Basic Conducting Techniques, Seventh Edition, provides a clear and intelligible introduction to the art of conducting an ensemble. Over the course of fourteen chapters, the authors explicate the elements of conducting, supplementing their teachings with an extensive selection of musical examples from the classical repertoire. Practical and innovative, clear and approachable, this text illuminates the essential skills a beginning conductor should develop to lead and rehearse a performing group.
This new edition features:
• chapters rewritten and redesigned to highlight important information and show connections between different sections.
• a new chapter on expressive conducting, consisting of expanded and updated content.
• select full scores in the “Musical Excerpts” section.
• excerpts with transpositions for each chapter, allowing easy access for class performance.
• a new companion website, which includes the scores and transpositions for all musical excerpts, audio recordings of the excerpts, and demonstration videos modeling specific techniques for each chapter.
With the beginning conductor in mind, this hands-on, competency-centered approach is appropriate for mixed classes of choral and instrumental music majors, providing indispensable versatility for students and practicing conductors alike. Rooted in decades of teaching and conducting experience, Basic Conducting Techniques, Seventh Edition, is the essential guide to the principles of conducting.
Joseph A. Labuta is Professor Emeritus of Music and former Director of Music Education at Wayne State University. He is the author of Teaching Musicianship in the High School Band and Music Education: Historical Contexts and Perspectives
Wendy K. Matthews is Assistant Professor of Music and Instrumental Music Education at Wayne State University. She has published in numerous journals, including the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, International Journal of Music Education, and the Journal of Band Research
Basic Conducting Techniques
Seventh Edition
Joseph A. Labuta
Wayne State University
Wendy K. Matthews
Wayne State University
Seventh edition published 2018 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
The rights of Joseph A. Labuta and Wendy K. Matthews to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Prentice Hall 1982
Sixth edition published by Prentice Hall 2009
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Labuta, Joseph A., author. | Matthews, Wendy K., author.
Title: Basic conducting techniques / Joseph A. Labuta, Wendy K. Matthews.
Description: Seventh edition. | New York ; London : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017007687 (print) | LCCN 2017008893 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138656994 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138656987 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315621593 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Conducting.
Classification: LCC MT85 .L24 2017 (print) | LCC MT85 (ebook) | DDC 781.45--dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2017007687
ISBN: 978-1-138-65699-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-65698-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62159-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Frutiger by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Editor: Genevieve Aoki
Editorial Assistant: Peter Sheehy
Production Manager: Mhairi Bennett
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Copy Editor: Nikky Twyman
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Cover Designer: Mat Willis
Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/labuta
Preface
Basic Conducting Techniques is a practical and innovative textbook that provides sound, timetested procedures and materials for the beginning conductor. Students and instructors have responded enthusiastically to this hands-on, conductor-competency approach. The conducting competencies (or objectives) included in this book were derived from an analysis of the essential skills a beginning conductor should develop to lead and rehearse a performing group. This text is appropriate for mixed classes of choral and instrumental music majors. It contains musical excerpts, complete scores, and rehearsal techniques for both instrumental and choral groups. Thus, it introduces instrumental conducting to prospective choral directors and choral conducting to prospective instrumental directors. Such versatility can be a great advantage when pursuing music teaching positions. The book also provides an excellent review of conducting techniques for graduate students and practicing conductors.
Each chapter in Parts I and II contains clearly stated competencies, actual conducting activities to support student learning, and self-evaluation. The text features a broad repertory of musical excerpts and scores, which illustrate the conducting and rehearsal problems that students must solve to develop conducting skills. Instructions above each excerpt guide students’ technical development and musical interpretation. Since most excerpts are reduced to a four-part score format, students can work with an ensemble of class members and can practice conducting skills and rehearsal techniques at each class meeting. Thus, the book meets several major needs for teaching conducting in the classroom setting. The student can study the text material and scores and conduct a live performing group using authentic music.
The seventh edition contains several new and expanded features to facilitate use of text material. Full scores have been added to Part III, Chapter 12 for students to analyze and conduct. The instructions preceding the excerpts in Part III have been expanded and clarified to guide students’ practice. These instructions encourage students to use conducting techniques that arise in the musical excerpt in addition to the specific technical focus of the chapter they are studying. Additionally, the “Technical Mastery” section of Part III has been revised with longer and more complete excerpts to challenge students and provide extra incentive. These excerpts can be used by the instructor to evaluate student progress and assign extra credit.
