Sacred music: polyphony

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Hi everybody, I am a huge advocate of the classic sacred music. I appreciate the older hymms, motets and polyphonic choral music saturated in harmony. I have been looking into some of it… for example shrinesf.org/mass.htm
basically, im trying to find music just like this but im having no luck. So if you have any knowledge of where to find sacred music like this that would be a great help. Thank You and God bless.
 
If you have access to a very good public library, you might be able to find recordings. Failing that, if you have access to a CD store with a strong classical department, you can find some. However, your best bet is going to be the online vendors, of which Amazon and Tower records come first to mind because they often offer online samples so you can hear what you’re buing before time.

Now, you’re not going to find much just by typing in “polyphony.” You have to know the names of the composers in advance. If you wish, I will provide you with a reasonably complete list; it is not that long.

BTW those were wonderful performances at that site. I wonder if that was the Shrine’s own schola. Most US churches, to say the least, are quite incapable of (not to mention apparently uninterested in) observing an aesthetic standard up to that level.
 
You’re looking for music generally from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A lot of these composers we know by one name (ala Cher) Some great composers to look out for are:

Giovanni da Palestrina (my personal favorite)
Josquin (des Prez)
Leonin & Perotin (generally look for music from the Notre Dame School of composing)
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume du Fay
Orlando de Lassus (di Lasso, de Lasso, etc…)

Music of this time period gets neglected too much. Hope this helps you.
 
I have two CDs by Tonus Peregrinus, a group devoted to early music. You can here samples on Naxos.com, but you can buy the CDs at Barnes & Nobles or Borders Books. The two CDs I have are: Mass of Tournai/St. Luke Passion and Sacred Music from Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The second one I mentioned I like more, you can go to the naxos website, look them up and hear samples.
 
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pm1853:
You’re looking for music generally from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. A lot of these composers we know by one name (ala Cher) Some great composers to look out for are:

Giovanni da Palestrina (my personal favorite)
Josquin (des Prez)
Leonin & Perotin (generally look for music from the Notre Dame School of composing)
Guillaume de Machaut
Guillaume du Fay
Orlando de Lassus (di Lasso, de Lasso, etc…)

Music of this time period gets neglected too much. Hope this helps you.
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Since someone has dashed ahead and made a list of composers, I feel obliged to give a slightly alternative version of things. I would not put Perotin, Machaut, or even Dufay on the same list with the composers of the high Renaissance. There is an immense qualitative difference there, in which the earlier music is not without interest but would simply never be used in a modern Mass even if we used high polyphony at all. There is an archaic quality to every polyphonic composer prior to Josquin (some would say Ockeghem) that cannot be denied. It is sort of like the difference between a pre-Giotto altarpiece and a work by Raphael. I would leave it up to each listener to make the decision for him or herself, but I would not recommend the kind of bewildering plunge into the unknown that pm seems to have made.

No, I would start strictly with the High Renaissance, a golden age of music, and then if curiosity impelled me work my way back. Here is an alternative, overlapping list of composers:

Josquin de Pres
Nicolas Gombaert
Adrian Willaert
Clemens non Papa (Jacobus Clemens)
Heinrich Isaac
Orlando di Lasso
Cristobal de Morales
Tomas Luis de Vitctoria
Thomas Tallis
William Byrd

And of course, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, also my favorite, and the only Italian on a very international list.
 
I would go with Palestrina, as wisely recommended by pm1853, but more specifically with the Missa Papae Marcelli. This is a beautiful Mass, and, it is rumoured, what convinced the Pope to retain polyphony.
 
Servus Pio XII:
I would go with Palestrina, as wisely recommended by pm1853, but more specifically with the Missa Papae Marcelli. This is a beautiful Mass, and, it is rumoured, what convinced the Pope to retain polyphony.
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Sort of. The mass first off IS absolutely fantastic. Palestrina was a product of the Council of Trent and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The mass itself simply represents the ideals of the Council (restraint in dissonance, simplicity of rhythm, restraint in counterpoint). It didn’t really convince anyone of anything though. That doesn’t detract from the Mass at ALL. I’m just picky because I just lectured on it a few days ago. 😃 I still think its one of the coolest Mass settings there is (though my heart is still in chant).
 
Thank you all for your replies!!
They are all a wonderful help to me. God Bless
 
At the risk of being assailed by the choral elite, I would also suggest Gabrielli and Claudio Monteverdi as well- patrticularly if your choir has access to some brass players.
 
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