Week 2 Choral Conducting

Reflection
course EMU130 MUSIC ED

mastery ranger

progress done

Micah Weekes

Part I (Journal Key Take-Away)

Write a short journal entry (approx. 100 words) in which you:

1. identify one key “take away” from Week Two of the module that will inform your practice
as a choral conductor.

2. describe why this “take away” is significant to you.

One key takeaway I had not payed attention before is that when one conducts, it is vital to
create certainty and predictability. Before Monday’s lecture, I was unaware of the techniques
to do so, such as making musicians follow the middle finger. In addition, P. Lockhart also made
me aware of the importance of the ictus in the wrist. Until hearing about this, I was not aware of
the fact that pulse can become unclear if the conductor’s ictus is not consistent. This take away is
significant to me, because conducting based on my own knowledges, without those given to me
by P. Lockhart, would not allow for certainty and predictability.

Part II (Watch/Reflect)

Identify and describe two ways that Dr. Blyden-Taylor’s conducting

gesture reflects a sound grounding in the conducting technique we have

Week 2 Choral Conducting Reflection 1

 discussed so far in class.

1. Not only are his hands clearly indicating pulse with great ictus, his body is as well.
Swaying with the music and feeling the groove makes it even easier for the choir to keep up
with the pulse, as they also look at his hands for other directions and indications.

2. His hand gestures are doing two things we’ve discussed in class; pulse-keeping, and
indication of accents or dynamic changes. The former is a basic function, but we can see
him doing both simultaneously, at moments like 1:39 (“[…] Caanan’s shore”) or 2:02 (
“Deliver Daniel[…]”).

Describe three ways in which Dr. Blyden-Taylor deviates from “the

basics” that we have discussed to effectively communicate his musical
ideas to the Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

1. When came the moment for one of the choralists to sing “Hallelujah” by himself, Dr.
Blyden-Taylor is seen communicating the decrescendo at the end of the hallelujah by
exercising a hand gesture that almost looks like fireworks, or a semi-circle being drawn by
both hands. (Please pardon the poor description— it is harder written than gestured.)

2. One technique I saw him use was that of pointing to his lips, seemingly to communicate the
importance of enunciating certain syllables to add to vocal clarity. This is not necessarily a
“musical Idea”, however I found that this definitely plays a crucial part considering the
weight of the lyrics being sung in the music. (0:24)

3. Yet another technique we have not discussed in class that I saw was the use of
bigger/smaller hand gestures and reduced/increased body movements to very clearly
indicate louder/softer dynamics. I noticed he also tends to raise his hands more during louder
sections of the song.

Week 2 Choral Conducting Reflection 2