Bizet’s choral works have been little known until recently. The best known is the Te Deum, first performed in 1971, but most of the others were not performed or recorded until 2023, when the collection of four CDs in the series of “Portraits” by the Palazzetto Bru Zane presented a comprehensive selection of Bizet’s non-operatic works.
These works are freshly edited from original sources by Hugh Macdonald, who also edited the series BIZET’S OTHER OPERAS for Fishergate Music.
The choral music is all available for hire from Fishergate Music. Material includes piano-vocal score, orchestral score, and orchestral parts in each case. Hired material will be sent out in electronic form as pdf files, to be printed as needed by the hirer. Piano-vocal scores, with non-singing translations, are available for perusal.
Scores and parts may be purchased from the publishers by arrangement. Contact enquiries@fishergatemusic.co.uk
As in most French choral music of the period, the women’s voices are labelled Dessus I and Dessus II, i.e. first and second sopranos, without any alto category.
Bizet’s Choral Music, edited by Hugh Macdonald, 345 pages, Fishergate Music, 2026. £95, plus shipping. ISMN 979-0-9002559-1-4.
Ten works for chorus make up the series as follows:
Valse avec chœur
S-S-T-B, orchestra (1-0-2-0, 2-2-1-0, strings), 6 minutes. Composed in 1855 to a text in French by Scribe borrowed from an opera by Reber. A lively piece in waltz rhythm throughout. First performed in 2017.
Vocal score £6, full score £33
Chœur d’étudiants
T-T-B-B, orchestra (2-2-2-2, 4-2-0-0, timpani, triangle, strings), 4 minutes. Composed in about 1855 to a riotous text in French by Scribe borrowed from an opera by Auber. Recorded on Bru Zane Portraits, vol. 6.
Vocal score £5, full score £20
Le Golfe de Baïa
Soprano solo, S-S-T-B, orchestra (2-2-2-2, 2-0-0-0, strings), 6 minutes. Composed in 1856 to a text in French by Lamartine evoking a tranquil Italian seascape. Recorded on Bru Zane Portraits, vol. 6.
Vocal score £5, full score £46
La Chanson du Rouet
Soprano solo, S-S-T-B, orchestra (2-2-2-2, 2-0-0-0, strings), 4 minutes. Composed in 1857 to a text in French by Leconte de Lisle fondly addressed to a spinning-wheel. Recorded on Bru Zane Portraits, vol. 6.
Vocal score £5, full score £20
Te Deum
Soprano solo, tenor solo, S-S-T-B, orchestra (2-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, timpani, harp, strings), 18 minutes. Composed in 1858 in Italy to the traditional Latin text. Bizet’s most substantial sacred work. In four movements. Recorded several times.
Vocal score £19, full score £60
Vasco de Gama, ode-symphonie
Reciter, soprano solo, tenor solo, bass solo, S-S-T-T-B-B, orchestra (picc-2-2-2-2, 4-4-4-0, timpani, 3 percussion, harp, strings), 30 minutes. Composed in 1860 to a text in French based on the Portuguese epic The Lusiads about the great explorer’s voyage around Africa. Recorded on Bru Zane Portraits, vol. 6.
Vocal score £22, full score £92
Saint-Jean de Pathmos
T-T-B-B unaccompanied, 8 minutes. Composed in 1865 for a Belgian choral festival to a text in French by Victor Hugo based on the Book of Revelation. Never recorded.
Vocal score £5
Hymne de la paix
S-S-T-B, wind orchestra (12 Sax instruments, 6 trumpets, 4 horns, 4 trombones, ophicleide, contrabassoon), 4 minutes. Composed in 1867 for a state competition to a patriotic poem in French by Gustave Chouquet. Never performed.
Vocal score £5, full score £20
La Mort s’avance
S-S-T-B, orchestra (2-Cor-2-2, 4-2-3-0, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, strings), 7 minutes. Composed in about 1869 to a text in French by the Abbé Pellegrin as a “meditation on two Chopin Études”. Recorded on Bru Zane Portraits, vol. 6.
Vocal score £5, full score £20
Ecce Sacerdos
S-S-S, organ, 1 minute. A short piece for three-part women’s or children’s voices published in a volume of church music after Bizet’s death. Latin text.
Vocal score £3