A heartfelt thank-you to the thousands of users of our choral repertoire database!Never before have so many of you connected to www.musicanet.org — whether directly or through the websites of our member federations, which offer privileged access via their own portals. This growing engagement greatly encourages our team, which works tirelessly to expand, update, and improve the content of our database and search platform — with the invaluable participation of volunteers. Without them, our project would never have come to life, nor could it continue to thrive today. More and more visitors are discovering that Musica International is the most powerful tool in the world for designing a choral concert program around a chosen theme, with results far beyond what general search engines or artificial intelligence can offer.
Simply enter the theme in the field "Keywords, words in the title", optionally combine it with filters such as language, choral setting, or a specific subtopic, and you’ll obtain a list of choral works — which are potential candidates for your next concert program! To keep this momentum, which has now lasted for more than forty years - going, we urgently need to increase our network of contributors, be they occasional or regular ones.
If you are a choral conductor or librarian wishing to share your expertise, or a composer or publisher who would like to have your works to be referenced, you are especially welcome! Musica International is the ideal way to showcase your choral expertise and share it with the global choral community. Don’t hesitate to contact us at office@musicanet.org.
Jean Sturm
Executive Director of Musica International |
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | In previous MusicaMails, we have already highlighted the benefits of using the Musica database of 33,000 choral composer biographies. It is available on www.musicanet.org, or, with full and privileged access, in the "For Members Only" sections of several websites of the choral federations that are members of the Musica International association. This database is in fact the table of composers linked to the more than 200,000 descriptions of choral scores in the Musica International database. A major milestone was reached in October 2025: the proofreading and upgrading of this table was completed, rounding off the meticulous analysis of each of the 33,000 records — a process that took several years! Of course, this upgrading will never truly stop; it will continue as a form of monitoring the composers’ news. Almost every day, the daily enrichment of the score database reveals new composers to be added; each month, some composers pass away, and their records must be updated; moreover, 25,000 records now contain at least one external link to a detailed biography, and dead links must be continuously removed and, whenever possible, replaced with current ones. This is a call to all choral music enthusiasts: help us keep this work alive and refine it. Do not hesitate to use this database, to verify the presence and accuracy of information about yourself if you are a composer, to send us your comments, and to provide information that has not yet been included in Musica to librarian@musicanet.org. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | | | | Musica is a collaborative project that depends on everyone’s participation | | | | | |
|
|
|
|---|
Examples of recently updated entries: |
|
|
|
|---|
|
3. The latest Musica International "Favorite Pieces of the Month" |
| Every month, Musica publishes a Favorite Piece – a score that every conductor should take with him/her to the proverbial desert island. The 4 most recent pieces are: |
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | Ubi caritas by Ola GJEILO (Norway / USA) |
| | |
|
|
|---|
|
| | Ave Maria d’Aosta by Jaakko MÄNTYJÄRVI (Finland) |
| | |
|
|
|---|
|
| | The World for Christmas by Anders EDENROTH (Sweden) | | |
|
|
|---|
|
| | Aftonen / Der Abend by Hugo ALFVEN (Sweden) |
| | |
|
|
|---|
|
| | To mark the World Choral Day of the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM) on Sunday, December 14, 2025, Musica International will offer all visitors full privileged access, with no need for a login or password on that day. |
| | | (normally reserved for our donors and for members of the choral federations that are part of Musica International)
Make the most of it, and why not consider enjoying these advantages "all year long" by making a donation (see paragraph 5)? More information concerning this day: https://www.ifcm.net/projects/world-choral-day. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | | As every year in November, Musica International runs its donation campaign. For more than forty years, it has been developing a global database of choral repertoire — covering all styles and periods — which has become a key resource for those involved in choral music around the world. However, the non-profit association Musica International relies on the financial contributions of its users and members, as well as on the active participation of volunteers. The health crisis is now behind us, but donations have not yet returned to their pre-pandemic level, which prevents us from continuing the development of the database with full elan. |
| | | | |
|
|
|---|
|
This time: "From Season to Season" | 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 in Musica database.
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. | | | For this theme, "From Season to Season", there are already many responses to be found on www.musicanet.org: but this theme is broad enough for you to contribute (and if you are a composer, feel free to propose your compositions).
