Alex Renwick wrote:

>I was listening last night to Handel's Israel in Egypt and got to
>wondering who the greatest composer of choral music was.  My choice
>was Handel followed closely by Palestrina.

This is a tough call for me to make.  I enjoy listening to different
music for different reasons as I'm sure many people do.  I very much love
the choral music of Henry Purcell.  His treatment of text is wonderful
and I love his harmonies.  He also wrote beautiful counterpoint.  I think
Bach may very well have written the most seamless of all choral music.
It is truly remarkable to me and certainly he is my most favorite of all
composers.  It is a tough call between Purcell and Bach when only looking
at choral music though.  Forcing myself to choose between the two I choose
Bach for his outstanding and diverse output as well as his beautiful style.
It is nice to make decisions when there is no possibility of a poor choice.

Wes Crone (forgot to mention Monteverdi and Schutz)