Choralstration A Practical Guide For Composers

Dr. Harold Rosenbaum is an internationally renowned choral conductor with a career spanning five decades. He has commissioned 121 composers (and counting) and has conducted close to 600 world premieres. This book is geared toward steering composers as they prepare to write for choirs or already have works in progress. The goal is to provide them with confidence that every aspect of their scores will be easy for singers to understand and navigate, and to make them attractive, intelligible, and enticing for interested conductors. Practical advice regarding interacting with conductors and singers is also presented. An anthology of twenty-five works with the author's interpretive markings and performance suggestions offers further insights and guiding principles to assist composers as they prepare their scores.

Rooted in the experience of a professional choral conductor, this book provides a guide to practical issues facing conductors of choral ensembles at all levels, from youth choruses to university ensembles, church and community choirs, and professional vocal groups. Paired with the discussion of practical challenges is a discussion of over fifty key works from the choral literature, with performance suggestions to aid the choral conductor in directing each piece. Dealing with often-overlooked yet vital considerations such as how to work with composers, recording, concert halls, and choral tours, A Practical Guide to Choral Conducting offers a valuable resource for both emerging choral conductors and students of choral conducting at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

This comprehensive handbook details the fundamentals and forms of choral composition and expands upon the coverage and number of topics in Archibald T. Davison's 1945 classic text Choral Composition. Historical trends in choral composition are traced with a special emphasis on the profusion of changes that occurred throughout the twentieth century, particularly since 1950. Early chapters focus on characteristics of voice, notation, text, devices, part writing, a cappella and instrumental accompaniments, and choral forms. Hines goes on to analyze the utilization of soloists and choruses with instrumental chamber ensembles, orchestra, and the role of the chorus in opera, operetta, musicals, and music theater. A final chapter addresses practical concerns: music publication and how the artist can function effectively in that world.