Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Senior Scholar Papers Student Research 1975 Choral and Orchestral Conducting Techniques Thomas Iacono Colby College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/seniorscholars Part of the Music Education Commons, and the Music Performance Commons 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 (Open Access) 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 mfkelly@colby.edu.
/CHORAL AND ORCHESTRAL CONDUCTING TECHNIQUES/ By THO S J. IACONO Submit ed On Partial ulfillment of the Requir of the Senior Scholars Program ents COLBY COLLEGE 1975
6 APPROVED BY, TUTOR 0:,. MUSIC OLARS
lcono-l In this final report on he aspects of choral an orchestral conducting I will divide the discussiun Onto four a eas: 1) Score Read"ng, 2) Rehearsing, 3) Movement and Beat Patterns. 4) ecessary Traits for the Condu tor. Th"s w"ll be a general discussion, i layman's terms, of the work involved. not giving attention to specific details and problems dea t with in specific works. This paper is erely to serve as a sort of jo rnalistic repor 0 y ow experience in earning this art. Practi 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 a rog a of Neo Songs ~ Spirituals. This was a time when I was able to apply all~the aspects of t e above four are s to my stud the way of ractical exper"ence. Score Reading The first thong a conductor must do when he se-ects a n 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. One must practice the sk"ll of simply reading the notes. 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. When the complexi y of any vo"ces or parts make "t hysically impossib e to play all the otes. then special at ention is p d to the main line wher ver t occurs. Being able to readily recognize rhythmic 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 Afternoon 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 ecame better at (; three important things in readingl rea in diffe ent c efs, transposing i strume ts, and notic'ng the main line. Once the fam'l"a ity with the piece is estab ished, serious analysis should then e given to important aspects involved in the music. such as the ha mon'c language, melodic construction, 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. When the conductor has gained a clear understandin of these eleme ts of the music, he may then oceed to study the music for detai such as dynamic markings: te IpO and ~er changes; articulationr important themes, patter s a d motives; impo tant entrances and cut-offs for voices or instru entsj and proper hrasings. The orchestral scores that were studied in thi de a'l were Haydn's Symp ony #75 and Tchaikovsky' Ho eo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture. These scores were
Iacono-J read. and analyzed in the ove manner. During the weekly sessions wit y tutor, Professor R'. practice an discussio. of this ork took plac Tlese sessir s were also use fo the con uctir 0 hese pieces. I would ractice the conducting usin 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 discuss how the rehearsal of ertain passage with an orchestra should be carried out and what woul need special attent'on. Hal 0 each semester was devote to horoughly studying these two works wh' i volved the reading.analyzi,and conducting ract'ce; but 0 actual rehearsal time with an or hest took lace. Only when one has all these deta'ls 0 a piece of mus'c, mly in his gap, is he able to apply i own 'nterpretation through knowing t e compose's intentions and the stye of the per'od. Knowledge of th s co~cerns came from my study of the historical periods in usic to which t ese pieces pe tained. It also "nvolved discussing these aspects with my tutor. the conductor is eady to rehearse. Rehearsing ow Rehearsals should be panned ahead of time. always consider "ng the time available for work to be ac ompl'shed. Complete efficie cy should be stdved for n the use of th's time. Every minute f rehearsal ti e is valuable. e pec'ally if the playe 5 are being paid, so that a group may e thoroughly prepared 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 wor~which also serves as a good exercise in sight reading. por a c oral group, warm-up exercises are important for attaining good balance, listen'ng to pitch and producing overall good tone. Por an orchestra, a good thing to start off w'th I ight be playing the sca e of the paricular key the iece is written in, The 0 chestra here can check balance and tuning in thi way. 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 corrections can then be made. The conductor should from the start, insist on accurate pronunciation and skillful articulation from his group. He should ind'cate clea, ogical musical phrasing, correcting mistakes i b eathing or bowing. And he hould strive fo attaining t e group's proper proportion and balan e. Sect'onal rehearsal, separate from the main rehearsals are sometimes necessary for particularly difficult sections and will aid a certain segment of the group to lear~ the'r s c tion without osing time for the other players. Once the group has been introduced to a piece and is u'te amil"ar w'th it. they should watch the conductor 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 emoyed. Eventua ly th Q proper notes, words and rhythms were achieve~. ~ then were ready to face our b"ggest problem: putting forth the energy to capture the proper "spirit" and feeling 0 these hi hly spirited songs. During the last two weeks 0 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 e to the group and vice versa. At the end 0 the month, the f"nal erformance was given with muc succes, the necessary e ergy as well as the technical requirements being present. This erfor ance also marked my ublic presentation in the Senior Scholars Program. (see 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. The basic beat patterns must be learned to the po'nt 0 reflex act'on so that attent'on can be given to othe things wh'ch call for it, such as cuing and dynamic indications. Within a s ecific bea~ pattern like the four-beat pa tern are 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 patterns~ The c earest and --- most seful text on this subject s ax Rudolf's Grammar of Conducting. This p actice was late applied to conducting works of scores studied for al 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 n givin the cue. Dynamics are indicated s'mply in the size of the beat, the beat size changing in correspondence with the ynamic change- iano. a small beat; forte, a large beat. 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. Excess motion is just as bad as not enough direction. The 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 constantly be ahead of himself and the p ayers, knowing ahead of time what is coming so that he may be ready with the proper direction When they have to play. When the group is supposed to lay or sing off th beat, it is essential only to give a clear
Iacono-7 indication of the bea itself, allowing the players to do their off-beat playing. Cut-offs and attacks must always be clear and recise. 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. Again, it must be stressed that every movement us b clear and nderstood by the players. A conductor ma~" develop his own "free" style which is fi.e fo his wn 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 the general traits necessary 0 the conductor: a sound m s cal scholarship 'nvolvin 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; a good ear; ability as a p"an'st and lor an intelligent command of the singing voice; sensitivity to music; a cornman of all movements in clear. precis direction; ima inationr ra port ith performers; a sense of humor: poise, based on solid knowledge and musical ability; abi ity to make 0 eself unde stood; enthusiasm; and last. but by no means least, patience.
Appendix B--Texts used Bamberger, Carl,ed. The Conductor's Art. ~ew Yorks McGraw- Hill Book Co., 19b5. avison, Archibald T. Choral Conducting. C~~b~idge, Mass. Harvard University P ess, 1950. Decker, Ha 01 Ao and Herford, Jul"us, eds. Choral Conducting. ~ Symposium. Englewood Cis, N. J., Pre tice- Ha Inc 197). Green, G"nnette. Modern Conducting. ew Yo ks Random House, 196). Rudolf, Max. The Gram ar of Conducting. New York: G. Sch rmer. 1950 0