For example, a search using the "Keyword or title word" field already yields: - "spring" – more than 4,000 results
- "summer" – 1,800 results
- "autumn" – 1,000 results
- "winter" – 2,000 results
- "the four seasons" – 66 results
By using the "More criteria" search form in the database, you can refine the search by adding language, choir setting, etc. Let your imagination find keywords related to seasons and what they represent to you, to further diversify and personalize your concert program (e.g. April, snow, flower, falling leaves, etc.)!
Here are a few titles that caught our attention — you can easily find all their details by searching for these titles in Musica: - Now is the month of Maying, by Thomas Morley (46 references in Musica!)
- Salut Printemps, by Claude Debussy
- La fanfare du printemps, by Joseph Bovet
- Lied an den Mai, by Josephine Lang
- Im kühlen Maien, by Hans Leo Hassler
- Sommarpsalm, by Waldemar Ahlen
- Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day, by Nils Lindberg
- Summertime, by Georges Gershwin
- Dies ist ein Herbsttag, by Heinz Lau
- Soir d’Octobre, by André Ducret
- Yver vous n’estes qu’un villain, by Claude Debussy
- La blanche neige, by Francis Poulenc
- Mid-Winter, by Bob Chilcott
- Hirtenlied, by Felix Mendelssohn
- Le temps chemine, by Bernard Andrès
- Le chant des saisons, by Rémy Gagne / François Provencher
Please email your contributions to librarian@musicanet.org. Our Music Librarian Pierre-Luc will ensure they are followed up properly.
Alternatively, you can add comments to the post concerning this theme on our Facebook page. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
7. News and Upcoming Events from Our Members |
| ➕ IFCM Online Café Creating, Conducting and Inspiring Youth Ensembles November 22, 2025, 10AM CET More information:
https://www.ifcm.net/news/1150/ifcm-online-cafe--22-november-2025--10am-cet---creating--conducting--and-inspiring-youth-ensembles#cont
➕ World Choral Day (IFCM) Singing for Peace, Connection, and Our Common Home December 14, 2025 The IFCM invites choir conductors, singers, and ensembles from around the world to take part in creating an international collage of photos and stories. More information: https://www.ifcm.net/projects/world-choral-day
➕ Federació Catalana d'Entitats Corals (FCEC) 10th "Catalunya" International Prize for Choral Composition The winning works will be performed at the Choral Music Fest on March 1, 2026, at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona (Spain).
More information:
https://ifcm.net/news/995/federacio-catalana-d-entitats-corals--catalunya-prizes-for-choral-compositions-2025#cont ➕ PODIUM 2026 (Choral Canada) Bilingual biennial National Conference and Festival May 14 to 17, 2026, in Victoria (British Colombia) More information: https://www.choralcanada.org/en/podium ➕ Namur en choeurs (A Cœur Joie Wallonies-Bruxelles) Choral Singing Festival May 30–31, 2026 (Belgium) More information: https://www.acj.be/evenements/namur-en-choeurs ➕ Federació Catalana d'Entitats Corals (FCEC) 61st International Choral Music Festival A week of singing, cultural exchange, and unforgettable performances with choirs from all around the world. July 6 to 12, 2026 (Spain) More information: https://www.fcec.cat/61th-international-festival-eng ➕ World Symposium on Choral Music 2026 (IFCM) "Reimagine the Future" This event promotes artistic excellence, cooperation, and exchange by bringing together the finest choirs and choral leaders for performances, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, and choral reading sessions. August 23–28, 2026 in Macau (China)
More information: https://www.ifcm.net/projects/world-symposium-on-choral-music ➕ 15th European Festival of Young Choirs of Basel May 4 to 9, 2027 in Basel (Switzerland) Call for choir applications: from December 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026. More information: https://www.ejcf.ch/en/contact/application/
========== ➕ European Choral Association (ECA) Find the list of upcoming events: https://europeanchoralassociation.org/activities-listing/
➕ A Cœur Joie France (ACJ – Choralies) Find the list of upcoming events: https://www.choralies.org/nos-activit%C3%A9s |
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | - 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.
|
|
|
|
|---|
|
| | | | | | | | This email has been sent to you because you are subscribed to our newsletter. |
| Would you like to unsubscribe?
Contact us at office@musicanet.org
or click on the link at the bottom of the original email of this Musicamail. |
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