A new companion website contains media files of individual transposed parts, audio examples, and full scores of the instrumental excerpts located in Part III of the text. The website also includes model demonstrations of the conducting techniques presented in Part I. All are keyed into the text.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of several conductors and colleagues who have contributed significantly to this edition as well as previous editions. Douglas Bianchi, Associate Professor and Director of Bands, Wayne State University, is a distinguished conductor of orchestras and bands in Southeast Michigan. Abigail Butler, Associate Professor, Vocal Music Education, Wayne State University, is an outstanding music educator, conductor, and vocalist. Norah Duncan IV, Professor of Organ and Church Music and Department Chair, Wayne State University, is an esteemed choral conductor, organ recitalist, and composer.
A big thank you to Kelly Gottesman of Kelly Gottesman Media Services for his exceptional work remastering, editing, and updating the conducting video from the second edition. His creativity, insight, and technical expertise have added to the video presentations, greatly benefiting both teacher and student.
Special thanks to Richard Schoenfeldt, TeL Systems/Thalner Electronic Labs, for his professionalism, technical knowledge, and skill. He spent many hours developing the media files for the companion website and listening to our requests and suggestions. We extend appreciation to Joshua Duchan, Music History, and Emery Stevens, Voice Faculty, of Wayne State University for editorial suggestions on the manuscript. To Mary Labuta, a warm thank you for her administrative assistance in all aspects of the book.
And, as always, thanks to our spouses Mary Labuta and Ray Matthews for their continuing support of this project.
Joseph A. LAbutA Wayne State University
Wendy K. MAttheWs Wayne State University
Introduction
To the Instructor
As a teacher of conducting, you can benefit most from this textbook by becoming familiar with its unique features and varied potentials for use. These introductory sections enumerate the book’s salient points, discuss the notion of competency-based learning, and recommend instructional approaches for the use of the textbook material and companion website.
Features of this Textbook
• This book’s first innovative feature is the repertory it provides for the conducting class. Part III consists of carefully selected examples from the musical literature that illustrate the conducting problems students must solve to develop conducting skills. Since students must typically conduct other class members to gain practical experience with a live performing group, these examples from the standard Western literature are essential components in the classroom context. The selected excerpts are reduced to four parts to accommodate classes with limited instrumentation with transposed parts provided in the companion website for ease of use. Most excerpts can be played by a quartet from the same family of instruments, by a heterogeneous quartet, by the entire class, or by a piano with or without additional instruments. The student must solve problems of balance in such varied situations, perhaps designating the instrumentation desired. A few excerpts make use of more than four parts to approximate original sonorities, and the companion website provides a full orchestra score for all instrumental excerpts. However, choral excerpts are limited to four-part, SATB format. If a band, an orchestra, or a chorus is available, or if the composition of the class is adequate, students may also study and conduct the complete, full scores represented by selected excerpts.
• A second unique feature of this book is the use of student competencies. “Competence” refers to the ability to do something. The conducting competencies define precisely what a beginning conductor must demonstrate to complete the course. Appendix A consists of a complete listing of the competencies used in this book, derived through an analysis of the essential skills a beginning conductor should develop to lead and rehearse a performing group. Each competency is the learning outcome the student must demonstrate and the conducting problem he or she must solve. The stated competencies guide student learning and provide a sound basis for instruction and evaluation.
• A third important feature is the built-in provision for continuing student evaluation. The book supplies tests and evaluative criteria, including rating scales, checklists, and analytical guides. Each section contains a self-evaluation test with a checklist for student evaluation, which can be used to inform students of their progress. The video recorder is an important tool for this evaluation and for instruction. However, if no video equipment is available, faculty or peers can administer and evaluate the tests. The final examination is in the form of a “Conducting Competence Rating Scale,” designed to evaluate all the stated competencies. The rating scale, located in Appendix B, should be used frequently toward the end of the course sequence.
• A fourth feature is the organization of the textbook for student learning. Each chapter is in a modular format, where each module contains learning objectives, instruction, practice activities, and testing procedures. Students can work through the book systematically, chapter by
chapter, while the instructor has unrestricted flexibility in its use. Since essential prerequisite knowledge and skills are acquired in the first three chapters, instructor and student can decide on any sequence of the later chapters to accommodate individual needs. For example, the instructor may utilize a cyclic approach, returning students to a chapter for remedial work or for mastering needed competencies.
