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the words are sung with the same upward melodic con- base of Cantonese Choral Works by Chan Kai-young
13
tour in Cantonese, the meaning differs radically. “The and the Cantonese Christian Choral Database by
Lord” in Mandarin becomes “pig” in Cantonese, and Leung Yat-hin. Chan’s database documents around
14
“is able” in Mandarin sounds like swear words (in a three hundred works, and Leung’s database has around
hilarious manner) in Cantonese. nine hundred works. Chan’s database includes con-
15
Scholars have commented on the difficulty of set- tact information for some composers, enabling further
ting Cantonese-texted choral music over the last few exposure to individual composers’ works, and all mu-
decades. In the preface of the Hong Kong Vocal Works sic on Leung’s website is available for purchase or free
Collection, Law observed: download. In the “complete list” of Chan’s database,
only one documented work (Chan Kam-biu Joshua’s
Cantonese, as a speaking voice, is throaty and the “Heart of Love”) was written before 2000. Fourteen
resonance [is] rather flat. But it is very musical were written between 2000 and 2009, 124 were written
in terms of pitch and relative length of each syl- between 2010 and 2019, and seventy-five were written
lable. Composers working with Cantonese lyrics between 2020 and 2024.
16
usually have already taken into consideration In the past decade, choirs in Hong Kong have start-
the intonation problems. It is, however, more ed to commission, program, and promote Cantonese
difficult to have a more precise phonetic system works. This might be linked to the rise of a new gener-
to romanize the Cantonese words. 10 ation of local composers and conductors who are inter-
ested in promoting the genre to the international com-
In his essay “Writing Choral Music in a Tone Lan- munity through organizing workshops, presentations,
guage: Problems, Practices, and Potentialities,” Chan and concerts. Many of them studied music in foreign
Kai-young argued that the scarcity of choral repertoire countries such as the United States and Canada. They
in Cantonese can be attributed to the constraints that share a similar vision of promoting Cantonese choral
the language has posed on text-setting. For Canton- works to Cantonese-speaking communities outside
11
ese to be accurately understood in a musical setting, Hong Kong and to the international choral community
two conditions have to be met: the melodic intervals who are not yet aware of the genre.
must align with the lexical contours of the language,
and the musical intervals of the words must be opti-
mal. Intervals that are too narrow or wide affect the
12
intelligibility of the word. In European languages like Every performance
Latin or English, the melodic contour has less impact
on the audience’s understanding of the text. For exam-
ple, regardless of how “Gloria in excelsis Deo” is set to is gripping.
music, the listener still can comprehend the meaning
of the text. That is not the case for tonal languages like
Cantonese. Thus, it is more challenging to compose in
Cantonese than in non-tonal languages.

An Evolving Genre
Despite the many challenges of setting Cantonese
to music, there has been increasing interest in creating
and performing Cantonese choral works. Two existing
databases are available for interested parties to look up
Toll-free: 1.877.246.7253 • sales@musicfolder.com
choral works with Cantonese text settings: the Data- Toll-free: 1.877.246.7253 • sales@musicfolder.com
www.colbertcreative.com
(604) 681-5386
CHORAL JOURNAL May 2026 Volume 66 Number 8 23
Get more attached

Hold your own. to your music.

Toll-free: 1.877.246.7253 sales@musicfolder.com Toll-free: 1.877.246.7253 • sales@musicfolder.com
www.colbertcreative.com www.colbertcreative.com
(604) 681-5386 (604) 681-5386

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