The compulsory songs 2027: from Chichester via Berlin to the Basque Country

At the competition each choir brings its own programme. In the compulsory song session it is the other way round: everyone sings the same pieces. That is exactly why you can hear so well how differently one and the same bar can sound.

For the 60th competition, three works from three countries and three eras are on the programme. Here is a short introduction.

Around 1600 Thomas Weelkes was one of the great English madrigalists. He then became organist and instructor of the choristers at Chichester Cathedral, where he turned more and more to church music. He was not an easy colleague: he repeatedly clashed with the cathedral authorities.

You hear none of that in this piece. The text comes from the Book of Revelation, five voices carry it, and in only about two and a half minutes a festive, radiant Alleluia unfolds.

Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn, was the elder sister of Felix Mendelssohn and a wonderful musician in her own right. In her Berlin home she led the famous Sunday concerts. She published only late in life, and her “Gartenlieder” op. 3 for four-part choir appeared in 1847, the year she died. The manuscript of “Schöne Fremde” is dated 22 July 1846.

The text is by Joseph von Eichendorff: a warm night, old walls, rustling treetops. Robert Schumann set it too. At the end the distance itself speaks:

Nobody knows the third compulsory song yet: Javier Busto is writing it as a commissioned work for this competition. The Basque composer from Hondarribia is a doctor and a conductor, and choirs around the world sing his pieces. The choirs receive the score with their confirmation; they obtain the Weelkes and the Hensel themselves.

Added on 18 September 2026: the work now has a title. More about “Soñé que tú me llevabas” and Javier Busto.

The compulsory song session takes place on Saturday, 10 July 2027, at 9.30 am in the Stadtsaal. If you would like to listen beforehand: here are recordings of the two familiar songs and a short impression of the compulsory song session in Spittal in 2016.