• The fifth distinctive feature of this book relates to the problem-solving nature of conducting. Regardless of the sequence of chapters a student may follow, learning is best initiated and facilitated by grappling with the conducting problems encountered in the music to be performed. Therefore, the musical score is a foundational element of this book, presenting the problems the conductor must solve to build competency. This problem-centered approach helps avoid the atomization and mechanization of learning that is always a potential danger with the modular format. The complex skills acquired by a master conductor are certainly more than the sum of their parts. The music in Part III represents the synthesis or “gestalt” within which conducting problems are found, whereas the modular organization of the chapters— where each part can be examined, practiced, and drilled out of context, if necessary—provides the analysis phase of the learning process to solve the conducting problems.
Developing Conception and Skills of Execution
Solving conducting problems develops conducting skills. Conducting problems are essentially of two types: those of conception and those of execution.
Conception refers to the conductor’s inner hearing, or “audiation,” of the correct performance. Students gain a conception of the music through score study and listening to performances. This inner hearing of the score is the only sound basis for interpreting music and for developing conducting/rehearsal technique. According to the late Bruno Walter, one of the world’s greatest orchestral conductors, a most important aim of studying the score is the gradual acquisition of a distinct, inner “sound image” or “sound ideal”; this will establish itself in the ear of the conductor as a criterion that exerts a guiding and controlling influence on his or her practical music making.1 Thus, the physical action patterns that the student is attempting to learn are controlled and guided by the desired musical result. This book helps the instructor evaluate the student’s knowledge of the score by providing checklists and other observational techniques, such as having the student sing through each part, arpeggiate the harmony, identify errors, write score analyses, play the score on the piano, and give correct transpositions. The companion website provides aural examples of the excerpts to facilitate this process.
Execution refers to the array of readable conducting gestures that student conductors must develop, representing appropriate attacks and releases, tempo, meter, style, dynamics, balance, cuing, accentuation, phrasing, and interpretation. Learners must be able to rehearse by detecting and correcting errors of performance. They acquire conducting and rehearsal competencies most efficiently by solving the problems contained in the music, not by practicing techniques in isolation. Thus, the musical excerpts in this book were chosen to emphasize particular technical or interpretive problems, and the preparation, rehearsal, and performance of these scores represent the principal barriers to be overcome for learning.
Since the aural conception described above guides development, the conducting techniques are never ends in themselves but means to achieve expressive performance. Technical skill is not separated from actual music, and therefore students should perceive the relationship between manual technique and the desired musical outcome.
Competency-Based Curriculum
The chapters of this competency-based textbook provide a systematic presentation of basic conducting skills in modular format. Competency-based programs begin with the specification or definition of what constitutes competence in a given field or profession. A competency curriculum consists of three principal components: the explicit statement of the competencies that students
must demonstrate, the specification of criteria for assessing students’ mastery of competencies, and the provision of alternative learning activities presented in modular format to facilitate student attainment and demonstration of the competencies. In the competency approach, students accept responsibility for learning, that is, for achieving the competencies at a criterion level. They compile evidence that they have attained competence through demonstrations, video performance, checklists, rating scales, portfolios, and certification by the faculty. Appendix A contains a complete listing of the conducting competencies presented in this book.
Instructional Approaches
The content is arranged in a logical, class-tested sequence, which students may progress through sequentially. Working through the chapters in succession is a thorough pedagogical approach suited to the learning styles of most students. Instructors may, however, prefer to start with the musical excerpts in Part III and then demonstrate techniques, explain problems, evaluate performance, and generally teach any way they wish. Since the competency-based format is directed primarily to students and guided by the instructor, the chapters promote self-teaching and selfpaced learning, if students use them for supplemental study. In this sense, the textual materials in Parts I and II and the companion website support instruction. A third approach is to begin study with the analysis and score preparation chapters in Part II, in which students thoroughly analyze and prepare music before they conduct it.
Regardless of the instructional approach you choose, there should always be an interplay among the textual content of Parts I and II and the musical excerpts in Part III, as well as an interplay among individual chapters; this way, students can gain most from the book. Our intention is not to exclude the techniques encountered in later chapters from the music conducted in earlier chapters. For example, from the start, students should attempt conducting various styles or using the left hand independently for expression while they concentrate on the development and refinement of the specific conducting skills found in whichever chapter they are studying. To attain this kind of integrated learning, each excerpt is preceded by precise instructions that challenge students to attempt conducting techniques as they arise in the music, often before the techniques become the specific focus of a later chapter. The “Technical Mastery” and full-score Chapter 12 sections in Part III offer further challenges for students to analyze and prepare scores and rehearse the music in class. The longer excerpts provide the instructor with musical examples to evaluate students throughout the term and for final examinations.
Transposed parts are found on the companion website; they can be downloaded by students as needed.
