Mater
  43. Krysztof Penderecki: Dies Irae
  44. Krysztof Penderecki: Magnificat
  45. Krysztof Penderecki: Te Deum
  46. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 147, Herz und Mund
  47. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 80, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott
  48. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 4, Christ Lag in Todesbanden
  49. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 208, Was mir behagt
  50. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 202, Weichet nur, Betruebte Scatten "Wedding"
  51. Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata No. 82, Ich habe genug
  52. Johann Sebastian Bach: Magnificat in D major
  53. Hector Berlioz: Te Deum
  54. Gioacchino Rossini: Stabat Mater
  55. Georg Handel: "L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato"
  56. Giuseppe Verdi: Four Sacred Pieces (1897)

Lieder


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