Recent Repertoire

The Seattle Bach Choir performs three main-stage concerts each year, in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. The music of J. S. Bach—and music by those who inspired him and those who were inspired by him—finds a home in almost every season.

Below you will find recent history of our performing repertoire.

March 2023: Motets II

• Hugo Distler, Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott
• Fredrik Sixten, Behold the Lamb of God
• Knut Nystedt, Immortal Bach
• Johan Sebastian Bach, Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (BWV 230)
• Johan Sebastian Bach, Komm, Jesu, komm (BWV 227)
• Henry Purcell, arr. Gavin Bryars, Dido’s Lament
• Johan Sebastian Bach, Der Geist hilft unser Schwackheit auf (BWV 226)

November 2022: Motets I

• Cristóbal de Morales, In illo tempore, dixit Jesus discipulis suis
• Dieterich Buxtehude, Quid sunt plagae istae
• Caroline Shaw, from To the hands:
  • Litany of the Displaced
  • i will hold you
• Johan Sebastian Bach, Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir
• Jan Campanus Vodňanský, Germen Hebraeae celebrato gentis
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, Come away, death
• Vaughan Williams, arr. Mahraun, Dirge for Fidele
• Bach, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied

June 2022: Moritz & Madrigals

• Heinrich Schütz, O primavera
• Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel Moritz, Benedetto sia’l giorno
• Moritz, O giorno, o hora, o ultimo momento
• Laurie DeLeonne, We Learned the Whole of Love
• Moritz, Non al suo amante più Dïana piacque
• Moritz, Se’l pensier che i strugge
• Jocelyn Hagen, On My Dreams
• Moritz, Amor et io sí pien’ di meraviglia
• Moritz, Fiamma ch’allaccia
• Gwyneth Walker, Wild Nights
• Moritz, Aventuroso più d’altro terreno
• Emma Lou Diemer, Three Madrigals

March 2022: Marry & Bury

• JS Bach, In allen meinen Taten
• Johan Helmich Roman, Herren Känner de frommas dagar

November 2021: Ceremony & Memorial

• William Byrd, O Lord, Make they Servant Elizabeth, Our Queen
• Erasmus Widmann, Gustav, der König in Schweden
• Herbert Howells, Behold, O God Our Defender
• Heinrich Schütz, Syncharma musicum
• Marcel Tyberg, Mass in F Major

June 2021: The Great Day

• Vulpius, Gleichwie der Blitz
• Gumpelzhaimer, Venit Michael
• Capillas, In Horrore
• Scheidt, Kommt her, ihr Gesegneten
• Valcampi, Dum Sacrum Mysterium
• Lusitano, Hic est Michael
• Sacred Harp, The Great Day
• Foster, Hard Times
• Bach, Gott hat das Evangelium

April 2021: Where the Willows Weep

• Bob Dylan, Ring Them Bells
• Nicolai, An Wasserflüssen Babylon
• Palestrina, super flumina
• Pärt, An den Wassern zu Babel
• Rossi, Al naharot Bavel
• Sacred Harp, Babel’s Stream
• Sweelinck, Estans assis aux rives
• Various, An Wasserflüssen Babylon chorale

November 2020: Hunted & Persecuted on Every Side

• Salamone Rossi, Ein keloheinu
• WINDSOR TUNE, attrib. Christopher Tye, setting by John Playford, Psalm 74
• Juan del Encina, Una sañosa porfía
• Johann Eccard, Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort
• MANCHESTER TUNE, Thomas Ravenscroft, setting by Playford, Psalm 102
• PROPER TUNE, Louis Bourgeois, setting by Playford, Psalm 130
• William Byrd, Domine, tu jurasti
• ELY TUNE, William Cranfield, setting by Ravenscroft, Psalm 20
• Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Laetatus sum

November 2019: Beginnings

• Heinrich Schütz, Herr, unser Herrscher
• Jacob Handl, In principio creavit Deus
• Thomas Crecquillon, Dum deambularet Dominus
• Orazio Vecchi, Benedicite omnia opera
• Jack Gottlieb, Vay’chulu
• Arvo Pärt, Which was the son of…
• Heinrich Schütz, Warum toben die Heiden
• Johann Walter, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland
• Jacob Handl, Egredietur virga – Radix Jesse
• Andreas Hammerschmidt, Machet die Tore weit
• setting by Vytautas Miškinis, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme
• Heinrich Schütz, Singet dem Herrn neues Lied

