With the monumental composition Hora est, MWV B18, written at the end of 1828 for performance by four four-part choirs, Mendelssohn embraces the founding myth of the Sing-Akademie. It was formed in 1791 on the initiative of the music teacher and composer Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch in order to perform a 16-part mass by the Roman composer Orazio Benevoli.

Two years before Hora est, Mendelssohn wrote his eight-part Te Deum, MWV B15, for the Sing-Akademie. This festive composition was probably created to commemorate its newly-completed building adjacent to a now-filled-in moat on a branch of the Spree. In any case, the work was often heard there on a wide variety of occasions - for example on the 20th birthday of the composer, who also conducted this performance himself.

In 1832 Mendelssohn's first collection of three spiritual works was published under the simple title Church Music for Choir. The principal piece of this first edition is the eight-part Ave Maria, MWV B19, which the composer created during an Italian visit in the autumn of 1830.