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World Musics & Cultures Repertoire & Resources
World Musics & Cultures Reper toire & Resources

The Hong Kong Children’s Choir, one of the city’s straints/Creativity: Cantonese Choral Works für Studienzwecke
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foremost children’s choirs, regularly commissions pieces (Studienpartitur) in 2024. The Chinese University of
by local composers. Currently, the choir has more than Hong Kong Chorus also publishes individual Cantonese
twelve books of published works for treble voices, many choral octavos on its website. 25
in Cantonese. They also have available songbooks for
sale listed on their website. Some notable collections
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include Steve Ho Choral Collections and Alex Tam Choral Summary
Collections for Treble Voices. Since 2019 there have been There has been increased interest in Cantonese cho-
at least six concert programs dedicated to Cantonese ral music in the past two decades. However, most choral
choral works by collegiate and community choirs in music performed in Hong Kong before then was per-
Hong Kong, including those by the Hong Kong Bap- formed either in Western European languages or Man-
tist University Choir (2019), Hong Kong Youth Choir darin, and Cantonese-texted choral music was slower
(2021), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2022, to develop. Cantonese choral works have traditionally
2025), Fluente Chorus (2024), and Die Konzertisten been scarce, but there has been a growing demand for
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(2025). These performances consisted of original this genre since the 2000s. More composers are setting
compositions, commissioned works, and arrangements Cantonese texts, while more choirs are performing Can-
of Cantonese pop songs. tonese choral works around the world. While this article
A conference on Cantonese choral works, “Decod- centers on works composed in Hong Kong, it is worth
ing Cantonese Creativity,” was held in Hong Kong noting that Cantonese choral works may also origi-
in 2023. This three-day conference consisted of lec- nate from other Cantonese-speaking communities such
ture-demonstrations, presentations, and concert show- as Singapore, Macau, and Malaysia. One example is
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cases. The conference also had a call for new Can- “Street Calls” by Singaporean composer Leung Yoon-
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tonese choral compositions. In 2024, musicians in pin.
Hong Kong started actively sharing Cantonese choral As most existing Cantonese choral works are accom-
works internationally. St. Paul Co-educational College panied, they are suitable for performance by choirs of
performed Alex Tam’s “No Woundless World” as one varying levels. The language itself would usually pose
of their four competition pieces at the World Choir the biggest challenge but could be overcome with a dic-
Games in 2024. St. John’s Cathedral choir premiered tion guide, which are increasingly provided by compos-
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Chan Kai-young’s “Love Never Fails” in the United ers, especially for works composed after 2015. The au-
Kingdom in July 2024. In June 2025, the Chinese Uni- thor hopes this article can serve as an introduction to
versity of Hong Kong Chorus performed a lecture-re- Cantonese choral music, and that more musicians and
cital on Cantonese Choral Music at the Indiana Choral educators will consider programming this beautiful,
Directors Association’s Summer Conference. unique genre. A good starting point would be the two
Currently, only a few Cantonese pieces for non-na- databases mentioned in this article, along with the scores
tive speakers are available in the United States in two and recordings provided in the notes.
separate collections. Both collections include perfor-
mance notes, a diction guide, and English translations. Michelle Kwok, DM, is visiting assistant teaching pro-
The first is Half Moon Rising, edited by John Winzen- fessor at The College of William & Mary and artistic di-
burg. This collection contains two Cantonese piec- rector of Fluente Chorus and the Williamsburg Choral
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es: “Street Calls” by Leung Poon-yin and “Under the Guild. michelle.kyy@gmail.com
Mid-autumn Moon” by Chan Kai-young. The second
collection is Tang Poetry for Choirs, edited by Richard
Tsang. There is one Cantonese piece in this collec- NOTES
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tion, “Autumn Night” by Chan Kam-biu Joshua. Chan
Kai-young published a series of his works as Con- 1 Some dissertations on the topic include Hana Cai, “Making

24 CHORAL JOURNAL May 2026 Volume 66 Number 8