March 2019: All-Night Vigil

• Sergei Rachmaninoff, All-Night Vigil

November 2018: Armistice

• Gregorio Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus
• Heinrich Schütz: Selections from Geistliche Chormusik
  • Verleih uns Frieden genädiglich
  • Selig sind die Toten
• Jeffrey Van: Selections from A Procession Winding Around Me
  • Beat! Beat! Drums
  • Reconciliation
• Anton Bruckner: Locus Iste
• Jim Boyes: Down Upon the Dugout Floor
• Christine Donkin: In Flanders Fields
• C. Hubert H. Parry: Selections from Songs of Farewell
  • Never weather-beaten sail
  • My soul, there is a country
• Herbert Howells: Selections from Four Anthems
  • Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks
  • O, pray for the peace of Jerusalem
• John Muehleisen: A Psalm of Life

June 2018: Abide with Us

• Anton Bruckner: Locus Iste
• Frank Martin: Mass for Double Choir
• Thomas Tallis: If Ye Love Me
• Ola Gjeilo: Ubi Caritas
• Rosephanye Powell (arr): Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
• Josef Gabriel Rheinberger: Abendlied
• Shawn Kirchner (arr): Unclouded Day

Cantatas 2018:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Schwingt freudig each empor (BWV 36)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch (BWV 86)

March 2018: Mass in B-Minor

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B-Minor (BWV 232)

November 2017: Wachet Auf!

• Heinrich Schütz: Jauchzet dem Herren
• Felix Mendelssohn: Richte mich, Gott
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, Meine Freude (BWV 227)
• Heinrich Schütz: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140)

June 2017: Spring Songbook

• Hildegard von Bingen: O virtus sapientiae
• Josquin Desprez: Ave Maria
• Pierre de la Rue: Myn hert altyt heeft verlanghen
• Robert Pearsall: Lay a Garland
• Elisha West: Evening Hymn
• Supply Belcher: The Power of Musick
• S. Foster (arr. M. Keller): Hard Times Come Again No More
• Ron Jeffers (arr): Workin’ for the Dawn of Peace
• Kevin Siegfried (arr): Shaker Songs
• C. Sands (arr. P. Carey): The Night is Young
• Charles Villiers Stanford: The Blue Bird
• Maurice Ravel: Trois Chansons
• Samuel Barber: Selections from Reincarnations
  • Mary Hynes
  • The Coolin
• William L. Dawson: Soon ah Will Be Done
• Alice Parker (arr): Saints Bound for Heaven
• Robert deCormier (arr): Let Me Fly
• C. Chaplin (arr. S. Zegree): Smile
• Alice Parker (arr): Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal

Cantatas 2017:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Alles nur noch Goetts Willen (BWV 72)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Ärgre dich, o seele, nicht (BWV 186)

March 2017: Death & Life

• Johann Pachelbel: Gott ist unser Zuversicht
• Heinrich Schütz: Musikalische Exequien
• Arvo Pärt: Berliner Messe
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4)

November 2016: God & Queen

• George Frideric Handel: My Heart is Inditing
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Komm, Jesu, Komm (BWV 229)
• C. Hubert H. Parry: I was glad when they said unto me
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Missa in G (BWV 236)

June 2016: Swift as a Shadow

• John Farmer: You Pretty Flowers
• Robert Pearsall: Lay a Garland
• Ralph Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs
  • Full Fathom Five
  • The Cloud-Capp’d Towers
  • Over Hill, Over Dale
• Paul Carey: Full Fathom Five
• William H. Harris: Faire is the Heaven
• Giuseppe Verdi: Witches’ Chorus, from Macbeth
• Gregory W. Brown: The Fabric of Streams
• Emma Lou Diemer: Three Madrigals
  • O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
  • Take, oh, take those lips away
  • Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!
• Matthew Harris: Shakespeare Songs, Book IV
  • Blow, blow thou winter wind
  • And will a’ not come again?
  • When daffodils begin to peer
• John Rutter: Blow, blow thou winter wind
• John Rutter: It was a lover and his lass

Cantatas 2016:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (BWV 9)
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet (BWV 164)

March 2016: Singet dem Herrn

• Claudio Monteverdi: Beatus Vir
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in B-Flat Major (KV 275)
• Georg Philipp Telemann: Laudate Jehovam, Omnes Gentes
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Singet dem Herrn (BWV 225)

November 2015: An Afternoon in Venice

• Hans Leo Hassler: Jubilate Deo
• Hans Leo Hassler: Dixit Maria
• Hans Leo Hassler: Cantate Domino
• Heinrich Schütz: Cantate Domino
• Heinrich Schütz: Jauchzet dem Herren
• Heinrich Schütz: Fili mi, absalom
• Heinrich Schütz: Domine, labia mea aperies
• Michael Praetorius: Jubilate Deo
• Anton Bruckner: Ecce sacerdos
• Giovanni Gabrieli: O magnum mysterium
• Giovanni Gabrieli: Hodie Christus natus est