National Teachers College

Prepared by: Mr. Alan M. Butiong

MAPEH Majors
______________________________________________________________________________

CHORAL CONDUCTING 1

Conducting
Is the art of directing a ______________ performance, by way of visible gestures with the ___________,
___________, ___________ and ___________.

History of Conducting

Middle Ages to 18th century

• Latter part of the 14th century when conducting with the gesture of the hand was practiced by
____________________, a Minnesinger (love singer of France).
• In the 15th century, a leader of the Sistene Choir directed a group of singers with a ____________________
(called so-fa) held in hand.
• An early form of conducting is _______________, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape.
• In the Christian church, the person giving these symbols held a ______________ to signify his role.
• In ancient Greece, the choral conductor stamped on the ____________________, a special wooden clapper
attached to the heel of his right sandal in directing the musicians for the rhythm of the music.
• In the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use. ____________________
and ____________________ are all shown in pictures from this period.
• In the 18th century, a member of the ensemble usually acted as the conductor. This was sometimes
the ____________________, who could use his ____________________ as a baton, or
a ____________________ who would move the neck of his instrument in time with the beat.
• In opera performances, there were sometimes two conductors – the ____________________ player was in
charge of the singers, and the principal ____________________ was in charge of the orchestra.

19th century
• By the early 19th century, the use of a ____________________ became more common, as it was easier to
see than bare hands or rolled-up paper.
• Among the earliest notable conductors were who used a baton:
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________ ____________________
4. ____________________
• Among prominent conductors who did not or do not use a baton include
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
4. ____________________
5. ____________________
6. ____________________
7. ____________________ (for a period)
8. ____________________
• Attained greatness as conductors:
1. ____________________ is considered the first virtuoso conductor.
2. ____________________ was largely responsible for shaping the conductor's role as one who imposes
his own view of a piece onto the performance rather than one who is just responsible for ensuring
entries are made at the right time and that there is a unified beat.
• The conductor was given a place of importance equaled only by a ____________________.

20th century
• Two particularly influential and widely recorded figures are often treated, somewhat inaccurately, as
interpretive antipodes. They were…
1. ____________________ (1867–1957) – an Italian conductor and
- was Italianate, with a long, large baton and clear beats (often not using his left hand);
2. ____________________ (1886–1954) – a German conductor .
 - beat time with less apparent precision, because he wanted a more rounded sound (although it is a
myth that his technique was vague; many musicians have attested that he was easy to follow in his own
way).
• Great and influential conductors of the middle 20th century like
1. ____________________(1882–1977)
2. ____________________ (1885–1973)
3. ____________________ (1908–1989)
- music director of the Berlin Philharmonic (1955–89)
- technique was highly controlled, and eventually he conducted with his eyes often closed
- could conduct for hours without moving his feet
- As the music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan cultivated warm, blended beauty of tone,
which has sometimes been criticized as too uniformly applied; by contras
4. ____________________ (1918–1990)
- incidentally, the first American conductor to attain greatness and international fame
- had widely varied techniques.
- music director of the ____________________ (1957–69)
- later frequent guest conductor in Europe
- technique was demonstrative, with highly expressive facial gestures and hand and body
movements.
- was known at times to leap into the air at a great climax
- only appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1979 – performing
Mahler's ____________________ – he tried to get the orchestra to produce an "ugly" tone in a
certain passage in which he believed it suited the expressive meaning of the music (the first horn
player refused, and finally agreed to let an understudy play instead of himself).

21st century
Through the 20th century, artists like Marin Alsop and Simone Young have
• Broken the gender barrier Through the 20th century, artists like Marin Alsop and Simone Young have.
1. Marin Alsop
- was appointed music director of the ____________________ in 2007
- the first woman ever appointed to head a major US orchestra
- and also of the ____________________ in 2012,
- was the first woman to conduct on the last night of ____________________
2. Simone Young
- scored similar firsts when she became head of the ____________________ in 2005;
- she is also the first woman conductor to record the ____________________.
3. Alondra de la Parra
- first ____________________ female to attain distinction in the profession.
4. Seiji Ozawa
- who was the ____________________s music director from 1973 until 2002 after holding similar
posts in San Francisco and Toronto,
5. Myung-Whun Chung
- who has held major posts in Germany and France and now is bringing the
____________________.

Voice Classification of Singers

1st Soprano – light, flutelike, lyric quality

2nd Soprano – similar in range to the first soprano, but has a fuller, more dramatic type of voice quality
1st Alto – similar in quality to second soprano, but has a more fully developed lower range
2nd Alto – a heavier, deeper voice quality, especially in the lower range, which is more fully developed than the first
alto.
1st Tenor – light, lyric quality, especially in the upper range limits
2nd Tenor – similar in range to the first tenor, but has a fuller dramatic, voice quality.
Baritone – often similar in quality to the second tenor, yet has a more fully developed middle and lower range.
Bass – a heavier, darker, deeper quality, especially in the middle and lower ranges of the voice.