Swiss up your choir! An interview on the choral collection “Swiss Choral Music”
With Johannes Meister and Patrick Secchiari
Our long awaited choral collection “Swiss Choral Music” containing twenty-eight a cappella works has finally arrived! To mark the new publication we interviewed the two editors, Johannes Meister and Patrick Secchiari. Which piece is particularly funny? And do they have a favourite piece? Johannes Meister and Patrick Secchiari answer these questions and many more in the interview.
How did the idea of the choral collection Swiss Choral Music come about?
It first arose during the coronavirus pandemic when choral activities were restricted or forbidden. The Swiss Federation Europa Cantat didn’t want to be limited to cancelling events; it wished to contribute something meaningful to the enrichment of choral life. The idea of the choral collection was born because Swiss choral compositions are little known outside of Switzerland itself.
The choral collection Swiss Choral Music reflects the current choral landscape in Switzerland. Briefly, in three words: how would you describe the choral scene?
The choral landscape in Switzerland is distinguished by its variety, starting with the four different national languages.
What is special about this choral collection?
It contains twenty-eight modern or recent a cappella compositions. They were selected by an expert committee, they represent the four linguistic regions, and they can rightly be described as highlights of Swiss choral music.
For which choirs is the repertoire intended? Are the works of varying levels of difficulty?
The works were deliberately chosen with the aim of offering choirs both easy and more difficult pieces.
What determined the selection of the repertoire?
The choice was determined by linguistic region, by the practicability of performance, and most importantly by the quality of the pieces.
The collection contains works with Rhaeto-Romance and Swiss German texts. Do non-Swiss choirs even stand a chance with these?
We thought of that! Via the QR codes choirs can listen to the pronunciation of the texts. In addition the Swiss Youth Choir (Schweizer Jugendchor) conducted by Nicolas Fink has recorded a CD with all twenty-eight works.
What is your favourite piece from Swiss Choral Music, and why?
Swiss Choral Music is a treasure chest – it has nothing but favourite pieces!
There is plenty of space in the collection for choral music by up-and-coming artists. Which composers will we be hearing from in the future; who do you see as having particular potential?
Alongside the established composers there is a whole raft of younger, promising individuals. It’s perhaps particularly worth mentioning that one piece was selected for inclusion as a result of a competition specifically for female composers. That was written by the young composer Sara Bucher.
Which piece could become an earworm?
Well, that depends on your ear! Pieces like “La sera sper il lag”, “Soir d’octobre” and “Weischus dü?” are already great favourites with many Swiss choirs.
Which piece has a particularly “Swiss Sound”?
If there’s such a thing as a “Swiss Sound”, then it’s probably more likely to be found in another initiative of the SFEC, the two-volume publication “Tour de Suisse” with folk song arrangements. In any case, there’s no yodelling in the more modern compositions in Swiss Choral Music …
Are there any pieces which are particularly funny?
You can find a certain humour in “Le Bestiaire” by Grégoire May and “Rosa Loui” by Heinz Holliger.
With which piece from the collection could a choir really impress their audience?
Peter Appenzeller’s “Stailas” and “Bim Moonschyn” by Markus Fricker create a wonderful sense of emotion and silence. “Vira Galilaei” by Gonzague Monney is a relatively simple piece, but it has an enormous impact.
Swiss Choral Music
Coral collection. Edited by Johannes Meister and Patrick Secchiari
Carus 2.305/00
Swiss Choral Music
The CD for the choral collection. Recording with the Swiss Youth Choir under the direction of Nicolas Fink
Carus 2.305/99
English Choral Music
The choral tradition of English cathedrals and universities is famous the world over. Through the centuries on the British Isles an immense storehouse of musical treasures have been composed: beautiful sounding choral settings which, in the meantime, have come to enjoy a great popularity on the European continent.
French Choral Music
TheChoral Collection French Choral Music is a real treasure trove for choirs to explore music from France. The collection contains 45 sacred compositions for mostly four-part mixed choir, all of which were composed in France.
Christmas Carols of the world
The choral anthology Christmas carols of the world enriches the Christmas repertoire for choirs, with lots of exciting choral arrangements of a selection of 85 international Christmas carols. It is edited by Volker Hempfling and contains arrangements by composers from 23 countries in their original languages, including John Rutter, John Høybye, Mark Sirett, Wolfram Buchenberg, Matti Hyökki and Fredo Jung.
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