SOLO SETTINGS OF
POPULAR SACRED TEXTS

Note: In addition to the Alleluias listed here, Handel composed a number of "Amen, Alleluia" and "Halleluja, Amen" anthems for solo soprano basso continuo, in various keys. See HWV 269-HWV 277.

Note: There are a number of songs and arias entitled "Ave Maria" that are not, in fact, settings of the traditional "Ave Maria" text. The most famous of these is Schubert's "Ellens Gesang III", Op. 52 No. 4 D.839; however, in Schubert's case, several publishers have also shoe-horned the traditional "Ave Maria" text onto Schubert's music (at times rather awkwardly). At this point, the song has become a Wedding standard, sung the sacred text never intended by Schubert, rather than the poem by Adam Storck that Schubert actually set. Other composers who have written songs entitled "Ave Maria" but using other texts include: Verdi (Desdemona's aria in Otello does, in fact, include the Ave Maria text within its longer secular libretto), Franz (poem by von Geibel), Marschner (No. 4 from Sieben Lieder, Op. 115, poem by Anonymous), Raff (poem by Ernst), Rheinberger (poem by Oser), Rossini (subtitled "A te che benedetta", a poem by Torre), Tosti (subtitle: "Per le fulgenti cupole dorate", poem by Errico). While these are lovely songs they are not true Ave Marias.

Notes: These works use the "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" and/or "Stabat Mater Speciosa" text, in whole or in part, in either the Vatican or Analecta version (or a combination of both), sometimes variations. Also note that Virgil Thomson's Stabat Mater, for (mezzo-)soprano and string quartet is not a setting of the traditional text; instead it is the setting of a poem by Max Jacob that tells the story behind the Stabat Mater, the vocalist taking on four different characters. The English singing translation and a piano reduction were also produced by Thomson himself.

Note: There is also a fairly popular arrangement of the Intermezzo from Bizet's L'Arlésienne, in which the "Agnus Dei" text is set to Bizet's pre-existing music; because this "arrangement" (appropriation?) was not by Bizet himself, this work is not included in the main lists below.