Video Performances and Evaluation
Video is a powerful teaching tool and indispensable feedback device for the conducting class. The following suggestions facilitate video use with the checklists in each chapter, with the culminating rating scale in Appendix B, and with less structured, informal viewing situations.
After the first recording session, let students view their video performance and make informal comments about what they see without using a checklist. This helps them overcome the “cosmetic effect,” since they are often distracted initially by personal perceptions such as “I need to lose weight,” “I should stand up tall,” and so forth. Although they are not required to use a checklist, the instructor’s comments can include relevant items from the checklist and lead to its use by the students.
Informal viewing often produces dramatic and instantaneous results. Numerous examples can be cited, but one author particularly remembers a tall, slender, long-armed student who gesticulated like a wounded windmill. When speaking to him on several occasions about his extra-large beats, I explained that his long arms gave him an unusual reach not necessary for clear, concise conducting, and I suggested he confine his beats to a square defined by his shoulders, waist, and head. But nothing I said changed his widely extended conducting style. When he viewed his first
video performance, he was shocked. He explained he did not realize his patterns were so large; he really thought he had made his beats much smaller. He corrected this fault immediately—and permanently.
Thus, video recording corrects slouchers, foot stompers, weavers, dancers, bobbers, and others displaying distractive mannerisms. Videos identify the score-bound students who gain leadership and expression with improved eye contact. It proves to many students that the performing group is not always behind the beat; only that their point of beat is not clear, or they do not know where their beat is actually located.
Turning off the sound completely is also revealing. Students can observe their conducting gestures as they sing along with the score and check preparatory beats, steady tempos, beat patterns, eye contact, leadership, and so forth. The most revealing technique requires a student conductor and the class to perform the music while following the student’s video performance on a large monitor with the sound turned off. Thus, students perform under their own direction with immediate feedback about their effectiveness as conductors. If they followed the group instead of leading it, or if they hesitated at any time, the results will be apparent. If they ever abdicated leadership it will show.
Videos help improve preparatory beats. Preparations are often weak, out of tempo, or even omitted by the novice. Clear preparatory beats are imperative at the beginning and also at any resumption of music within the composition. The fermata is a good illustration: many students cannot seem to grasp the necessity of a preparatory gesture after a fermata. The effect of the omission is graphically portrayed on the video.
Students can hear performance errors missed while on the podium. While watching and listening instead of conducting, they can concentrate on the types of ensemble problems and mistakes they should have heard and corrected. The student can use audio recordings each day in class for this purpose.
Students gain direction and motivation from the checklists, rating scales, and analytical guides developed for this book. Structured viewing of videos focuses their attention on the important conducting skills they must develop. The “Self-Evaluations” at the end of each chapter list the techniques to be mastered in that module and define exactly what is expected of the student. The video simply records the performance so that students and instructor can assess the extent to which conducting skills have been attained. From the students’ rehearsal of the group, the instructor can infer the extent of practical score preparation.
The “Conductor Competence Rating Scale,” located in Appendix B, was developed to rate overall skill attainment. It should be used extensively with an accompanying video toward the end of the course sequence.
Teacher as Model
From the earliest days of apprenticeship training to modern classroom instruction, we know that modeling is the most efficient method of skill development. The conductor/teacher is always a critical ingredient in the teaching/learning process. The instructor demonstrates new conducting techniques and then the student attempts them, refines the action patterns through practice, and makes them his or her own. In a large-class setting, the entire class can conduct in unison as a piano or solo instrument performs the music. By using only the melodic line of excerpts in earlier chapters, students can concentrate on patterns of conducting as demonstrated by the instructor. Score reading progresses from single line to condensed score to full score. We have found it useful for all students to conduct the assigned excerpts in unison to establish the appropriate gestures before conducting the performing group. It is also effective to have a well-prepared student, after he or she has conducted an excerpt in class with an exemplary performance, lead the rest of the class through such a unison exercise while the piano plays the excerpt. Of course, the instructor is always there to lead the class when the techniques to be mastered are more difficult.
If you wish to allow students more latitude, you can invoke the following class rule: “If it works, it’s right.” Of course, if the student’s attempt does not work, you are there to demonstrate a way
that does. Ultimately, you are the model, showing students the most effective method for achieving the desired musical result.
