Some choral pieces simply click — they land in rehearsal, they have their moment in concert, and they still hold up on the tenth time through. "Alles das kann nur Musik" is exactly that kind of piece — written by Carsten Gerlitz and Oliver Gies, two names no one in the German-speaking choral scene is unfamiliar with. And as of today, also available in the Chorilo Sheet Music Shop.
Two Signatures, One Piece
When two such independent minds work together on a single piece, you might expect arguments — or strained compromises. With "Alles das kann nur Musik", you hear neither. Carsten Gerlitz's love of full, harmonically dense choral sound meets Oliver Gies's ear for groove and verbal punch from a-cappella pop. The result: a piece in which both signatures stay clearly recognisable — and which draws its energy from precisely that friction.
Thematically? A love letter to singing together. What words alone can't manage, what arguments don't reach, what defies explanation no matter how hard you try — music can do it. That idea carries the entire piece. Nothing cerebral, nothing conceptual — a work that comes into being exactly where it belongs: in rehearsal, in concert, with real voices. That is exactly why it has long since found its place in so many choir programmes.
About Carsten Gerlitz
Anyone who has sung in a German choir over the past decades knows him — even if they may not have realised it. Carsten Gerlitz, Berliner through and through, is a composer, arranger, pianist and choir conductor. Several hundred of his piano and choral arrangements have appeared in print, and it is surprisingly hard to land in a German-speaking choir without a score with his name on it turning up at some point — whether pop, gospel, jazz, folk or Christmas. He has arranged for greats like Max Raabe, Reinhard Mey and Ute Lemper, and conducted at German and Swiss theatres.
Since the mid-1980s he has directed the Happy Disharmonists — by his own account one of the oldest pop choirs in Germany. Which means: Gerlitz doesn't just think about choirs, he has been standing right in the middle of one for decades. You can hear it in his arrangements. They sound, they work, they are fun for the singers. Anyone who knows his books on choir conducting — above all PopChor — knows: this is someone who actually stands in front of a choir.
About Oliver Gies
Oliver Gies is composer, arranger and singer all in one — and anyone who doesn't know him from the choral scene knows him from the stage. As founding member and artistic head of the a-cappella group Maybebop, he has spent more than three decades demonstrating what four voices without a single instrument can achieve: precise grooves, clever lyrics, arrangements built like little plays. He writes, arranges and produces most of them himself. Alongside that, he regularly coaches choirs and ensembles and writes commissioned compositions for other vocal groups.
Beyond Maybebop, Gies is one of the defining arrangers of the German choral scene. For many years he taught jazz and pop choral conducting at the Federal Academy in Wolfenbüttel — shaping an entire generation of choir conductors there. His arrangement of Rammstein's "Engel" was a mandatory piece at the German Choir Competition in the jazz/pop category. What makes his pieces unmistakable is his ear for language: lyrics sit rhythmically, punchlines land, and the choir usually knows very precisely what it is singing — and why.
About the Piece
"Alles das kann nur Musik" is set for SSATB — mixed choir with divided soprano. Demanding, but doable. Choirs at intermediate to advanced level will find no incidental piece here, but a work with a statement to make, one that gets its own moment in concert. Why does it turn up in so many programmes by now? Quite simply: it works. In the rehearsal room, in front of the audience, and — perhaps most importantly — in the heads of the singers long afterwards.
Now in the Chorilo Sheet Music Shop
What is new isn't the piece itself, but the way to it. Choirs working with Chorilo can now buy "Alles das kann nur Musik" directly in the sheet music shop — pick the matching number of licences for your own choir once, and you're done. As soon as the purchase goes through, the piece lands automatically in the digital choir folder of every singer — on every device, ready to use. No print mailings, no copying, no separate distribution of PDFs, no manual licence management. Instead: order and start singing right away.
View "Alles das kann nur Musik" in the sheet music shop →
By the way: the piece can also be rehearsed directly with our partner ChorFit — perfect for individual practice between choir rehearsals.
Perhaps Just the Beginning
"Alles das kann nur Musik" is the first title by the two musicians in the Chorilo Sheet Music Shop — and we would be glad to see more follow. Perhaps Carsten Gerlitz and Oliver Gies will make further pieces from their catalogues available through Chorilo in the future.
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