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Favorite mass?

Kilogram

Creation, but just because everyone knows it.

The Great C minor is Mass(ive).

Many composers wrote music for a mass. As beautiful as some of the music can be, I prefer to come back to the original purity of a capella compositions in polyphonic style. There is a world of styles and choices. A few examples:

I like Josquin des Prez for his unique style, here missa Ave maris Stella
https://youtu.be/LfyT5EEajdw

Or older Machaut (interesting ornamentation and dissonances)
https://youtu.be/1gEV42RKf6E

Or Ockeghem in a more simplier style
https://youtu.be/L9qVf0ETLM4

More ornamented and melodic by Palestrina (gorgeous missa Aeterna Christi Munera) or Monteverdi (missa il illo tempore)
https://youtu.be/825kfMgCZAk

https://youtu.be/ZsBS8Sl1zKo

Not to forget English composers like Byrd with this very simple but moving 3 voices missa

https://youtu.be/1Am1PQ0p39w

Bach

Probably Duruflé Requiem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr4UYqBjJm0

Bach B minor - hands down. Learned and performed the entire work with my college choir - amazing experience both spiritually and musically.

The b minor Mass of JS Bach , Requiem by Mozart , Although Bach's St Mathiew Passion is not a Mass it is perhaps the greatest non Catholic work ever written.

I was thinking along those lines but my favorite is the gram because 1 gram = 1 cubic centimeter = 1 milliliter. Metric is so cool.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

Brahms German Requiem

Mozart K427 / Bach B Minor / Berlioz - Grand Messe des Morts

Mozart Mass in C minor. But Zelenka’s missa votiva is also pretty good:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RCL2CWQaH4A&t=3263s

Way too many to pick from!!

Frank Martin, Vaughan Williams, and Poulenc all have killer masses for a cappella chorus

Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli is well-known and well-loved. Many other settings of the mass from this era are great, too.

Beethoven’s Mass in C is frankly more practical (and worthwhile/interesting in my opinion) than his missa solemnis. Yeah, the Missa solemnis is epic and huge, but you won’t find singers that enjoy the choral parts. That’s why choirs usually don’t sound that good, even in the best recordings of this work.

Mozart’s Mass in C minor is amazing, and I like it more than his requiem. I also love the Coronation Mass.

Brahms actually wrote a mass, and it was discovered only 30 or 40 or so years ago.

Bach’s Mass in B minor is obviously amazing.

I agree about the Cm vs the requiem. I want to get into the Bach, but it's just so long.

Then just listen to the choruses. Seriously !!

just maybe i will.....................................!

I once owned a recording of the entire Bach B minor mass by Robert Shaw on 78 rpm records (from the 1940s - which I picked up from my college music library in the mid 1960s). I forget how many separate records made up the entire set, but there were several, and the "album" was very heavy. Plus each side only played for a few minutes, so I had to actively sit near the record player and flip the records over at the end of or in the middle of the various choruses. Can't remember how I eventually disposed of it. I think I got tired of lugging it around every time I moved.

Modern tech is a blessing. In some ways...