Choral Conducting The Generosity Of Gesture – Paul Spicer

Thus, whether you are in rehearsal or concert you need to be in a position where you can be seen clearly by everyone. This may mean using a podium or plinth of some sort but make sure that you can see the eyes of everyone in front of you. It is the same principle as the driver of the heavy vehicle in front of you not being to see you unless you can see his mirrors.

The Arms The first thing to say is that, as choral conductors, we should never do anything, physically, that a singer would not do. This especially affects how you use your shoulders which should never rise – just as when a singer breathes, they do not lift their shoulders. So, you are going to use your arms from the ball and socket joint which goes into the shoulders. Just locate this as in right photograph.

Let your arm lie by your side and put your finger onto the point where the arm goes into the shoulder. Ball and socket joint. Now, lift the arm using the upper arm section, and gently rotate it so you get the feel of the joint. Raising the arm from the ball and socket joint. Next, let your arms lie limply by your sides. Now, lift them in a relaxed way, all of a piece, from that ball and socket joint, not overly bending at the elbows, but just having a bow-like shape.

Keep your palms facing up. Make a point of not lifting the shoulders as you lift your arms. The result may remind you of a priest welcoming a congregation. ‘Welcome’ gesture. Now lower your arms to your sides again, and then lift and repeat two or three times.

It is likely that as you do the lifting you may tense up initially.

Chapter One: Whys and Wherefores Chapter Two: Creating an Instrument Chapter Three: Preparing a Score Chapter Four: Interpretation Chapter Five: Gesture Chapter Six: Rehearsal Management Chapter Seven: Working with Orchestras Chapter Eight: Recording your Choir Chapter Nine: The Psychology of Pedagogy as a Conductor Chapter Ten: Concluding Afterword: a Stream of Consciousness Further Reading Index 1kitap1.com/en I Preface t is a curious thing that the United Kingdom, with its world-wide reputation for choral singing, had no formal choral conducting teaching at a musical institution before Patrick Russill and I, at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, respectively, instituted postgraduate Masters degree courses in the skill in 1997.

Patrick had started a Church Music course involving conducting ten years earlier, but the degrees focusing purely on choral conducting were coincidentally started in the same year. I had been brought into the RCM to conduct the Chamber Choir by the then Head of Vocal Studies, Neil Mackie, and rapidly came to the conclusion that a conducting course would be of real benefit to budding conductors wanting to learn the skill in a structured way, increase their knowledge of repertoire, and have the opportunity of trying out their new- found techniques and ideas on a good college choir.

After a number of years, having again been brought in to direct the Chamber Choir, this time by David Saint at the Birmingham Conservatoire (more recently, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), I set up a similar Masters course there, starting an additional chamber choir for the conducting students to work with (for ‘podium time’), and building on the successes of the RCM course by creating additional resources which included a programme of highly regarded recordings with the Chamber Choir giving the students experience of the processes involved in making professional recordings.

It is good to see how choral conducting is now widely taught in various institutions, and that organisations like the Association of British Choral Directors (ABCD) have carried the teaching of the skill forward with courses for beginners upwards. All this pioneering activity between Patrick and me was begun, on my side, because I so often witnessed people conducting choirs who had little or no idea of meaningful gesture, of how to make a choir use their voices well, and often had hopelessly incorrect signalling of which beat went where.

This would lead an orchestra either to laugh the conductor off the stage, or simply smile in bemusement, as a trumpeter (shall we say) with a hundred bars’ rest had no idea of where the first beat in a bar occurred.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a50ce3317a9f88b5
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 36,404,910 bytes (34.718 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 217
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 221.02 minutes
• Total Words: 44,204
• Total Characters: 253,979
• Average Words per Page: 203.71
• Average Characters per Page: 1170.41

Most Frequent Words

music (248), choir (243), need (116), time (109), singers (108), one (101), rehearsal (97), also (94), work (93), bar (88), way (87), conductor (81), choral (80), two (76), conducting (76), good (75), make (75), many (73), use (73), sound (73), much (73), first (71), point (71), singing (70), course (69), well (69), like (68), needs (68), really (66), important (66), part (65), chapter (64), vocal (64), note (62), feel (61), musical (60), often (60), beat (60), different (60), even (59), word (59), notes (59), conductors (58), get (57), choirs (57), sing (56), key (56), start (54), people (53), between (52), tone (51), want (51), exercise (50), simply (49), recording (48), group (48), another (48), points (47), always (46), gesture (45), see (45), parts (45), give (44), piece (43), next (43), therefore (41), now (40), especially (40), think (40), remember (40), right (40), speed (40), words (40), bach (39), repertoire (39), bars (39), take (39), performance (39), exercises (38), end (38), orchestra (37), movement (37), beats (36), voice (36), arm (36), new (35), professional (35), something (35), whole (35), almost (35), issues (35), come (35), possible (35), space (34), score (33), conduct (33), arms (33), instrument (32), number (32), sense (32).

PDF Download