35 Sacred Choral Concertos (short compositions for unaccompanied voices)

Dmitry Bortniansky is credited with developing the genre of the sacred choral concerto — the musical centerpiece of the Orthodox "Divine Liturgy" — to its highest level. The sacred choral concerto is a setting of sacred text, usually Psalm verses, sung during the Liturgy at the moment of consecration. It is typically divided into three or four contrasting movements and employs a variety of solo and tutti textures and is performed entirely a cappella in four voices. As a genre, the sacred choral concerto has no precise equivalent in Western repertoire. Bortniansky's thirty-five choral concertos for four voices were first published as a set in the early nineteenth century. Although no autograph manuscript of these psalm settings exists, there are several authoritative early sources that can be found in various European archives.