Le Chant des Oyseaux
Choral workshops
THE SPIRIT BEHIND OUR COURSES
During our choral singing courses, we combine search for artistic quality with conviviality, musical rigor with laughter.
Beauty, in art in general, in music in particular and in life, has beneficial and nourishing virtues. Let's build on it.
THE FAMOUS 'Y'
The spelling of our association's name is often intriguing : it comes quite simply from the polyphonic song 'Le chant des oyseaux' by Clément Janequin (ca.1485-1558), French composer of the Renaissance. The spelling of the time - oyseaux or oyseaulx - surprises many French people today.
« Rouse yourselves sleeping hearts
[…] uncork yours ears .»
Le Chant des Oyseaux
by Clément Janequin
« Since singing is so good a thing, I wish all men would learne to sing. »
William Byrd
REPERTOIRE
We love Renaissance music (Palestrina, Victoria, Tallis, Byrd, Morales, Guerrero, Hassler), the very beginning of baroque music (Monteverdi), but French music too (Debussy, Ropartz, Franck, Villette), and of course German Romantic music (Brahms, Mendelssohn) or British music (Elgar, Parry). We don't hesitate to feature music by living composers (Pärt, Vasks) or by lesser-known composers (music by Homilius, Fumet or Vásquez, e.g.).
ANONYMOUS (who composed so much music !), Jacques ARCADELT, Johann Sebastian BACH, BARTÓK Béla, John BENNET, Hector BERLIOZ, John BLOW, Johannes BRAHMS, Anton BRUCKNER, William BYRD, Juan MONTES CAPÓN, Manuel CARDOSO, Rodrigo de CEBALLOS, Pierre CERTON, Rebecca CLARKE, Giovanni CROCE, Claude DEBUSSY, Josquin des PREZ, Hugo DISTLER, Antonín DVOŘÁK, Edward ELGAR, Gabriel FAURÉ, César FRANCK, Dynam-Victor FUMET, Andrea GABRIELI, Quirino GASPARINI, Giovanni Giacomo GASTOLDI, Cristian GENTILINI, Orlando GIBBONS, Nicolas GOMBERT, Francisco GUERRERO, David HAMILTON, Jacob HÁNDL-GALLUS, Hans Leo HASSLER, Gottfried August HOMILIUS, Gustav HOLST, KOCSÁR Miklós, KODÁLY Zoltán, Mariusz KRAMARZ, Johann KUHNAU, Orlando di LASSO, Claude LE JEUNE, Franz LISZT, Alonso LOBO, Duarte LÔBO, Estêvão LOPES MORAGO, Jaakko MÄNTYJÄRVI, Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, Philippe de MONTE, Claudio MONTEVERDI, Llibre Vermell de MONTSERRAT, Cristóbal de MORALES, Thomas MORLEY, Jacob OBRECHT, Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA, Charles Hubert PARRY, Arvo PÄRT, Francis POULENC, Henry PURCELL, Max REGER, Josef Gabriel RHEINBERGER, Jean RICHAFORT, Mateo ROMERO, Joseph-Guy ROPARTZ, Cipriano de RORE, Robert SCHUMANN, Randall THOMPSON, Thomas TOMKINS, Pēteris VASKS, Juan VÁSQUEZ, Giuseppe VERDI, Tomás Luis de VICTORIA, Pierre VILLETTE, Adrian WILLAERT.