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I'd like to recommend this most exceptional of Brahms' many fine choral works, for pleasure as well as for study. Besides being as beautiful and brilliant as anything else the man ever wrote, and as if that were not enough in itself, this motet is also an astonishing tour-de-force of contrapuntal mastery - so naturally and fluidly presented that one barely realises that what amounts to a technical miracle is taking place. It really is amazing. To my knowledge, only Bach was capable of better, and I say that with more than a little hesitation. I'm attaching a link to a fine recording by the Choir of St. Clement's Episcopal, Philadelphia, as well as a PDF score. I hope you'll find it worth a few minutes, or possibly more for worthwhile analysis. Chorally, this motet is a double canon at the seventh for most of its length, switching to the second during the Amen - both difficult feats to accomplish musically, as any of you who may have tried it will know; the canonic treatment of the organ part is intermittent, but when it is in gear, the piece essentially becomes a triple canon - almost incomprehensible. The choral counterpoint is perfectly rigid for most of the piece, relaxing only at cadence points. In the Amen it does break ranks, though only slightly, and for inarguable aesthetic reasons. That Amen alone is worth waiting for - to my sensibilites one of the most sublime moments in all of Brahms' oeuvre. This work should be required study for any serious student of counterpoint. Johannes Brahms: Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren. Brahms, Johannes - Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren.pdf