Oops, missed this (I scanned the thread for Dufay).
I was a choirboy as a lad and my sympathies are still definitely towards the high end of liturgy, so many of my favorites are on the older end of things. Among the pieces of sacred music I find most lovely:
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Allegri’s Miserere
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Pergolesi’s *Stabat Mater[/I}
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Veni, Veni Emmanuel, though I like to sing more slowly than most of the usual arrangements.
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Abide with Me is a lovely song that always chokes me up, at least partially because I mostly hear it at Remembrance Sunday services.
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One of the few modernish hymns that I really like is *Here I am, Lord *
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Finally, I find a lot of the music that comes from the ecumenical community at Taize to be really lovely.
Beethoven: Mass in C, especially the Gloria.
Rachmaninoff: Vespers.
Victoria: Domine non sum dignus.
Gounod: O Divine Redeemer
Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze; Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Schubert: Ave Maria
Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, by Franz Josef Haydn. The Sanctus makes me wanna dance a little bit. Not so good when you’re in the choir on the dais. It’s really a fun mass to sing, if such a thing can be said.
Here’s a link to the Sanctus. This features our own elenfair, who was a member of the choir at the time, singing second soprano.
I’ve got a couple of performances of this work next month, together with the Choral Fantasy.
I was just musing recently as to whether there would be a commercial audience for the hymns they dragged me off to church to sing as a wee little pre-Vatican II parochial tyke. Tantum Ergo, O Salutaris Hostia, Pange Lingua, Panis Angelicus, Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Assumpta Est…Salve Regina was always one of my faves.
Anything from Handel’s Messiah will do for me; my particular favorites are “For Behold, Darkness Shall Cover the Earth”; “O Death, Where Is They Sting/But Thanks Be to God”, and “Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain”.
I could if you’re serious - we’re talking a hefty number of megabytes, though!
In the movie Babe, there’s a scene where the farmer is watching TV when a lightning strike takes out his electricity. The show he is watching is showcasing a pair of robed duettists singing Gabriel Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine. I’ve performed this in at least three choirs (in SATB), and it’s one of my favoritest hymns.
I have to suggest people look out for the DVD of the Fall and Resurection by Sir John Taverner. This is a very modern piece, and the visual elements, plus the interview with Tavener on the DVD really help you to understand and enjoy the work far easier than the cd would. It takes place in St Paul’s Cathedral, London and features some incredably good and versatile singers. I also like the inclusion of several ancient musical instruments into the composition.
I like some of the artistic choices in the singers, the mail lead sings both as Adam, and Jesus, the female as Eve, and Mary, whilst anothe male singer with incredable vocal range sings the part of both God and the Devil. This one 96 minute concert covers all time from creation to resurection of Jesus and to grace.
For older music I have allways been fond of Gaudete an ancient christmas hymn, with some of the most beautiful use of lyrics.
Mmmm…church music…
First of all, most of my picks are influenced by the fact that I’ve played and/or sung them, either on guitar as a mass musician in school or in choir at college. Let this be warning. 
“Classical” sacred favorite has to be Haydn’s Te Deum. I can still sing the tenor part while listening to a midi version. sigh We sang it in University Choir my first year at Penn State.
Choosing a more modern favorite is almost impossible. Poly may remember the couple times I’ve discussed this on this board and over at that Pizza place, and my…well, not arguments, per se, with more traditionalist Catholics over the “St. Louis Jesuits’” works, but I love the stuff that was written in the 70s and 80s and which comprised most of the Glory & Praise series of hymnals. On Eagle’s Wings, Here I Am, Lord, Let There Be Peace On Earth (which is older than the others, but special to me because our parish was staffed by Franciscans), Sing a New Song Unto the Lord…God…there are so many.
I certainly agree about the works of John Tavener. We premiered one of his pieces in 2003 (Lament for Jerusalem) and even now I still find myself humming some of the haunting melodies.
I was raised on Carey Landry.
Igor Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms.
Franz Schubert, Ave Maria.
Michael Joncas, On Eagles’ Wings:
Allegri : Miserere
Pergolese : Stabat Mater
Schubert : Stabat Mater
Ave Maria came to mind the moment I saw this thread. Beautiful song. Oddly enough, my favorite rendition is by Chris Cornell, of Soundgarden
I love anything performed by Anonymous 4 , my two favorite are The Lily & the Lamb and Lammas Ladymass. Pergolesi’s **Stabat Mater ** and Parry’s Jerusalem are also quite lovely.
Mozart: Mass in C Minor (the “Great” Mass)
Brahms: Requiem
Verdi: Requiem
And. . . not really sacred, but Bernstein: Chichester Psalms.
I love Schubert’s Ave Maria, and Pachelbel’s Canon in D. - and I’m a sucker for Christmas carols, too, particularly Adeste Fideles, O Holy Night and Silent Night.
Thinking of more “contemporary” Christian artists, I’d include a largish chunk of Keith Green’s music. His Easter song (He Is Risen) is so joyful and exuberant it brings tears to my eyes.
While I am not religious, I have no particular problem with religious or sacred music. If it’s performed with joy or reverence, how can you not be moved by it?
There is a Fountain Filled with Blood-Cowper (I like the Willie Nelson version)
Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light-Rist/J.S.Bach
Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming-German Carol
Low in the Grave He Lay-Lowry
I Shall Be Like Thy Son-Darby
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross-Watts
I shouldn’t get into this thread. There’s far too much good music to choose from, especially since I like hymns, classical and folk. Still, there’s one folk piece which is a particular favorite which hasn’t been mentioned yet and it’s my custom to sing it on Ash Wednesday, which will be tomorrow. It’s got a particularly meaning to me, given some of what I’ve been through. The song is called “Ashes” also from Glory and Praise, written by Tom Canry. I won’t, of course, print the entire song, and the lyrics aren’t on the net, but a snip or two may help you understand why this song means so much:
[quoteWe rise again from Ashes,
From the good we’ve failed to do
. . .
We offer you our failures,
We offer you attempts.
. . .
Then rise again from ashes,
Let healing come to pain.
. . .
And create the world anew
From an offering of Ashes,
An offering to You.[/quote]
I also like On Eagles Wings, but I actually prefer One Bread, One Body which, to me, sums up what Communion should be about.
Hymns. Hmmm. There are a bunch of them. I’m with plnnr on “Just As I Am”. At Christmas, too, I’ll take “In the Bleak Midwinter”, preferably with cello accompaniment. Hang it, I can’t find my hymnal and I’m not sure of the first verse of it, but there’s a hymn we sang on Sunday which I also love and not just because it has a great alto line. Let me give you the start of the second verse: “Alleluia! Not as orphans are we called to Thee today!”
There are too blasted many and I’ve got too much to do. One nice thing about my church is we have about 50 people in the choir and we do good classical and older music (“older music” meaning stuff which dates back to the 1600s and earlier. Our Ash Wednesday line up has “Hide not thou” by Farrant and Byrd’s “Miserere Mei”. On Sunday, it’s Mendelssohn, Gibbons, Tallis, and Howells (we’re doing an evening prayer service, too). We’re also singing Bach’s “Passion of St. John” on Good Friday, but I’m a little too caught up in the “no music between Good Friday and Easter Morning” tradition so I’m bowing out. Rats!
CJ