Companion Website
A companion website accompanies the textbook to supplement the written text for study, performance and an enriched learning experience. All music excerpts are contained in each chapter folder—Chapters 1 through 11, plus the “Technical Mastery” section. Within each chapter you will find audio files, part files, and video files. Access the Basic Conducting Techniques, Seventh Edition website at www.routledge.com/cw/labuta
Audio Files
The audio examples provide the beginning conductor with an aural representation of every musical excerpt in the book. They present preliminary models for students to use as first steps toward conducting, rehearsing, and interpreting music. Although they can help establish an aural concept of the score, the audio examples may be slightly different from the notated excerpts in dynamics, style, or accustomed interpretation. Thus, the student must do more than imitate them as a model performance; score study is essential to establish a valid aural concept. A conductor must first discover, to the best of his or her ability, the composer’s intention—the expression or meaning of the music. Individual musicianship and personal interpretation are encouraged as long as the student can demonstrate the chapters’ competencies.
Scores and Part Files
Individual and transposed parts can be downloaded directly to a computer, tablet, or smartphone from the website that accompanies this edition.
The PDF part files are provided for classroom performance. The parts include all instruments from a standard full orchestra score. Transposed parts minimize music-reading errors and save rehearsal time in classes of mixed instrumentation so that instruction can focus on the specific conducting techniques to be mastered.
Each excerpt file has transposed parts that can be printed from any PDF reader. The students or the instructor can print instrument parts for the required classroom instrumentation by opening the specific excerpt and choosing to print all the parts or selecting only the individual parts needed. Additionally, by using the file labeled “All,” the instructor (or a student) can open all instrumental parts for a complete chapter. This allows the user to print all parts in the chapter by opening only one file.
In the four-stave excerpts in the book, each staff represents soprano (part 1), alto (part 2), tenor (part 3), or bass (part 4) voicings. The following chart indicates the part assigned to each instrument.
SopranoAltoTenorBass
Flute 1Flute 2Tenor SaxTuba
OboeClarinet 2Horn 2Cello
Clarinet 1Alto SaxTromboneBass
Trumpet 1 Horn 1ViolaBass Clarinet
Violin 1 Trumpet 2
Violin 2
The instrument part files are available only for the instrumental excerpts. The choral excerpts are complete in the book.
The instrument files also provide a full orchestra score of each excerpt to help students develop the skill of score reading and anticipating what may be a daunting experience when later facing
a complete full score. Students can download the excerpts with the full score to familiarize themselves with score structure and organization before studying and using the full scores in Chapter 12. Students can print, study, and conduct from these scores in class. They also can listen to and follow the full score with the audio file. The process facilitates score-reading ability as technical study progresses.
Video Files
The video files are a new feature of this edition. Students are encouraged to watch these videos that demonstrate the conducting techniques described in the text. The videos correspond to the reference numbers in the book; they are identified with a “V” and numbered by chapter and technique, for example, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3. Students should take advantage of this important new feature that models and clarifies the written text.
Note
1. Bruno Walter, Of Music and Music-Making, trans. Paul Hamburger (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1961), p. 85.
PART ONE
CONDUCTING TECHNIQUE
The Baton, Preparation, Downbeat, and Release
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Welcome to conducting! Here is where you start developing your conducting skills. By the end of this chapter, you will conduct a live musical ensemble, even if you have no previous conducting experience. To make certain you succeed at this task, you must concentrate on beat preparation. The sharply defined and well-executed preparatory beat is the basic gesture you must develop to establish competent musical leadership from the podium. All effective conducting is preparatory in function, in that musicians can only respond or react to a gesture; they cannot react simultaneously with an unprepared gesture. It must signal “ready—go,” not just “go.” To forget this basic fact invites a conducting “train wreck.” Based on the preeminence of preparation, this chapter provides a solid foundation for all that is to come.
So, after mastering the preparatory beat, how do you acquire the repertoire of skills to become a successful conductor? Expert conductors spend many years in specialized training and, although no two conductors conduct exactly alike, there are certain expectations that a conductor’s gesture portrays. The clarity of these gestures is central to a conductor’s success. Developing these gestures is a step-by-step process. The introductory section of this chapter explains the organization of the book, discusses the notion of competency-based learning, and gives suggestions for using the text and companion website. In the second portion of this chapter, you will learn to hold a baton, assume the preparatory position, execute the preparatory beat and downbeat with rebound, and give a release. Here, you demonstrate the most important conducting gesture—the Preparatory Beat!
This book is designed primarily for you, the student. Each chapter in Parts I and II consists of learning modules with materials for you to study. In Part III there are companion musical excerpts from the standard literature for you to conduct and develop your conducting and leadership skills.
