Requirements for the Unaccompanied Song.
The song should be from one of these categories: please note: pop songs, or musical theatre songs are not acceptable.
- A song from a Shakespeare play
(examples: ‘The Willow Song’ from Othello, ‘What shall he have who killed the deer’ from As You Like it, ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ from Cymbeline, or ‘When that I was and a little tiny boy’ from Twelfth Night. Any setting from any period.) - The National Anthem
- Traditional folk song
(examples: ‘Summer is icumen in’, ‘Waly, Waly’, ‘She moves through the fair’, ‘Down by the Sally Garden’) - Hymn/Spiritual
(examples: ‘Jerusalem‘, ‘For those in peril on the sea‘, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross‘, ‘Swing low sweet chariot‘, ‘Amazing Grace‘) - Traditional Lullaby
(examples: ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star‘ or ‘Hush little baby‘)
Choice of Songs regularly used in Plays.
We are asking candidates to think about the sort of songs that regularly occur in plays, even though the piece does not count as a musical. Shakespeare plays (and those of his contemporaries) often include songs and dances, especially at the end of the comedies.
All the actors in Dear England are required to sing the National Anthem, while in plays such as Jezz Butterworth’s Jerusalem, Blake’s anthem is crucial to the meaning of the piece, and in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock several of the characters sing at a social gathering.
Basic singing should be one of the actor’s skills, like an ability to move well, fight, fence or drive a car, which is why this optional category has been included in the competition. We are not looking for the technique of a trained singer, but rather the ability to communicate and engage through melody.
Although it says ‘Unaccompanied song’ if a candidate can accompany themselves either on the piano, or their own guitar, harp etc,
I should like to see that included too. This might mean just calling it a song prize, why not?
______________________
Marilyn Cutts, 2026 CAA Competition Coordinator & WordSong trustee.
