A good understanding of what you're singing is essential for optimal interpretation. This is particularly true when singing in a foreign language, including the Latin of religious pieces.
In its quest for comprehensive information, the Musica database offers you not only the complete texts of the choral pieces you are considering (76,000 references have a text link), but also their translations in one or more languages (50,000 references link to translations of the text), in French and/or English and/or German and/or Spanish, or even another language if it seems useful.
This service is useful not only for choirmasters, but also for choristers, concert program designers, concert presenters, etc.
Consulting the database available at www.musicanet.org is often a much quicker and more direct way than searching in Google, and above all more reliable, because all the information available in Musica is moderated by choral music specialists.
If Musica doesn't contain the translation you're looking for, you can always try Google.
Access to translations of the text of a score is done from the detailed record of a chosen work, by clicking on the "Translation" button in the right column. All you have to do is select the desired language from the list of languages in which the translation is available.
⚠ CALL FOR PARTICIPATIVE CONTRIBUTION ⚠
If you have a translation of a choral piece text that does not yet appear in Musica, please give it a new lease on life by sending us (to librarian@musicanet.org) the link to this translation (or sending us the translation itself, with permission to use it - we acknowledge its author); you'll be helping the worldwide choral community by enabling us to enrich the corresponding database entries.
... and of course, there are many more results, by doing searches in Musica database on the corresponding keywords! (See paragraph 4. of the MusicaMail of February)
In each MusicaMail, we invite you to send us titles of choral scores corresponding to a given theme, in order to improve its presence or make corrections.
If the Musica database already contains records for the pieces you suggest, we will add the corresponding keyword (if necessary); otherwise, if we have sufficient information on a piece that is not yet included in the database, we will create a new record. If this is not the case, we will either contact you for more information or give you online access to enter details directly.
This theme allows you to easily imagine a slide show illustrating what is sung, an inclusion of poems readings, ...
Mississippi
For this theme « Along the Mythic Rivers », there are already many answers to be found in musicanet.org, but this theme is vast enough and the rivers numerous enough to allow you to add your contribution!
Here are some examples of searches and the number of results at the date of the release of this MusicaMail (it is advisable to add systematically the term river, to avoid correlated subjects not dealing with the river):
Musica International invites you to meet again and talk repertoire, during a "Musica workshop" from October 21 to 26, 2024 in Strasbourg (France), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The concept of the Musica workshops is to bring together conductors, music librarians, publishers, and composers for a week of interaction, collaboration, and work. Participants interact directly with the database by entering new choral pieces and/or correcting and improving already-existing records. Throughout the workshop, participants exchange their knowledge, skills, and understandings under the guidance and with the support of the Musica team.
Come participate in a worldwide collaborative project by contributing to the database while learning how to use it effectively.
The next workshop will take place at the Institute of Phonetics of the University of Strasbourg, France. Start of the Workshop: Monday, 21 October 2024, 2.00 pm. End of the Workshop: Saturday, 26 October 2024, noon.
Generally, the schedule is set by general consensus at the beginning of the session. Typically, this is a daily schedule:
− morning work from 9:00 am to 12:15 pm (coffee break around 11:00 am); − lunch at 12:30; − afternoon work between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm (coffee break around 4:00 pm)
or sightseeing of the region (if working in the evening); − dinner in the city center; − free evening, going to a concert or socializing together.
But… you are a volunteer! Therefore, you are of course free to determine your schedule!
➕Basel European Youth Choir Festival (Switzerland)
27 May - 1 June 2025, Basel
The festival is a platform for concerts and meetings for high-level children's and youth choirs. The aim of the festival is to bring together young people beyond all borders and to discover new horizons together.
Help actively to reference your choral heritage online! Musica International is a collaborative project that is run by and for people involved in choral singing. We need volunteers who want to share their passion with the choral community by taking an active part in the project. You can do this in many ways, such as inputting and checking records, translating, assisting with communication tasks. Contact us at office@musicanet.org.
You can now manage your own choral library without needing to input all the data yourself. Just sign up for a “private field” in the Musica database and take advantage of all the information we already have - all the power of our IT tools to build your own catalogue by simply adding your locations in your private field. The field will normally be accessible and visible to you alone, but you can also choose to share scores from your library more widely. Contact us at office@musicanet.org.
Are you responsible for a choral federation? We offer global privileged access to www.musicanet.org for all your members, from your website! An advantage which your choir directors will thank you for. Contact us at office@musicanet.org.
We are also looking to establish a network of national correspondents in all countries. Why not you? Even if you are unavailable to do this yourself, perhaps you know someone who could – someone in your national choral federation, for example. As Musica International is an academic collaborative project, this could be a wonderful opportunity for a university professor, a music librarian, a conductor, a singer, or anyone interested in the choral art.