Developing Your Conducting Skill
Each chapter in Parts I and II is designed as a learning module, which is a type of individualized curriculum package that is intended to help you acquire and demonstrate specified conducting skills. Each learning module includes five essential parts: an overview, competency statements, instruction, conducting activities, and self-evaluation.
The overview summarizes the conducting problems you must solve and describes the rationale or purpose for attaining the competencies.
Conducting Competencies are statements that tell you at the outset of each chapter what knowledge and technique you should be able to demonstrate by the end of the chapter. These competencies define precisely what an effective conductor must demonstrate. They were derived by an analysis of the important skills the beginning conductor must develop to lead and rehearse a performing group. Sometimes these competencies are called objectives, student learning outcomes, or standards. “Competency-Based Curriculum” refers to the capacity to perform specified
Remember, you lear n to conduct and rehearse most effectively and efficiently when your aural conception, your “inner hearing,” of the desired musical results guides and controls your physical gestures and error detection.
tasks up to a standard. Competency-based instructional design begins with the specification or definition of what constitutes competence in a given field or profession. The attainment of that knowledge and technique enables you to beat through all types of conducting problems effectively and to rehearse musical groups efficiently. Appendix A contains a complete listing of the conducting competencies presented in this book.
The instruction sections present information, explanations, illustrations, and directions for achieving the competencies.
The various conducting activities are designed to facilitate learning and offer opportunities to practice the skills specified in the competencies. The majority of the activities involve actual conducting experience in class by using the excerpts in Part III of the book. Develop your rehearsal technique by making at least one correction every time you conduct. Work toward consistent and thorough rehearsals.
The self-evaluation allows you to gauge your progress by evaluating your live and video performances and to demonstrate attainment of the competencies. The items define exactly what you are expected to do. Video your conducting activities in class as well as your private conducting practice, since video is a powerful teaching tool and indispensable feedback device. It enables you to hear performance errors you might have missed while on the podium. By using the checklist for self-evaluation, you take responsibility for your own learning and analyze your own conducting problems and technical difficulties. Your identified weaknesses then become your daily conducting objectives.
Part II of the book includes chapters that discuss score preparation and rehearsal techniques for the instrumental and choral rehearsal. These chapters will help you prepare for leading the music excerpts in class and leading your future ensembles.
Part III includes varied musical examples to study, practice, conduct, and rehearse. The excerpts consist of carefully selected examples from the traditional Western repertory, which illustrate the conducting and rehearsal problems you must solve to develop conducting skills. Using these, you are able to work with an ensemble of class members and can practice conducting skills and rehearsal techniques at each class meeting. The selected excerpts are reduced to four parts, and transposed parts are available on the book’s companion website. Most excerpts can be played by a quartet from the same family of instruments, by a heterogeneous quartet, by the entire class, or by a piano with or without additional instruments. The “Technical Mastery” section contains longer and more complete excerpts, and Chapter 12 contains full scores that provide additional challenges.
Check the companion website for transpositions for your instrument.
Full scores, individual parts, and transposed parts for the musical excerpts in Part III are located in the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/labuta. They can be downloaded directly to a computer, tablet, or smartphone. The parts include all instruments from a standard full orchestra score. There are also accompanying audio files of each selection, which provide aural examples of the excerpts in Part I to facilitate your learning. The audio files can be played on any media player that supports WAV files. These aural representations present a preliminary model for students to use as a first step toward interpretation.
Follow this recommended approach to master the conducting techniques in each chapter:
1. Scan the chapter; note particularly the self-evaluation. Can you successfully demonstrate the conducting competencies? What do you need to learn?
2. Familiarize yourself with the objectives (competency statements) to guide your learning.
3. Study information, illustrations, and instructions. Analyze appropriate excerpts to gain aural conception. Read the suggestions and directions preceding the musical excerpts you are conducting to gain insight into score preparation and interpretation. Listen to the audio examples provided on the accompanying website. Download the parts for your instrument if you need transposed music. Do as much as you can to use expressive and musical gestures each time you are on the podium. Always strive to become a complete and competent conductor.
4. Observe your instructor’s demonstrations, and listen carefully to his or her explanations.
5. Seek opportunities to practice the activities, both in and outside of class, until you have reached the required skill level.
6. Use video recording for self-evaluation and improvement.
7. Demonstrate conducting competencies listed in the self-evaluation.
Always remember, your primary job as a conductor is to make music. You must lead musicians through well-prepared, productive rehearsals to expressive musical performances. Take charge and inspire. You may feel uncomfortable and self-conscious on the podium in front of your classmates; however, if you can assume the role of conductor and lead your peers making music in the conducting class, you will be successful as a conductor and musical leader in the real world. The “Technical Mastery” section in Part III will challenge you to extend your ability to make music and to be a leader.
