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.

Whereas Bach and Handel certainly rank up there, I don't always consider
them, or any baroque composer for that matter, up there as a "greatest
ever" choral composer.  The reason is that in many cases, they treat the
choir as another instrument in the orchestra and don't always compose to
the strengths of a purely vocal ensemble.  This is not to discount their
music, but my criteria for great choral writing must include music that
sounds correct only if sung by a choir.  You could easily take out the
voices in the coronation anthems of Handel, for example, replace them
with instruments and still have interesting music.  This is not the case
with other composers.

With that in mind is my short list, in no particular order:

Felix Mendelssohn
Johannes Brahms
Palestrina
Knut Nystedt
Benjamin Britten
Tomas Luis de Vittoria
J.S. Bach
Charles Villiers Stanford
Herbert Howells
Carlo Gesualdo

There are a host of others, but these guys are unique in that their music
has an instantly recognizable sound; a sound which makes the choir sound
like no other combination of instruments can.  Their ability to effectively
set texts is also a high consideration.

Kevin