Making Music is a member of Musica, an international project to create the world’s largest database of choral music. Through this arrangement, all our members have access to the database of over 200,000 pieces of choral music and biographies of over 33,000 composers.
Climate change
Recently, Musica International's call for music on 'climate change' has received a great response. The database now has records for more than 130 pieces matching this search. You can also narrow your search to reflect any particular repertoire needs (type of choir, language, etc.). And don't forget that music is great for raising awareness of the climate crisis - lyrics, melodies and all manner of creative sounds can be a powerful way to highlight the need for action to your audiences.
You can find results on their Facebook page, where they have pinned the 11 October call for contributions to the top of the page. You can still add comments and make new suggestions there to help carry on expanding this theme. Send any ideas and proposals to librarian@musicanet.org for inclusion in the database.
Programming works by women composers
The topic of diversity in choral repertoire-planning has come into special focus recently, highlighted by Making Music's event on programming women composers. There are many wonderful pieces written by women, suitable for all choral settings and for any sort of concert theme.
The Musica International database is a very good place to start looking for such works, using the 'More criteria' search form.
Musica will then list over 11,000 choral works composed by women! Given this number, it makes sense to fill out a few additional categories in the search form. For example, if you enter 'climate change' as your keyword, 'SATB' for Voicing, and 'F' for Gender of composer, they will show you 10 search results – all of which contain links to scores and other materials.
The 'Archive of Women in Music' in Frankfurt/Main is collaborating with Musica International to work on enlarging their database of music by women composers. Find out more on the 'Archive of Women in Music' website.
You can also find about 4,000 choral works by women in the Choral Diversity Database, which focuses on contemporary composers.
If you have any questions on the Musica International database, please contact kitchens@archiv-frau-musik.de.