Holding the Baton
The baton is the conductor’s symbol of leadership authority. It is also a conductor’s technical, if not musical, instrument. By extending the forearm, a baton gives clarity to the beat and the conducting pattern. By providing better visibility for performers, it facilitates precision in ensemble performance. Although some may argue that the baton limits expressiveness, the skilled conductor can use it to infuse beat patterns with stylistic qualities while using the left hand to indicate phrasing and expression (see Chapters 9 and 10). Every conducting student should use a baton and should hold it in the right hand. Students may, of course, defer to custom and conduct the choral repertory without a baton.
Instruction
To hold the baton most effectively, rest the ball end against the palm of the hand with the shaft held securely, yet flexibly, between the tip of the thumb and the side of the index finger at the first joint. Do not grip the baton tightly or squeeze it. The thumb should curve slightly, and the fingers also should curve naturally around the stick without touching it (see Photograph 1.1 and Video 1-1). This provides for wrist flexibility quite similar to that found in holding and playing a drumstick, with the palm of the hand facing downward. Although you should feel that the baton extends straight out from the arm, it will point slightly to the left when the ball is centered properly in the palm.
Conducting Activities
1. Obtain a ball-end baton between twelve and fourteen inches in length. Practice holding the baton as described.
2. Use a mirror to check holding position and baton angle.
3. Tap the tip of the baton lightly on a chest-high object to practice wrist flexibility.
The Preparatory Position
Conductors must use the preparatory position as a signal for the group to get ready to start playing. It secures initial attention and gives musicians time to raise their instruments to playing position. Use a podium for optimal visibility. Make certain the players’ stands are adjusted to the proper height and positioned directly between you and them. When the stands are positioned properly, the players can see you easily with both direct and peripheral vision. Have singers hold their music up about eye level in their left hand so that they can watch you as they read and use their right hand to turn pages. Adjust the conductor’s stand to an almost flat position at waist height so it does not hide your beats or patterns.
CONDUCTING COMPETENCY 1
Demonstrate appropriate baton grip
CONDUCTING COMPETENCY 2
Demonstrate the preparatory position for starting on the count of one in all meters
Instruction
Ascend the podium in a confident, authoritative manner. Stand erect and balanced, with feet slightly separated; you should be poised, not tensed. Raise your arms upward and outward with elbows slightly away from your body (see Photograph 1.2 and Video 1-2). This preparatory position should be easily visible, and it should be commanding and positive in appearance to signal
PHOTOGRAPH 1.1 Holding the Baton
PHOTOGRAPH 1.2 The Preparatory Position for Starting Music on the Count of One in All Meters
for the group to get ready. Allow several seconds for a quick visual check to make certain all instruments are in playing position and all musicians are looking at you. Maintain visual contact through the downbeat. The musicians and conductor should have the first few measures of the composition in mind to assure a precise attack. Never talk with your hands in preparatory position and never wait too long before beginning. This causes musicians’ attention to wander, and they may lower their instruments from ready position.
Conducting Activities
1. Ascend a podium and practice the preparatory position. Repeat this important exercise several times to become secure and confident with the stance.
2. Use a mirror to check the position of body, arms, hands, and baton.
The Preparatory Beat
All effective conducting involves preparation. Preparatory or anticipatory gestures give inevitability to conducting that results in ensemble precision. Musicians cannot respond at the instant of a single gesture; they respond to a prepared gesture. Thus, effective conducting always signals “ready go,” never just “go.”
The preparatory beat is one extra beat that precedes the first beat of music. It is a breathing beat. You should always inhale when you expect the musicians to breathe. Their response seems almost instinctive. Even strings and percussion will breathe with you to achieve greater precision and expression. A preparatory gesture, then, must precede every initial entrance and every resumption of the musical line.
Instruction
To prepare the count of one in any meter, assume the preparatory position, flick a point of beat with your wrist, and breathe in as you swing your hand up on the offbeat. Do not hesitate at the top but move straight down to the count of one (see Figure 1.1 and Video 1-2).
In general, position your hand to conduct in front of your right shoulder so that the tip of the baton, not your hand, is centered in front of your body during the downbeat. Do not conduct out to the side, away from your body, and never tuck your elbows in close to your side (see Video 1-2). Always maintain eye contact through the performance of the downbeat to the plane of beating, a horizontal line above waist level.
