Brahms' three Geistliche Chöre (Sacred Choruses), Op. 37, were published 1866; however, they were composed as much as seven years earlier. All three are scored for unaccompanied four-voice female chorus. Although Brahms did not call the three pieces "motets," their contrapuntal and formal characteristics put them in that category. Two of the Op. 37 choruses are thought to date from 1859, the year in which he founded a women's chorus in Hamburg, which performed these same two pieces in June 1859. The texts are taken from the Roman Catholic Liturgy.

The primacy of contrapuntal writing in Brahms' choral works is especially evident in his a cappella compositions. His application of contrapuntal technique owes more to the study of Baroque vocal works than his familiarity with choral pieces by his immediate predecessors. To composers of Robert Schumann's generation, a cappella writing was something new and modern, growing in popularity at a time when Germany was in the midst of its Handel craze. To this "new" idiom Brahms applied what he had learned in his study of very early Baroque counterpoint at both the library in his native Hamburg and at the Schumanns' in Düsseldorf. Thus, we find numerous strict canons in his a cappella choral works. It seems that between 1855 and 1865 Brahms was canon crazy.

Throughout the Sacred choruses, Op. 37, Brahms employs long note values and simple harmonies, lending the work an atmosphere reminiscent of Palestrina's music. Initially, Brahms intended to accompany each of the three choruses with a note, in Latin, explaining the canonic device therein, but decided against it in the end, regarding such comments as unnecessary displays of erudition.

"O bone Jesu" was probably composed in 1859. The contrapuntal device Brahms considered pointing out in this brief piece is a canon "per arsin et thesin" (arsis and thesis), in which second voice reverses the pattern of metrically strong and weak beats in the first voice. From the beginning we hear two such canons, the first in contrary motion between the first soprano and the second alto and the second, also in contrary motion, between the first alto and second soprano.

"Adoramus te, Christe" most likely dates from 1859 and is a four-part canon in which the second, third and fourth voices enter a fourth, fifth and octave below, respectively. Continuous through about two-thirds of the piece, the canon begins to break down when Brahms begins hinting at B flat major. By the time the motet closes, on A major, the texture is completely homorhythmic.

The last and longest of the three motets of Op. 37 is "Regina coeli laetare," which dates from 1863. Here, Brahms calls for a soprano and an alto soloist in addition to the four-part choir. Entering one measure apart, the two soloists pursue a canon in contrary motion at the third that continues through most of the motet, stopping momentarily after a reference to the opening motive. The next few measures feature the choir alone, also in a canon in contrary motion that ceases when the soloists return.

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