Music for the Spirit

Until now, anyone looking for music on the theme of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit for church services and concerts usually had to do so in larger collections that cover the entire church year or parts of it. With Music for the Spirit, there is now a choirbook specifically for the feast of Pentecost for the first time, closing a gap for an important feast of the Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican churches.

Over 500 years of choral music from Renaissance to the modern age are covered here with compositions from the German-, English-, Italian- and French-speaking regions. Almost all the great composers of European sacred music are represented, from Palestrina over Byrd, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Gounod, and Bruckner to Reger, Parry, Stanford, and Distler. With the chronological order, the development of the genre of the Pentecost motet and sacred choral music in general can be traced easily.

All pieces can be performed by mixed choir a cappella or with organ accompaniment. In some cases, the accompaniment has been supplemented or arranged by the editor Stephen Harrap, in individual cases also the choral parts, e.g. when the original was composed for male voices only. The scoring ranges from three to eight voices while the length and difficulty of the pieces likewise cover a broad range for a wide variety of choirs and ensembles.