Jameson Marvin does an excellence job in explaining how the process conductors use to achieve the highest level of performance. He begins by saying, “Mastering choral ensemble – a unified sound image of the whole – is the foundation upon which enlightened, communicative, and inspiring performance takes place.” He explains that there is a process to achieving this mastery, and it is based off of mental-aural image, which is a vision of what the music should sound like. In this chapter, Marvin goes through the “Conductor’s Process,” and explains the mental-aural image in four very important guidelines. The first one talks about score study and how it is the catalyst for the mental-aural image. As a conductor, we must realize the importance
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This is one that I must work on as conductor. He uses the same four elements of music, which are duration, pitch, timbre, and intensity. Duration consists of pulse, rhythm, meter, and note lengths. He gives good guidelines on what to do with short and long notes and how to handle dissonance. When talking about tempo, he says that choirs tend to drag the tempo when they are starting to learn notes, but it’s important for the conductor to keep the internal clock tempo. For pitch he talks about marking all dissonance areas and places where there could be note issues. For example, he mentioned circling harmonic and melodic intervals, unison and octave parts, chromatic changes, and areas with flats and sharps. For timbre, he talks about the text and making sure that each part sings on the same vowel, so you can have a unified pitch. We must also watch out for vowels, and we may have to make modifications depending on vocal ranges. When it comes to intensity, it is important to have a clarified balance. We must be attentive to dynamics, articulation, phrasing, rubato, and linear direction. One of my favorite statements from this section is, “sopranos sharp, altos are inaudible, tenors flat, and basses are late.” When he explained why this was true, everything that I’ve seen in chorale made
This is one that I must work on as conductor. He uses the same four elements of music, which are duration, pitch, timbre, and intensity. Duration consists of pulse, rhythm, meter, and note lengths. He gives good guidelines on what to do with short and long notes and how to handle dissonance. When talking about tempo, he says that choirs tend to drag the tempo when they are starting to learn notes, but it’s important for the conductor to keep the internal clock tempo. For pitch he talks about marking all dissonance areas and places where there could be note issues. For example, he mentioned circling harmonic and melodic intervals, unison and octave parts, chromatic changes, and areas with flats and sharps. For timbre, he talks about the text and making sure that each part sings on the same vowel, so you can have a unified pitch. We must also watch out for vowels, and we may have to make modifications depending on vocal ranges. When it comes to intensity, it is important to have a clarified balance. We must be attentive to dynamics, articulation, phrasing, rubato, and linear direction. One of my favorite statements from this section is, “sopranos sharp, altos are inaudible, tenors flat, and basses are late.” When he explained why this was true, everything that I’ve seen in chorale made