Muusika (Uusberg)

Every choral director must have some favorite pieces they keep coming back to, some new composers they’ve discovered, and some works their choirs had a lot of success with! I’m going to reach out to some conductors and ask them to tell me about a piece we should all know about. Sometimes those publisher websites and repertoire lists can be so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start…

I will do the first one myself. Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg’s Muusika  is a work you need to know. “It must be somewhere, the original harmony…” Read the poem here

Voicing: SATB div. a cappella

Why do singers like it?
Lush cascading harmonies and rich divisi

What is meaningful about it?
In addition to the gorgeous text about music, it is a great way to introduce singers to the amazing history of Estonian choral music and the Singing Revolution

What is challenging about it?
Changing time signatures with a constant eighth-note (but the tempo is not fast) and Estonian language

What is easy about it?
It is completely diatonic in G Major. You can teach it quickly with sol-fa

Where did I perform it?
I conducted it with the Walden School Young Musicians Program chorus, a group of 60 young composers ages 10-18 and about 25 faculty and staff. I also sang it with the University of Washington Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Geoffrey Boers.

Where can you order it?
JW Pepper sells it