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1975
Choral and Orchestral Conducting Techniques Thomas Iacono Colby College
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/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.
