Sacred concerto

Sacred concerto (German: geistliches Konzert, plural: geistliche Konzerte, lit. 'spiritual concerto (or: concert)') is a 17th-century genre of sacred music, characterized as settings of religious texts requiring both vocal soloists and obbligato instrumental forces for performance. Starting from Italian models, the genre flourished primarily in Germany. It is a broad term for various genres of chamber concerto for a small number of voices and instruments popular in Germany during the 17th century and prefiguring the late baroque church cantata and solo sacred cantata forms.