Avoid unnecessary mirroring of the right hand by the left hand through the downbeat. However, you may signal a dynamic level or style such as marcato with a left-hand clenched fist or a piano entrance with your palm facing the ensemble.
CONDUCTING COMPETENCY 3
Demonstrate the preparatory beat for starting on the count of one in all meters
FIGURE 1.1 The Preparatory Beat for One
CONDUCTING COMPETENCY 4
Demonstrate proper wrist action to define the exact point of beat
Conducting Activities
1. Practice the preparatory beat for the count of one. Think “prep—one” in various tempos. Do not hesitate at the top; to do so will disrupt the inevitable fall of the gesture to its termination at the count of one. Never float down and poke at the beat; go directly to the beat plane. 2. The best way to illustrate beat inevitability is to use a key-toss example: take a set of keys or some other object, toss it up in the air, and catch it. Have musicians perform a chord at the point of contact. A precise attack results because the performers know exactly when the keys will hit. Good conductors develop this type of inevitability in the arcs of their beats and patterns by beating on a consistent level and using a follow-through as natural as a bouncing ball.
The effective conductor will position the conducting plane at a higher or lower level to match the “weight” (light or heavy) of the style and expression of the music. Do not mirror with the left hand unless there is an expressive purpose, such as adding weight to a forte marcato entrance (see Chapter 9, “Marcato”).
Wrist Action
The consummation of the preparatory gesture as it arrives through the down-stroke is the count of one. This point is defined precisely by a small snap of the wrist, a subtle but vital wrist action variously described as a rebound, flick, click, bounce, recoil, tap, or ictus. The beat, as a point in time, must be exactly identified by the tip of the baton through flexible and suitable wrist action. If you do not use a baton, place the point of beat at the tip of the index finger.
Instruction
Give the preparatory gesture and rebound off the plane of beating at the count of one, using a flexible wrist action (see Figure 1.2 and Video 1-2). Do not excessively flop or turn your wrist. You should keep your palm facing downward and rebound no more than one-fourth the distance of the downbeat.
Conducting Activities
1. Practice the preparation for one with a rebound on the count of one. Think “prep—tap” in various tempos, rebounding off the plane of beating.
2. If you have trouble with wrist flexibility, think of flicking something off the end of the baton or of hitting an imaginary plane. You can actually tap a chest-high bookcase or music stand to get the feel of correct wrist action for the rebound (see Video 1-2). A common error is to lead with the wrist, letting the baton follow behind, which causes the beat to be centered in the palm of the hand instead of the tip of the baton. Again, tapping the plane will eliminate this stiff-wrist problem.
FIGURE 1.2 The Rebound on One
The Release Gesture
The release gesture is a precise signal to cease playing. To secure precision, a preparatory gesture, usually a circular motion, must precede it. Just as a “ready—go” must be given at the beginning of a composition, so a “ready—stop” must be indicated at the end (see Chapter 3, “Releases on All Beats”).
Instruction
Execute the release gesture with a small circular motion; the cutoff comes at the end of the preparatory arc with a flick of the wrist. Give the circular motion in a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction, depending on the starting position required for any succeeding preparatory beat (see Figure 1.3 and Video 1-3). Be careful not to overemphasize the release gesture for the sake of clarity. Match the release gesture to the style of the music.
To conduct the release after the count of one, start with the preparatory beat, follow through with a downbeat to the count of one, and execute a release gesture in tempo (see Figure 1.4). Make sure you end up in position to repeat the preparation.
Conducting Activities
1. Practice the preparatory beat for the count of one, followed by a release gesture as illustrated in Figure 1.4. Think “prep—one—cut,” keeping the beat steady and pausing briefly between each repetition.
2. Use different metronome settings as you work on this technique.
3. Conduct the class or some colleagues in a series of one-count notes and releases. Work for clear, effective gestures in your conducting and precise entrances from the performers.
CONDUCTING COMPETENCY 5
Demonstrate the basic release gesture
1.3 Circular Preparation and Cutoff Flick
FIGURE 1.4 Preparing One and Releasing
FIGURE
SELF-EVALUATION
1. Conduct Excerpts 1-1 and 1-2 in Part III as requested by the instructor. Conduct each excerpt using a preparatory beat, a downbeat, and a release gesture. Think “prep—one—cut” in tempo, with a pause between each note. Repeat in any tempo given by the instructor, and make a video of your performances.
2. Rate your video performances with the following checklist.1 If video equipment is unavailable, have colleagues or your instructor complete the form.
Note
1. By using pencils or pens of different colors, you should be able to use this checklist a number of times.
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