Jonathan Knapp wrote: >Unfortunatley, Alex, I don't think that there is an answer for your >question, or at least not an easy one. I think it depends on your taste >in choral music, but having said that I can offer a few opinions: > >1) The Golden Age of choral music is the Rennaisance. Palestrina is >unquestionably the finest composer of modal, polyphonic works, especially >his Stabat Mater, Missa Papae Marchelli, and motets. But there are dozens >more great composers from this age with Dufay, Josquin, Jannequin, and even >Dowland, Weelkes, Tye, Morley, and others. It is not completely accurate to call Dowland (who wrote no choral music at all) or for that matter any of the madrigalists truly choral composers. It's a fine point indeed, but much of the early music which we now consider to be choral in nature was written for one to a part singing. You cannot really call a madrigal a choral piece, IMHO. Kevin Sutton