Organ works for small choir?

[Bruce.Simonson]

Hi,

We've nearly completed the installation of an excellent Allen four manual Bravura organ in our church, and I'm looking for suggestions on fine classical choral literature to show off this instrument with our choir.

Our chorus is quite small, but also quite good. However, I am concerned that this organ can easily over-power out singers, so I'm thinking of working on some early (or "earlier"-ish) music.

In other venues, the choir has sung the Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah, and quite a few Bach cantatas, for example. In the venue with the new Allen organ, it will have to be a smaller chorus, and there is not room for an orchestra.

Any suggestions for fine works to look at, as the church (Episcopalian) gets used to this new organ in its sanctuary? I'm excited about the possibilities.

Thanks,
-Bruce

[andijah]

How many singers can you fit in the available space? And do you have the possibility to have soloists?

Edit: maybe something like this lovely shortish mass by Gounod? https://www.carus-verlag.com/en/choi...chapelles.html

[andijah]

Or Joseph Haydn: https://www.carus-verlag.com/en/choi...solomesse.html

And I love the Magnificat by Durante (sometimes Pergolesi is named as the composer) - the organist has a lot to do, though, in this piece (I'll be playing the organ part on the first weekend of December... hope the organ doesn't fail me like it did at the last concert in that church. But that's another story),

You could also look at Mozart's motet Sancta Maria (KV 273) or the arrangement for choir and organ of Schubert's Mass in G (D167).

[davidecasteel]

Schubert's "Mass in G" is a possibility. (The trio in the Sanctus et Benedictus is just entrancing.)

David