Approaching Renaissance and Baroque music can be daunting regardless of your choral forces or budget - but there are flexible voicing and accompaniment options as well as specific rehearsal strategies that can quickly engage any choir and help them fall in love with the music of the past. We provide resources and tips to help you find repertoire and demonstrate how to successfully program these works. In addition to uncovering approachable works by well-known composers, we also highlight voices that have often been excluded from our choral history.

In connection with this session, Liza and Katy commissioned composer B.E. Boykin to write a new work using early music conventions and a text by 13th century trobairitz Na Castelloza. You can preview and order Castelloza's Song here, as well as listen to the SATB version and voice/guitar version below.

Read an article in the Michigan State University College of Music Newsletter about this commission.

As a part of this session, Liza and Katy created a new edition of the 16th century madrigal Allor che ignuda by composer Vicente Lusitano, the first Black composer to be published in the history of western music. View and purchase this edition at MusicSpoke. Proceeds of this sale will benefit organizations whose missions amplify historically excluded choral composers.

REPERTOIRE:

• petrucci music library (imslp)

• choral public domain library (cpdl)

• aepex (list of historically excluded composers with links to repertoire)

• a modern reveal (information and links to repertoire from early women composers)

• polyphony database (links to repertoire)

• web library of 17th century music (links to repertoire)

• medieval/renaissance/baroque composer list (links to repertoire)

• bach vocal music index (filterable catalogue of bach cantata, masses, motets)

COMPOSER/REPERTOIRE DIRECTORIES:

• non-idiomatic choral music of black composers (marques l. a. garrett)

• historic composers directory (music by black composers)

• database of women composers (kapralova society)

• database of women composers (orange county women’s chorus)

• composer diversity database (comprehensive choral database coming soon)

• kassia database of women composers (art songs, possible unison rep)

• african diaspora music project (art songs, possible unison rep)

GENERAL RESOURCES:

• dr. meredith bowen (research about 17th century italian nun composers)

• music theory examples by women

• list of women composers by time period (oxford music)

• sphinx (composer resources directory)

• castle of our skins (links to additional resources)

• latin american choral music list (ahmed anzaldúa of border crosSing)

• inclusive early music (user-generated bibliography, syllabi, and assignments)

• black central europe (1000 years of black music in german-speaking lands)

• gala choruses repertoire resources (links to repertoire by lgbtq+ composers)