Wolfgang Kemp: New Arranger in the Chorilo Sheet Music Shop

Wolfgang Kemp is a retired grammar-school teacher. In Mainz he studied church music alongside school music, completing the highest church-music qualification, the A-Examen. Over his career he founded and directed a large number of youth and adult choirs – longest of all the church choir of St. Barbara in Lahnstein (more than 40 years) and the parents' choir of the Gymnasium Lahnstein (30 years).

Out of this practice, many arrangements for male and mixed choir have come about over the years. Among them are several settings that conductors often search for in vain: pieces a male choir and a mixed choir can sing together (SATB/TTBB) – and that are nevertheless self-contained, so each choir can also perform them entirely on its own.

Ask Kemp whether he composes, and you get a very precise answer: "No. I take something that already exists and, on that basis, create something new through my own invention and with the skills I acquired during my studies: I arrange."

That sounds more modest than it is. Whether a choir carries a piece after three rehearsals or is still fighting it after ten is almost never decided by the original — it is decided by the setting. Kemp's yardstick is thoroughly practical: as singable as possible. No range that pushes the tenors to their limit in every verse, no alto line that disappears into the piano part, no entries that only work with perfect pitch. You can tell his editions were written by someone who has to rehearse them afterwards.

It All Started with the Beatles

His entry into arranging came in the 1970s — and it was handwork. Kemp transcribed Beatles songs by ear, bar by bar. There were no lyrics to pull off the internet, no way to slow a recording down without the pitch sliding with it. So: listen, rewind, listen again, write it down.

In 1978, Edition Intro, which represented the Beatles' rights in Germany at the time, granted him the rights to typeset and perform their titles with his school choir. Among school choirs in Rhineland-Palatinate that was unusual back then: a choir singing these titles in quantity counted as decidedly modern. The handwritten sheets from those years still exist.

A By-Product — for Decades

Wolfgang Kemp insists on one point: arranging is not his profession. Writing was always a by-product of his teaching at a grammar school, and that is how it will stay. But that is precisely what explains how his settings come about — for a specific choir, with specific voices, and a specific concert date in the diary.

Since 1997 he has directed the male ensemble Unerhört on the Middle Rhine: twelve singers, all by now of a certain age, firmly rooted in the choral life between Koblenz and Osterspai. A good share of the male-voice settings in the shop was written for this ensemble — first needed, then written, then tried out.

Two Evenings That Stayed

In August 2017, Kemp's combined choirs stood with more than 100 singers on Ehrenbreitstein Fortress above Koblenz — behind the Cologne band Bläck Fööss. To close the concert, everyone sang "Unser Stammbaum" and "Du bess die Stadt" together, from settings Kemp had written and sent to the band in advance.

The second evening: 15 September 2023, Markuskirche in Braubach, closing concert of the town's cultural summer. The guest was the Leipzig vocal ensemble amarcord — world-famous among insiders, but considerably less known locally than the home team. So Unerhört was brought in for the supporting programme. It worked: the church was packed. A few days later the regional paper Rhein-Lahn-Zeitung called the evening's programme "remarkable", noting that at the end everyone sang together — Franz Schubert's "Im Abendrot".

Kemp is emphatic that he would not compare his group with the professionals. What remains is a full house, some valuable musical advice from the guests, and a long evening in the pub, eating, drinking and — of course — singing together.

The Editions in the Shop

For Male and Mixed Choir at the Same Time

Conductors looking for settings a male choir and a mixed choir can sing simultaneously rarely find one — and when they do, the two versions usually cannot be performed independently. Kemp has written two answers to that problem.

The first is Weihnachtswünsche – We wish you a merry Christmas, suited to December as a closing number for concert or service that fits on two pages. Both settings (SATB and TTBB) stand on their own, yet can be layered on top of each other. Available as an eight-part full score, as a version for SATB and as a version for TTBB.

The second is Jauchzet dem Herren, Psalm 100 SWV 36 by Heinrich Schütz. Originally set for two mixed choirs, Kemp adapts it for male choir and mixed choir; alternatively, the organ or a brass ensemble takes the second part. Available as a full score for SATB/TTBB and as the male-voice setting on its own; the instrumental parts in C, B♭ and F (for horn) are available separately. Listen to the mixed-choir version on YouTube

More arrangements for SATB/TTBB will follow.

Léo Delibes's Messe brève for Male Choir

Léo Delibes originally wrote his Messe brève for two equal voices and organ. Kemp's version for mixed choir appeared with Carus-Verlag back in 2005 and is still widely sung. Now comes the arrangement for male choir TTBB with piano or organ — with Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, O salutaris and Agnus Dei. He himself finds this version sounds even more compact than the mixed-voice one. Both the piano score and the matching choral score, which needs fewer pages, are available.

Advent and Christmas

Der Engel Gabriel vom Himmel kam goes back to a Basque song from the 13th or 14th century and tells Mary's story from the Annunciation to the birth in the manger. In England it is a fixture as "The Angel Gabriel" in Edgar Pettmann's setting. Kemp has written a singable German text for it — for mixed choir and for male choir, one page each. Listen to the mixed-choir version on YouTube

For the Church Service

Nun danket alle Gott, after Johann Crüger and Martin Rinckart, is set festively, with a descant in the third verse. The choir can perform it alone or together with organ and congregation — the hymn appears in both the Catholic and the Protestant hymnal. Well suited to anniversaries, weddings and high feast days.

How the Music Reaches Your Choir

The route is the same as for every edition in the Chorilo Sheet Music Shop: you choose the right number of licences for your choir once. As soon as the purchase goes through, the music lands automatically in the digital choir folder of every singer — on every device, ready to use. No copying, no sending files around, no list of who received which booklet.

Browse all editions by Wolfgang Kemp →

More to Come

That is a start. Wolfgang Kemp is gradually releasing more little gems from his collection — not without first giving each of them a thorough revision. So it is worth looking in again from time to time.