Choral and Orchestral Conducting Techniques.pdf

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1975

Choral and Orchestral Conducting Techniques Thomas Iacono Colby College

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/seniorscholars Colby College theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed or downloaded from this site for the purposes of research and scholarship. Reproduction or distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the author. Recommended Citation Iacono, Thomas, "Choral and Orchestral Conducting Techniques" (1975). Senior Scholar Papers. Paper 305. http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/seniorscholars/305 This Senior Scholars Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Scholar Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. For more information, please contact [email protected].

/CHORAL AND ORCHESTRAL CONDUCTING TECHNIQUES/

By

THO

S J. IACONO

Submit ed On Partial ulfillment of the Requir of the Senior Scholars Program

COLBY COLLEGE

1975

ents

6

APPROVED BY,

TUTOR

,.0:

MUSIC

OLARS

lcono-l

In this final report on

he aspects of choral an

tral conducting I will divide the discussiun

orches­

Onto four a eas:

1) Score Read"ng, 2) Rehearsing, 3) Movement and Beat Patterns. 4)

ecessary Traits for the Condu tor.

discussion, i

Th"s w"ll be a general

layman's terms, of the work involved. not giving

attention to specific details and problems dea t with in speci­ fic works.

This paper is

istic repor

0

y ow

erely

to

experience in

serve as a sort of jo rnal­ earning this art.

Prac­

ti al exper"ence involving rehearsals and actually directing a chora

or orchestral group was limited during

he yea

of study.

owever, during January I worked w"th a choral group of Colby students rehearsing and ultimately performin o Songs apply

~

all~the

the way of

Spirituals.

a

This was a time when

rog a

of Ne-

I was able to

aspects of t e above four are s to my stud

n

ractical exper"ence.

Score Reading The first thOng a conductor must do when he se-ects a piece of

us"c or is handed a piece of music is to sit at the

piano an

lay t rough it.

A familiarity with the piece 's at

least accomplished in this way. simply reading the notes.

One must practice the sk"ll of

This involves. with a large s a e

orchestral work. being able at sight to read dOfferent clefs and" to transpose "nstruments of d"fferent keys. i y of

any vo"ces or parts make

play all the

"t

When the complex-

hysically impossib e to

otes. then special at ention is p °d to the main

line wher ver °t occurs.

Being able to readily recognize rhyth­

mic a d scale patt rns.faci itates the reading. In my ow

expe ience I found that I was too bogged down

Iacono-2 by the co

lexity of large scale works to be able to read them

w'th any speed.

Therefore I would have difficulty real'zing

'mportant lines.

So

began by reading through small r scale

works of the four-stave type such as the ear y Beethoven

Str:n~

Quartets, Schubert Trios. and four to eight pa t choral scores. This gave me a familiarity w'th read' g different clefs and I was able to read easier from reading a smaller number of

arts.

Gradually I worked through larger scale works for read'ng, such aSt

Barber's Adagio for Strings, Debussy's Prelude to the After­

noon of

&!:.

Faun,

Wagner's "Prelude" to Act I of Tristan und

Isolde, Haydn's Symphony #75, Beethoven's Symphony #3 (Eroica)

I

a d Tchaikovsky's Romeo an' Jul'et Fantasy-Overture (I have yet to tackle St avinsky's Le Sacre). (;

Gradually I

three important things in readingl transposing i strume

rea in

ecame better at

diffe ent c efs,

ts, and notic'ng the main line.

Once the fam'l"a ity with the piece is estab ished, seri­ ous analysis should then

e given to important aspects involved

in the music. such as the ha mon'c language, melodic construc­ tion, and "mportant rhyt ms. Thorough analysis of these elements "II give the conductor a c ear understanding of the composer's 'deas. intention, and style. clear understandin

When the conductor has gained a

of these eleme ts of the music, he may then

oceed to study the music for detai te IpO and

~er

such as dynamic markings:

changes; articulationr important themes, patter s

a d motives;

impo tant entrances and cut-offs for voices or

instru entsj

and proper

were studied in thi kovsky'

hrasings.

The orchestral scores that

de a'l were Haydn's Symp ony #75 and Tchai­

Ho eo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture.

