From the NYPL Digital Archive
Are you in need of resources that will enhance your practice, study, or research in conducting? SFSU’s Leonard Library can help you out. Below are some suggested resources on conducting and conductors.
ON CONDUCTING
Conducting : the art of communication / Wayne Bailey.
Summary
This text is designed to be used in both beginning and advanced conducting courses required of music majors and music education majors. Whereas most conducting texts focus exclusively on the technical aspect of conducting, Bailey’s more comprehensive text also focuses on artistic and expressive development and the development of the conductor’s ear. The book includes flexible instrumentation exercises written specifically to address common technical and musical problems, analysis and score study instruction, movement exercises, instruction on expressive conducting, and auralskill exercises designed to help students detect playing errors.
Conducting the wind orchestra : meaning, gesture, and expressive potential / Eric L. Hinton
Summary
Hinton (music and director of bands, Susquehanna U.) discusses the art of conducting, using the example of wind orchestras, and focuses on the process of interpreting scores and the relationship between physical gestures and the expressive potential of pieces, through four twentieth century works: John Corigliano’s Gazebo Dances, Karel Husa’s Music for Prague, Edward Gregson’s Celebration, and Richard Rodney Bennett’s Morning Music. After tracing the development of the wind orchestra and its conductor, he describes ways to create meaning in works and uses semiotics to demonstrate how topical references can be a guide to constructing a narrative
On becoming a conductor : lessons and meditations on the art of conducting / Frank L. Battisti.
Summary
Author Battisti, a prominent and well-respected conductor (Conductor Emeritus, New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble), has written what may be considered a meditation– certainly more than a manual– on what it takes to be a professional, insightful conductor. The book dwells on issues such as personal characteristics, work ethic, and the role of integrity, imagination, and emotion, as well conducting technique and gestures of expression. The author also offers nuts and bolts advice on matters such as rehearsal planning and preparation and the conductor-teacher’s role. The book will interest serious musicians.
Face to face with orchestra and chorus [electronic resource] : a handbook for choral conductors / Don V Moses, Robert W. Demaree, Jr. and Allen F. Ohmes.
Summary
Face to Face with Orchestra and Chorus is a crucial guide for choral conductors who are presented with the daunting task of conducting a full-size orchestra. This book provides a survival kit for both novice and experienced choral conductors, with an overview of the orchestral instruments and their particular needs, tips for rehearsing an orchestra effectively, and guidelines for proper baton technique. Conductors are walked through six case studies from the Baroque and Classical periods, including Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat in D Major, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Beethoven’s “Choral” Fantasia.
Problems and solutions in band conducting / Thomas R. Erdmann.
Summary
This text tackles the complex problems encountered by directors of concert bands and wind ensembles. Erdmann (director of bands at Elon U.) presents 27 chapters that discuss topics such as how to quickly teach a march, how to properly warm up an ensemble for both tone and intonation, some of the philosophical concepts wind directors should consider as they organize overall programs, handling auditions and assignment of parts, planning a rehearsal, good basic band repertoire, festivals, touring, concert etiquette, the march, conducting concertos, and contemporary music.
The complete conductor : a comprehensive resource for the professional conductor of the twenty-first century / Robert W. Demaree, Jr., Don V Moses.
From the Publisher
Direct, practical, and comprehensive, this text addresses the conducting needs of beginners through working professionals. Using a modular structure that allows a focus on either choral or instrumental content — or both — it covers conducting theory, style periods, technical problems, and conducting patterns — using examples ranging from short works to multi-movement masterpieces.
Performing twentieth-century music : a handbook for conductors and instrumentalists / Arthur Weisberg.
Well known conductor, composer, and instrumentalist, Weisberg suggests to others how to deal with the peculiarities of modern composers. The timing and rhythm are most complex, he says, and conductors must not only be able to understand it, but also to teach it to the players. He also suggests ways for composers to notate their music so that it is both representative of their ideas and is comprehensible to conductors. Includes many examples. No bibliography (this being the first book on the subject).
Basic conducting techniques / Joseph A. Labuta.
Summary
Labuta (Wayne State U.) provides a practical and innovative textbook for the beginning conducting class. New features in the fifth edition include transposed parts for the musical excerpts in Part III (Musical Excerpts); examples of score analysis for students to use as models; more detail and elaboration of instruction preceding the excerpts; a “Mastery” section for challenge and evaluation; and additional photographs to clarify and model techniques. Indexed by musical excerpts only.
ON CONDUCTORS
Robert Shaw, preparing a masterpiece. Volumes 1 & 2 [videorecording] : choral workshops on Brahms’s A German Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis / Carnegie Hall presents ; produced by The Carnegie Hall Corporation in association with Brandenburg Productions, Inc. ; produced, directed & edited by Phillip Byrd and Janet Shapiro.
Summary
68017-Disc 1-Choral workshop on “A German requiem” by Johannes Brahms (157 min.) — 68018-disc 2-Choral workshop on Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (95 min.) .
“The preparing a masterpiece video series on the Robert Shaw workshops at Carnegie Hall provides an in-depth look at Maestro Shaw’s preparation for performances of choral masterpieces.”–Container.
Simon Rattle : the making of a conductor / by Nicholas Kenyon.
Did you know that there is a Conductor’s Guild?
The Conductors Guild is the only music service organization devoted exclusively to the advancement of the art of conducting and to serving the artistic and professional needs of conductors. They have a membership of over 1,850 members representing all fifty United States and more than thirty other countries.
If you are a choral conductor, there is a site that supplies Choral Music that is in Public Domain online:
CHORAL PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY
Begun in December 1998, CPDL is one of the world’s largest free sheet music sites. You can use CPDL to find scores, texts, translations, and information about composers.
New editions this month: 49 (43 new works)
November 17, 2009
Himmel und Erde in Weimar (Huub de Lange)
November 16, 2009
Beati Imaculata in via (Johann Walter)
November 15, 2009
Magnificat (Giuseppe Pitoni)
Magnificat a 12 (Andrea Gabrieli)
Missa in hon. BMV (Max Filke)
November 14, 2009
Au verd boys je m’en iray (Clément Janequin)
Beatus qui intelligit (Francesco Usper)
O Lamb of God! Still Keep Me (Thurlow Weed)
Wir danken dir, o Gottes Lamm (Pierre de La Rue)
November 13, 2009
Kristus Karalis (To Jesus Christ our sovereign King) (Anonymous)
November 12, 2009
Benedicam Dominum (Francesco Usper)
Haec dies (Francesco Usper)
November 11, 2009
King Arthur (Henry Purcell)
O Lord our governor (Capel Bond)
Sweet day (Jeffrey Quick)
November 10, 2009
Preces and Responses (William Byrd)
Preces and Responses (William Smith of Durham)
November 9, 2009
Hodie Christus natus est (Claudio Monteverdi)
John Anderson (Robert Schumann)
November 8, 2009
Missa Sancta Caecilia (Adolfo Kaim)
Serengeti Song (Joseph G. Stephens)
The Good Shepherd (Michael J. Oczko)
This Advent moon shines cold and clear (Charles H. Giffen)
