Powerful Classical/Opera/Chorus Music?

Some one asked this last week so here is my answer from that question....

I just came back from a performance of Mozart's Requiem. I am quite familiar with this piece as I have attended performances of it and sung it in choir. Every time I hear this piece I am absolutely amazed at what Mozart did. His use of contrapuntal lines is spectacular and the way he casts the character in each movement is impressive. The way he uses fugues throughout is a great way to have symmetry amongst the large movements. However what I like most about the piece is how it evokes true human emotion. This piece touches your heart in so many different ways. There is pain, sorrow, beauty, joy, despair, celebration.... etc. Every human emotion is displayed in this piece!

Ein deutsches Requiem

This is my favorite mass choir piece. With the passing of Brahms' mother and good friend Schumann in his mind, this piece is a massive celebration of life. Each movement is could stand alone as a single piece, but when performed in its entirety, there are few choral works that can match up in stature. The 4th movement, the most well known movement "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place" maybe one of the most beautifully written melodies. The Soprano solo in the 5th movement is to expansive, free, expressive and beautiful. This movement happens to be the one moment in music I love the most. When the first note comes out of the soprano, that is all I need!

Where Mozarts Requiem focuses with the dead, Brahms celebrates living. It was his largest composition in any form and he was able to compose in a style that was pretty much dead during his life. Very few works have this type of communicative and expressive power. This is true choral power! Massive and unrelenting.

Vespers of 1610 by Monteverdi

I don't know why this piece is neglected and ignored. Probably the first big choral work in music history. Even though there were many huge works that went on for hours in the renaissance, this one is the culmination of all the choral pieces written to that point in time. Monteverdi incorporated every single choral technique known to composers - cori spezzati, motet writing, madrigal characteristics, split choirs, contrapuntal writing, versicle/response... etc.

What is amazing is how many vocal lines are going on at once. At one point there are 10 separate lines! Soloists accompany choruses, choirs split into separate choirs... it is purely amazing. It is the most monumental work in the voice repertoire until Bach came along. In terms of magnitude, Vespers can hold up against the Passions of Bach, the Brahms Requiem.... It has to be considered one of the best Choral Masterpieces ever composed. To think of doing this back in the early 1600's is amazing. To think that someone could organize the complexity of this piece and combine styles of writing is impressive. There is both secular and sacred text in this piece. Typically the choruses sing sacred material while the soloists sing the secular moments. But there are times when the roles reverse and moments where they share.

There are so man powerful vocal compositions! Bach's B minor mass, the soprano solo in Mahler 2, Handel's Messiah to name a few... The voice is still the most powerful and expressive instrument. There is no instrument on earth that can match the expressive and communicative power of the voice. Instruments try to imitate the voice, but in the end, the voice stands alone.

Act 2 Finale of Verdi's opera Aida ( that's the original opera, not the musical). Yu gotcha chorus of priests, your chorus of city folk, your chorus of courtiers, your chorus of slaves, and your chorus of prisoners all going at once. Plus 6 soloists on top of all that. Loud? You'd better believe it!

Then there's Modest Mussorgsky's opera, Boris Gudonov.

there's a scene titled ( at least in English) The Entrance of the Boyars. Gotcha chorusof poor folk, rich folk, the boyars ( like the Cabinet) the priests, and you have the big gong-like church bells tolling all the time. Makes your teeth rattle!

Either Act 1 or Act 2 Fnale from Lohengrin, by Wagner, or Act 2 Entance to the Wartburg from Tannhäuser ( also by Wagner)

Run, don't walk to Act 1 of Puccini's opera Turandot.

the first big chorus is rather quiet, but it picks up steam pretty quickly after that. Consider if Tianenman Square was full of people singing, how it would sound ( Bonus, if you hang around till Act 3, you get Nessun dorma)

I have sung in all these pieces. It's the most amazing feeling, being permeated by all those sound waves going through, around, over and out into the audience.

Classical music doesn't always have to be relaxing, as the man said. there are always some very exciting moments, and these are some of the biggest.

Well almost too many to choose from - and the obvious ones have been stated but try Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony, Mahler's 2nd, 3rd or 8th symphonies. Britten's War Requiem goes to the extremes of emotion and if you can listen to the finale ('let us sleep now') without tears in your eyes you are heartless inded. Part of the magic of choral / operatic music is the contrast between bombaast and pathos so best to get r the whole work Not exactly 'head-banging' but Bernstein's 'hichester Psalms' are simply wonderful - a Jewish composer setting Psalm 23 in Hebrew for an Anglican Cathedral has to be some sort of humanitarian and artistic statement. Buy it and marvel at it. Elgar's Dream of Gerontius especially the version with Janet Baker singing the 'Angel's Farewell' is superb and thrilling. Lots of stunning operatic choruses of course but when I heard the finale of Puccini's Turandot live my hair stood on end. If you dont like these see a cardiologist because you must have heart trouble! Another finale not exactly headbanging but tear-jerking is the finale of Poulenc's 'Dialogues of the Carmelites' where the nuns are executed (off-stage mercifully) one by one with the voices fading. Actually nobody mentioned the St Matthew Passion by Bach and it didnt really grab me until I saw the TV semi-dramatised version by Jonathan Miller from the BBC. Its not on DVD as far as I know but wow - what a dramatic and moving production. Oh, and Mendelsohn wrote a choral symphony as well - his Sym # 2. Actually people who write for chorus usually have a few good headbangers so worth exploring the choral repertoire for more. Did anyone mention Carmina Burana - Queensland (yes Queensland) did it as a ballet with the chorus hidden until the finale when the rear of the stage lit up to reveal the chorus and orchestra - a magical moment indeed.

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote some searing orchestral music - try the 11th Symphony for some awesome crescendos - and the Leningrad synmphony ...

There must be others so please add to my list

Enough already.

Jon

I don't see the problem with the term 'head-banging' classical music. I'm tired of it being marketed as relaxing all the time.

Top of the list has got to be Verdi's Dies Irae, from his requiem. This is about as head-banging as you can get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBBzsMqDnPE

More head-banging classics would include Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, but if you've heard that too many times (and who hasn't) there's the prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, which is sort of similar. Another chorus of his (he didn't write many) is the Sailor's Chorus from The Flying Dutchman (in German Steuermann, lass die Wacht!), which is more cheery than angry.

And there's always O Fortuna from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (another overly famous one)

Try Verdi's Requiem, the Dies irae movement. It's loud, forcefill and pretty cool.

Also Holst's 'The Planets' the first movement, Mars. It's hard-core battle music

Also Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony the last (4th) movement.

Many of the choruses from Bach's Mass in B Minor would fit your requirements, but of course the Mass in B Minor is not an opera.

Passion music.

This question comes up a lot

My top youtube discovery videos (for this type of question). A great source for trying before BUYING. Enjoy ... please buy this music or go to a live concert and become addicted to classical music.

Mars, Bringer of War (Holst)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pw0jvqx1mNU

Richard Wagner Götterdämmerung

http://youtube.com/watch?v=E23DFKIL65I

Alexander Nevsky - The Battle on the Ice (Prokofiev)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u5eLzjtmqo4&f

Stravinsky - The rite of spring - Sacrificial Dance

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PSyoi0EGYBw

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique- 5th Movement

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IrezpUWIY98

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, V - Finale

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vX6Gp3LzFAU

Verdi "dies irae, dies illa"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBBzsMqDnPE

Requiem (KV 626) - Dies irae

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl-wRbJoWVA

beethoven symphony 5 movement 1

You can find breath-taking classical/opera.chorus music at Worldkrystal.

You can find them at : http://worldkrystal.com/