These scores were

Iacono-J read. and analyzed in the sions wit this

During the weekly ses­

y tutor, Professor R'. practice an

ork took plac

con uctir usin

ove manner.

0

discussio. of

Tlese sessir s were also use

hese pieces.

I would

fo

the

ractice the conducting

a recording or with Prof'ssor Re play'ng pas ages on the

piano.

This was our way of "r hea sing" the m sic.

In addition

to learning the appropriate condu t' g movements, we wou d dis­ cuss how the rehearsal of

ertain passage

should be carried out and what woul Hal

each semester was devote

0

two works wh' ract'ce; but lace.

to

with an orchestra

need special attent'on. horoughly studying these

i volved the reading.analyzi 0

,and conducting

actual rehearsal time with an

Only when one has all these deta'ls

, mly in his gap, is he able to apply

i

0

or hest

took

a piece of mus'c own 'nterpretation

through knowing t e compose's intentions and the stye of the per'od.

Knowledge of th s

historical periods in

co~cerns

came from my study of the

usic to which t ese pieces pe tained.

It also "nvolved discussing these aspects with my tutor. the conductor is

ow

eady to rehearse.

Rehearsing Rehearsals should be panned ahead of time. always con­ sider "ng the time available for work to be ac ompl'shed. plete efficie cy should be stdved for Every minute playe

5

Com­

n the use of th's time.

f rehearsal ti e is valuable. e pec'ally if the

are being paid, so that a group may

e thoroughly pre­

pared for top performance at the time of public presentation. Again. the conductor must know the mu ic c6mpletely so that he can answer all quest"ons an

know when thing

a e going wrong

Iacono-4 (and

'ght).

In the first rehearsal of a p'ece, the g oup

should read through the entire piece or large section to ga'n the'r own familiarity with the exercise in sight reading.

wor~which

also serves as a good

por a c oral group, warm-up exercis­

es are important for attaining good balance, listen'ng to pitch and producing overall good tone. thing to start off w'th icular key the

I

Por an orchestra, a good

ight be playing the sca e of the par­

iece is written in,

check balance and tuning in thi

way.

The

0

chestra here can

These practic shave

been observed practices, either through my own association in musical groups or by observing experienced conductors. A ter the initial run-through. note and/or rhyth

..

tions can then be made.

The conductor should from the start,

insist on accurate pronunciation and skillful from his group.

He should ind'cate clea,

phrasing, correcting mistakes i hould strive fo balan e.

correc­

articulation

ogical musical

b eathing or bowing.

And he

attaining t e group's proper proportion and

Sect'onal rehearsal, separate from the main rehears­

als are sometimes necessary for particularly difficult sections and will aid a certain segment of the group to tion without

osing time for the other players.

has been introduced to a piece and is they should watch the conductor

u'te

lear~

the'r s c­

Once the group

amil"ar w'th it.

ore and pay attention to the

subtleties of phras'ng and art'culat'on in the music and the conductor's direction. In my own experience with

andling a group, I spent the

month of January working w'th twenty-two students forming a c oral group.

We prepared a program of Negro Songs and Sp'rit­

Iacono-5

uals.

We rehearsed two hours a day, five days a week for fo r

weeks.

During this time I realized the value of rehearsal time

and was able to apply the previous state e ts of rehearsals to those sessions.

Much time can be wasted "f attendence is low

and if parts aren't being learned.

found that there was too

much t' e being spent lea n ng words, notes, and proper rhythms. A c uple of days were spent in sectional rehearsal so that p rts could be concent ated on and learned.

One of the major d"f "­

culties was articulating the proper rhythms. many of which were syncopated.

T

facilitate the learning of these rhythms, the

ract"ce of clapping and single-syllable verbalizat" on was em­ oyed.

Eventua ly th

achieve~.

~

Q

proper notes, words and rhythms were

then were ready to face our b"ggest problem:

putting forth the energy to capture the proper "spirit" and feeling weeks

0

these hi hly spirited songs.

0

During the last two

rehearsals, I stressed learning the music by memory

and the fact that the music would only come alive if the amount o

energy necessary

as put into it.

