Sacred music’s top 10 (or so)

I once joined a few friends in compiling a list of sacred music favorites. The idea was for us each to list our top 20 favorite sacred classical music masterworks, with a somewhat loose allowance for pieces that on reputation alone might not qualify as “masterworks” but which we personally held in high regard–terribly unscientific, admittedly, but fun nonetheless. Combining lists, we ended up with the following ubiquitous favorites, listed here in no particular order:

MENDELSSOHN: Elijah
BRAHMS: Requiem
BACH: St. Matthew Passion / St. John Passion / Mass in B Minor
ALLEGRI: Miserere
MOZART: Requiem / Ave Verum Corpus
HAYDN: The Creation
HANDEL: Messiah
VERDI: Requiem
BRITTEN: War Requiem

I find it interesting that no less than four settings of the Requiem made the list. Also noteworthy is that among this company of predominantly epic, multi-movement pieces there stand two small gems, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Allegri’s Miserere. (I own a recording of the latter stunning work, sung in English, that I highly recommend - Sir David Willcocks leading the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.)

The runners-up included:

BACH: Cantata No. 147
BEETHOVEN: Missa solemnis
ELGAR: The Dream of Gerontius
GORECKI: Totus Tuus, op. 60
HARRIS: Faire is the Heaven
JANACEK: Glagolitic Mass
MAHLER: Symphony 2 “Resurrection”
MOZART: Vesperae solennes de confessore (Laudate Dominum) / Great Mass in c, k427
PALESTRINA: Missa Papae Marcelli
RACHMONINOV: Vespers
SCHUBERT: Mass in Eb, D.950
SIBELIUS: Cantata for the Conferment Ceremony 1894
TALLIS: Spem in Alium / If Ye Love Me
BERLIOZ: L’enfance du Christ / Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem) / Te Deum
BRUCKNER: Te Deum
FAURE: Requiem
GRETCHANINOV: The Lord’s Prayer
ROSSINI: Stabat Mater
DURUFLE: Requiem
MACMILLAN: Seven Last Words from the Cross