10 ESSENTIAL CHORAL WORKS for BEGINNERS

Singing is the one musical activity that everyone does, but in these ten works this common pastime takes the form of high art. The choral repertoire is vast and varied, and this selection of 10 ESSENTIAL works offers a taste of just how richly rewarding it can be.
Bach: Magnificat
Handel: Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day
Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast
Brahms: A German Requiem
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky
Verdi: Requiem
Mendelssohn: Die Erste Walpurgisnacht
Haydn: “Lord Nelson” Mass
Orff: Carmina Burana
Holst: The Hymn of Jesus

[@IsothermeMusic]

Dave, when reviewing the Previn Warners box, you gave a quick shout-out to Lambert's The Rio Grande. What a fantastic piece! It has a strong choral presence as well as some fiery piano parts. Thank you for hipping me to this!

[@jimslancio]

Thank you for putting in a plug for Holst's Hymn of Jesus. The first time I heard it I was stunned! It's on my list of pieces I want to hear live some day.

[@ftumschk]

So glad to see the wonderful Hymn of Jesus in the list. Methinks I'll give the Charles Groves recording a long-overdue relisten this evening.

[@jonbutler1563]

Great comments here about how people come to "classical" as opposed to popular music. In the U.S., most come to classical music by singing in high school choirs and playing in high school bands and, in larger schools, orchestras. Much of the current repertoire also is contemporary. Having just come from Family Day at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, which featured a musical program for parents and grandparents, I was struck by the 20th and 21st century music played by both instrumental and choral ensembles. The only "old" music played was the "Rondeau" from Purcell's Adbelazer Suite. The remaining instrumental music came from composers born after 1950 such as Yagisawa, Standbridge and Mackey. A women's chorale sang music by Craig Hella Johnson, James Mulholland (ok, born 1935), and Katerina Gimon. This parallels all the concerts I've heard from the MN high school choirs in which our granddaughters have sung - overwhelmingly composed by 20th and 21st century composers, mostly U.S.-born. It's really a remarkably different experience than these young musicians will have in hearing symphony orchestras. That said, maybe it prepares them to hear the "classics." Yes, it's true that if we had gone today, we would have heard the Carmen Suite by Bizet and Kabalevsky's Colas Breugnon Overture, from an orchestra and wind group. But the rest of the music they played and all the music sung by the choral groups performing today were by composers born after 1950.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That's a very interesting and important observation! Thank you for sharing it with us.

[@ericleiter6179]

Great list!...adding the Mendelssohn and Holst is an unexpected but nice touch...and Haydn's Lord Nelson is SUCH a great work! In my opinion, that opening Kyrie is the best Kyrie of any mass ever.

[@mickwoolley8267]

Great to have a mention of the Holst, one of my favourite choral pieces. Alas, I think you are correct: I have never seen anyone perform it live.

[@ewaldsteyn469]

Thanks for these excellent recommendations. Some I already new, but the Holst was a revelation (just listened to a version on KZbin) and so is the Haydn- for some strange reason I never heard that he composed masses - also had a quick listen on YT. Definitely plan to add to my collection the Holst and some off Haydn's brilliant masses (not just the Lord Nelson - his other masses also sound marvellous and majestic. Thanks again.

[@lukeygee123abc2]

Amazing discussion at the start - had me smiling so much :)

[@keithdennis1462]

An interesting list. Some of these works I do not know and some I haven’t heard for a long time, but I will try to listen to them again. The alto lament for the dead from Alexander Nevsky is some of themost moving music I know.

[@jjquinn2004]

Thank-you Dave, that was a very informative video. A German Requiem has been a favorite of mine for several decades; I find the words especially meaningful. Since it is for the people left behind rather than the dead, I find it soothing to listen to after the death of someone that I care about. Sadly, as I'm in my late 60s, I find myself listening to it more than I would care to. Thanks again for a wonderful video.

[@jaykauffman4775]

My fav Magnificat is still my first the Richter. Splendidly played (those trumpets!!)’and great soloists!!

[@Mahlerweber]

Die Erste Walpurgisnatch is a personal favorite of mine. Goethe and Mendelssohn are two of my favorite artists of all time. BTW, Andres Orozco-Estrada does a good job in his rendition of this work.

[@ladymacbethofmtensk896]

Walpurgisnacht is the eve of May. I believe that Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera based on the Gogol story "May Night."

[@scp240]

So much to choose from here, excellent choices. I wasn't at all familiar with the Mendelssohn; the Walton, and Lord Nelson Mass I've heard of but never really listened to as far as I can recall , so I'll have to look those up. Also, Handel's Ode for St. Cecelia's Day seems to have escaped my attention, but Purcell wrote a similarly titled piece that I absolutely adore. Handel's Alexander's Feast is also one of my all-time favorites. It would be interesting to hear your selections for Orchestral Songs or Song Cycles, if you consider those together or separately, some of my favorite music is of this genre or something of the type. Sorry for the long post, but regarding Verdi's Requiem, it is my understanding that this is performed annually in Budapest to commemorate the victims of the 1956 Hungarian rebellion against Soviet rule, and it was my pleasure to attend the tremendous performance by the Budapest Opera in late 2019, shortly before our world fell apart into the distinctive chaos we are experiencing nowadays. Something I will always remember.

[@claudiofornasari1263]

Hi David, great list as usual! These all are spectacular masterpieces, but my special affection goes to Handel's Ode and Haydn's Mass in the fabolous Pinnock's recordings. See you with the next list!

[@volker-se4di]

Thank you very much for your videos, through which I "work" my way into classical music. I would be interested in your expertise on famous choral pieces not out of choral works, like choral pieces in operas (e.g. Nabucco - Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate). If I didn't find one of your already existing videos on this matter, I have to apologize. Thanks again for your great work.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you for the suggestion. I haven't done a video on "famous choruses" from operas and other things, so that gives me something to think about for the future.

[@markgibson6654]

Dude! Great episode. the Verdi Requiem has been part of my life for decades and is an essential part of my musical life. The Brahms is something I recently discovered and I love it very much. I will keep this list and mind as a reference when I want to check out a choral work. How many hours are in your day? Your output is prodigious.

[@laszlostankovics7926]

Hi Dave! Is Bartók's Cantata Profana on one of your lists?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not yet...

[@robertdandre94101]

when i'm children my mother playing regulary on the phonograph,the columbia masterwork record of mormon tabernacle choir ...she have about 12 lp from this chorales....she love that....and me to....good school....?

[@rhonda8900]

At least this grouping was not a painful to get through as the Opera selections. I could not find the Mendelssohn streaming so I did not hear it. I have decided I am not big fan of classical female singing but it is o.k. in chorus. Standout was the Handel and the Haydn and those are probably the two I will listen to again. I think I might like boys choral performances and I am fine with most male soloists but the women give me a headache.

[@AlexMadorsky]

Nice try Dave, but now that you’ve introduced us to the Missa Brissa, I’m convinced I never need to purchase or listen to another choral work again.

[@Alex-rb5fs]

What's the missa brissa

[@AlexMadorsky]

@@Alex-rb5fs this is a reference to Dave’s video (Review: Tinnitus Presents Zelenka’s Missa Circumcisionis) on Jan Dismus Zelenka’s Mass on the Circumcision of God. The “Missa Brissa” pun refers to a bris, the traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony eight days after a young man’s birth.