Sacred & Church Music Sheet Music Downloads (PDF)

Puccini's first known work of church music was composed during his school days at the "Istituto Pacini" in Lucca and was premiered there in 1877; he chose a Latin hymn to the patron saint of Lucca as...

Monteverdi's "Vespers of Mary" has found its way into today's musical practice like hardly any other work of the 17th century. However, the "Vespers of Mary" also presents us with many puzzles. The so...

Anyone who has Bruckner's symphonies and well-known great masses in their ears will be amazed when they hear his "Missa solemnis" from 1854: can the tradition of Viennese Classicism still be so clearl...

A mass composition by a young Viennese composer: in 1760, at the age of 16, Marianna von Martines (1744-1812) composed her "Seconda Messa". Just one year later, another mass from her pen was performed...

Missa latina is a complete Latin mass composition for solo soprano, large mixed choir (SATB with voice parts and choral solos) and a band consisting of violin, bandoneon (accordion), piano, double bas...

Sacrilege or a stroke of genius? The composer and Kapellmeister Gottlob Benedict Bierey (1772-1840) orchestrated the first movement of Beethoven's famous "Moonlight Sonata" for orchestra (transposed t...

The two poems by John Milton L'Allegro (Cheerfulness) and Il Pensieroso (Melancholy) describe the contrasts between these two moods. Charles Jennens used them to create a libretto, supplemented by the...

Johann Ernst Bach succeeded his father Johann Bernhard as organist in Eisenach and was later also appointed Court Kapellmeister. In his compositions, J. E. Bach reveals himself to be a spirit open to...

The cantata Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern BWV 1 has become somewhat famous: With it, Bach's ambitious project of a choral cantata year came to an abrupt end on March 25, 1725 after around nine mo...

Bach composed "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" BWV 2 for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity in 1724 as the second cantata of the choral cantata year. It is based on Martin Luther's rewriting of the 12th P...

Bach composed the cantata "Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid" for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany in 1725; it is part of the choral cantata cycle. In the large-scale choral movement, a sorrowful choral mo...

The surviving parts for the cantata "Christ lag in Todes Banden" BWV 4.2 were used for a performance on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725; this performance was presumably an emergency solution, as the chor...

Bach composed the choral cantata Wo soll ich fliehen hin BWV 5 for the 19th Sunday after Trinity in 1724. The cantata belongs to Bach's 2nd Leipzig year, the choral cantata year. The opening movement...

Bach composed the cantata "Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden" BWV 6 for Easter Monday in 1725. A choral cantata was actually planned for this holiday as well, but the choral cantata year breaks...

The cantata Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam BWV 7 for St. John's Day (24.6.) 1724 is the third cantata of the choral cantata year begun on the 1st Sunday after Trinity (11.6.1724). It is based on Mar...

The cantata Liebster Gott, wenn wird ich sterben belongs in its original form BWV 8.1 to Bach's choral cantata cycle of 1724/25 and was first performed on the 16th Sunday after Trinity (September 24,...

Kantate für den 6. Sonntag nach Trinitatis. Soli SATB, Coro SATB, Fl, Obda, 2 Vl, Va, Bc.

Bach created a special kind of choral cantata for the Feast of the Visitation (July 2, 1724): It is not based on a Protestant hymn, but on a Gregorian chorale (9th psalm tone). The German Magnificat -...

On March 2, 1714, Johann Sebastian Bach, who had previously worked as a chamber musician and organist at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar, was promoted to concertmaster and commissioned to co...

Bach's cantata BWV 13 (from the third Leipzig cantata cycle) was first performed on the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany in 1726. The work is characterized in particular by the unusual scoring for Bach's chu...

Kantate zum 4. Sonntag nach Epiphanias. Soli STB, Coro SATB, Cor, 2 Ob, 2 Vl, Va, Bc

This cantata, which was first performed in Leipzig on January 1, 1726, belongs to a small group of compositions that were written between Advent 1725 and mid-January 1726 and use poems by one and the...

Kantate zum 14. Sonntag nach Trinitatis. Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Ob, Str, Org

The cantata dates from Bach's Weimar period. The instrumental scoring with four violas and basso continuo, to which two recorders led at octave intervals to viola I and II are added in a Leipzig perfo...