Question for the Atheists/Agnostics here who like Classical Music.

Do you find yourself sort of at a loss when these major Xtian/Judeo holidays come around?

When I was still figuring religious things out for myself (ie: my pre-non-believer days) - as well as singing lots of church gigs to make ends meet - I rather enjoyed the great religious masterworks of Bach, Handel and others on a more-than-musical level. I used to make sure that I listened to Bach's St John & Matthew Passions, the Durufle, Faure, Brahms and Verdi Requiems during Holy Week; I made a point of listening to the usual religious Xmas fare like Bach's Xmas Oratorio, Handel's Messiah, Charpentier's Midnight Mass, etc.

And, having had lots of experience singing in Temples and for High Holiday services at various Catskill resorts, I had an appreciation of the Ashkenazic school of service music and collected recordings of famous cantors like Sirota, Rosenblatt and Tucker that I would listen to around the major Jewish holidays (BTW - I'm not Jewish).

Now, I just don't bother.

I still listen to all of these works off and on during the year, but I don't make any effort to hear them around the actual holidays. I still love the music and enjoy these works from my perspective as a musician, and I still love cantorial singing on a technical/emotive level, but the religious/fantasy side of the works just doesn't ring a single bell for me anymore.

Any one else have similar experiences?

"Do you find yourself sort of at a loss when these major Xtian/Judeo holidays come around?"

Nope. And when the holidays come around, I'll throw in some Bach, Handel--and especially "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (GREATEST CHRISTMAS ALBUM EVER. THAT IS NOT DEBATABLE.)

For me, Christmas has never been about the religion, even as a Methodist kid. It's about the season. Turkey, presents, making sure to touch base with old friends, etc. Clearly, your holiday season experiences are rife with religion, so I can see how the the music and the holidays are intertwined. I just never really saw the holidays as a religious event, even though I knew for many, most even, that's what it is.

Christmas was the Roman Saturnalia, sanitized. Easter was originally a Germanic fertility fest called "Ostare".

Enjoy the holidays. They are deeper than Christianity by many thousands of years.

but I enjoy these works as art. I find myself listening to great masses and choral work year round. I completely separate myself from the religious experience with one exception: Orthodox Mass. Beautiful and very spiritual. They sound like heaven on earth.

I like Bach, Beethoven, Handel, etc. but I don't associate a lot of their stuff with the holidays, because I am used to hymns for the holidays instead. So I can listen to pretty much anything but Handel's Messiah and not dwell on religion.

I've never found it necessary to share the beliefs of the composer, and it seems to me that the best composers express their joy in their faith without trying to convert anyone. I don't believe the premise of say, "O Holy Night," which is one of the most beautiful Xmas songs, but I do believe that the composer believed. I guess that would address the technical side - good composition is a technical feat.

Not to mention, a lot of that music is just fun to sing.

BTW - two of the greatest Requiems written - Brahms & Verdi - were written by non-believers.

Brahms' Requiem doesn't follow the Catholic rite while Verdi's does. They're both great to sing, though the Verdi is more satisfying to me.

"All-Night Vigil" or Vespers, and I don't resemble in any way shape or form a russian orthodox type person - except for having a singing range down to A2 or G1. It's simply so extraordinarily beautiful. As for your question about connections with christian holidays, hmmmm. Yeah, I like listening to /performing carols at christmas - but that about covers it. I'd like to find a good piece of music for really expressing the grief & shame I've felt over Fallujah - or the initiation of the war last year. Dunno, though. Britten's War Requiem, maybe.

I have a funny take on Britten's War Requiem.

I've always enjoyed it on recordings and thought it to be one of the great works of the 20th century. Yet, I've heard it in concert 3 times - once at Carnegie with the Cleveland Orchestra, once at Avery Fisher with the NYPO, and another non-descript performance elsewhere - and on those occasions, I found it to be a great piece of kitsch. Maybe it was the solemn, preeningly theatrical manner of the performers in those performances, I don't know. But it was never the all-encompassing, over-whelming experience I had hoped to hear live. It was sort of embarrassing, to tell the truth.

Just me, I guess.

Music can do anything that religion does -- with the added benefit that you don't need to wrap your head around any kind of dogma to be lifted by it.

Certain pieces of great music may have been inspired by religious formulas, but the music transcends its source.

This atheist LOVES Mozart's "Requiem" as far as works regarding faith go. I understand how this seems puzzling to some, but to me, good music is good music for myriad reasons. 100% compliance with the composer's philosophy is nice, but if it were required, I wouldn't have anything left for listening.

They do put me in mind of my Catholic upbringing - sang in a Latin choir, mandatory at my parochial grade school; but even that memory is kind of soothing, much like the music, which is very meditative.

C'mon, everybody sing!

O salutaris hostia
Que coeli pandis ostium
Bella premunt hostilia
Da robar fer auxilium

(scooz any mispellings, that's how I remember it)

Do you have to be black to fully appreciate rap?

I used to sing bass in a gospel quartet, back before I woke up and realised my atheism.

I still find that sort of music to have a great deal of value.

I don't try to analyze what I like, I just sit back and enjoy it.

...is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria." I'm also, incidentally, about the *least* religious person around. I also don't tend to associate certain pieces of music with holidays, except I will add the following caveat: I *hate* 99% of modern "Christmas carols," most of which are actually medieval/renaissance/pre-19th Century dance or other secular music which was co-opted by religious Victorian "reformers" and given saccharine lyrics. Ugh. The fact that one hears the same 10 or 15 pieces in multiple uncreative arrangements 100 different times during that time of year is rather offputting, as well.

Then again, I tend to be as much of a religious holiday CO as possible.

I also like religious and secular music from other cultures, but I have the most experience with Christian religious music, since it's the majority culture around here... I don't self-identify as a Christian, though...

The only good thing to come out of religion is the music.

art in general and slightly disagree with George. Religion has inspired some great art and architecture, as well as music.

I'm a solid agnostic with aetheist tendancies, but I sing out loud with "Every valley, shall be exalted..." every time I play my Academy of Ancient Music copy of MESSIAH.

Inspiration is inspiration. "God" has little to do with it.

But I am currently listening to Handel's Messiah on CBC TV. I grew up in the church and still spend Easter Sunday morning listening to the service for the music. Today there was singing in Japanese, Urdu, and Chinese as well. The music was fantastic. I do not go to church any longer.