The rehearsals began to

show an "mprovement when the singers were able to watch me with more at ention.

ithout their heads buried in the music, there

was a def"nite response from At the end muc

0

e to the group and vice versa.

the month, the f"nal

erformance was given with

succes , the necessary e ergy as well as the technical re­

quirements being present.

This

erfor ance also marked my

lic presentation in the Senior Scholars Program.

(see

ub­

rogram

attached--Appendix A) ovement and

~

Patterns

Most of the time dur"ng the year was spent in

racticing

Iacono-6 beat patterns and conducting gestures to portray eve y character of the beat. po'nt

The basic beat patterns must be learned to the ­

reflex act'on so that attent'on can be given to othe

0

things wh'ch call for it, such as cuing and dynamic indications. Within a s ecific

pattern like the four-beat pa tern are

bea~

types of beat'ng wh'ch

~onvey

the character of the beat. such as

the four- eat legato or four-beat staccato.

Much of the first

semeste 's work involved becoming thououghly familiar with these basic beat patterns and types of most

seful text on this sUbject

ducting.

This p actice was late

of scores studied for al

patterns~

s

The c earest and

ax Rudolf's Grammar of Con­

---

applied to conducting works

the mbvements of cuing, dynamics, an

n cuing p ayers or singers. the conductor must always be ahead at least one beat of the entrance cue.

n givin

the

Dynamics are indicated s'mply in the size of the beat, the

beat size changing in correspondence with the iano. a small beat;

forte, a large beat.

ynamic change-­

The conductor must

be sure that all his movements are precise, efficient, and clearly understood.

The beat must clearly reflect the tempo,

character. and dynamics of the music. bad as not enough direction.

The

Excess motion is just as

d~rection

and beat must alway

come from the center of the body, directing right in front

0

the body and fac'ng the group being directed at the pa ticular t'me.

WhOle

conductin~

a piece of music the c nductor must con­

stantly be ahead of himself and the p ayers, knowing ahead of time what is coming so that he may be ready with the proper di­ rection When they have to play. lay or sing off th

When the group is supposed to

beat, it is essential only to give a clear

Iacono-7 indication of the bea off-beat playing. recise.

itself, allowing the players to do their

Cut-offs and attacks must always be clear and

At the beginning of any song or piece. the conductor

must have the entire group ready and at attention. then a clear u - eat must be given to begin the music.

Watching oneself in

front of a mirror will help the conductor see, in his private practice. how clear he

s in his move ents.

stressed that every movement players.

A conductor

fi.e fo

his

wn

ma~"

us

b

Again, it must be

clear and

nderstood by the

develop his own "free" style which is

roup if they understand him in

hat way.

ut

if a conductor 's to get up in front of any group, he should know t ese basics discussed. so that he may be understood by any group. Traits Necessary I will conclude this report by l'stin necessary volvin

the conductor:

0

the general traits

a sound m s·cal scholarship 'n­

a thorough knowledge of theory, harmony, conterpoint,

orches ration, and compos·tion. and a knowledge of the history of mus'c, 'ts period and style characterist'cs; ability as a p"an'st and ing voice;

direction;

a sense of humor: ability;

lor an intelligent command of the sing­

sensitivity to music;

clear. precis

a good ear;

a cornman

ima inationr

of all movements in

ra port

ith performers;

poise, based on solid knowledge and musical

abi ity to make

0

eself unde stood;

last. but by no means least, patience.

enthusiasm;

and

Appendix B--Texts used

Bamberger, Carl,ed. Hill Book Co.,

The Conductor's Art.

~ew

19b5.

avison, Archibald T. Choral Conducting. Harvard University P ess, 1950.

C~~b~idge,

Decker, Ha 01 Ao and Herford, Jul"us, eds. ~ Symposium. Englewood C i s , N. J., Inc •• 197). Green, G"nnette. 196). Rudolf, Max. 1950 0

Modern Conducting.

Mass .•

Choral Conducting. Pre tice- Ha

ew Yo ks

The Gram ar of Conducting.

Yorks McGraw-

Random House,

New York:

G. Sch·rmer.