The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) Examine successful choral director beliefs about warm-ups and their successful practices in conducting warm-ups, and (b) examine the relationship of musical background, choral training and music teaching style of high school choral directors upon these beliefs and practices. Subjects were 365 high school choral directors from 28 states. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression. Results indicated choral director's beliefs and practices differ as a function of musical back-ground, demographic characteristics, choral conducting training, and music teaching styles. Specifically, warm-up beliefs were predicted by knowledge of vocal health and variety of warm-ups. Conversely, those who relied on the warm-up time for discipline and focusing attention showed a significant negative relationship with their philosophy. From multiple regression analysis, doing choral warm-ups accounted for one-third of a director's overall success, predicted by 10 variables: (a) experience, (b) education, (c) teaching style teacher-directed performance, (d) teaching style deep-student learning, (e) warm-up literature and procedure, (f) planning warm-ups (g) warm-up content, (h) prior choral experience and piano background, (i) a foundation in music, and (j) a developed philosophy of choral warm-ups. However, having a philosophy about warm-ups did not predict successful teaching practices.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand how five choral music educators’ life experiences, prior knowledge, attitudes, values, beliefs, and understandings surrounding the formation of their musical selves have come to shape their professional practice. A secondary purpose of this research was to examine institutional context and governing ideologies of the choral music discipline. The study involved five choral music educators—including the researcher—of various ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds from Winnipeg, Manitoba. This research is grounded in what Beattie (1995) terms the dialectical and collaborative nature of narrative inquiry, but also looks to reflexive inquiry and life history methodologies (Cole & Knowles, 2000), as well as the practice of collective biography (Davies & Gannon, 2006) to shape its methodological framework. As such, autobiographical forms of self-study research are reconceptualized as collaborative self-study. Data collection methods included journal writing, personal in-depth interviews, and participant observation. In particular, regular focus group sessions, which included peer interviewing, played a central role throughout the research process. This forum allowed participants to share their musical life histories and interrogate each others’ narratives, thereby triggering musical memories and exposing the interconnectivity of musical pasts to current professional practice. Data is re-presented in rich narratives which trace the path of each participant’s musical life history in interaction with theory and relevant literature. Numerous themes, sub-themes, tensions, and epiphanal episodes (Denzin, 1994) are illuminated. Moreover, connections between participants’ experiences and resultant ways of knowing are exposed, and we are confronted with “the unexpectedness of universality” (Hofstadter, 2007, p. 242). Thus, our commonessence is revealed. Participant chapters are followed by a postlude featuring the researcher’s personal narratives, an examination of researcher voice, and questions regarding the practice of choral music education that have surfaced through reflexive analysis of the data. This research strives to be a model for personal professional development among choral music educators, and provides a template for future purposeful discussion in the choral discipline.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand how five choral music educators’ life experiences, prior knowledge, attitudes, values, beliefs, and understandings surrounding the formation of their musical selves have come to shape their professional practice. A secondary purpose of this research was to examine institutional context and governing ideologies of the choral music discipline. The study involved five choral music educators—including the researcher—of various ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds from Winnipeg, Manitoba. This research is grounded in what Beattie (1995) terms the dialectical and collaborative nature of narrative inquiry, but also looks to reflexive inquiry and life history methodologies (Cole & Knowles, 2000), as well as the practice of collective biography (Davies & Gannon, 2006) to shape its methodological framework. As such, autobiographical forms of self-study research are reconceptualized as collaborative self-study. Data collection methods included journal writing, personal in-depth interviews, and participant observation. In particular, regular focus group sessions, which included peer interviewing, played a central role throughout the research process. This forum allowed participants to share their musical life histories and interrogate each others’ narratives, thereby triggering musical memories and exposing the interconnectivity of musical pasts to current professional practice. Data is re-presented in rich narratives which trace the path of each participant’s musical life history in interaction with theory and relevant literature. Numerous themes, sub-themes, tensions, and epiphanal episodes (Denzin, 1994) are illuminated. Moreover, connections between participants’ experiences and resultant ways of knowing are exposed, and we are confronted with “the unexpectedness of universality” (Hofstadter, 2007, p. 242). Thus, our commonessence is revealed. Participant chapters are followed by a postlude featuring the researcher’s personal narratives, an examination of researcher voice, and questions regarding the practice of choral music education that have surfaced through reflexive analysis of the data. This research strives to be a model for personal professional development among choral music educators, and provides a template for future purposeful discussion in the choral discipline.

Amakwaya refers to the tradition and performance practice of choirs in South Africa that emerged from the mission-schools in the nineteenth century and is manifest today in the annual competitions held by various Teachers' Associations or company-sponsored events like the National Choir Festival. This choral practice, combining Western music styles with African tradition, bears the marks - both social and aesthetic - of colonial and missionary influences, and is closely linked to the emerging black middle class, their process of negotiating identity, and their later quest for a national culture. Many aspects of contemporary amakwaya performance practice, it is argued, including the recent interest of many members of the amakwaya community in opera, can be understood through an analysis of the social dimensions of these choirs. Particular attention is given to the role played by competitions and the sectionalised repertoire. The criticisms made in this regard flow from an understanding of the social meaning and aesthetic thrust of the tradition, from the author's practical involvement with the choirs, and from extensive discussions with choristers and conductors. The first part of the thesis is concerned with identifying the role played by European values such as those of education and progress, in the self-understanding of the emerging missioneducated black South African elite in the second half of the nineteenth century. An initial tendency towards uncritical imitation and attempts at assimilation ended in the experience of rejection by the settler community and isolation. It was followed, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, by a complex negotiation between traditional and modern values. With political, social and economic mobility restricted in white South Africa, the black middle class turned towards artistic expression such as choral singing in order to define and express a distinctively African concept of civilisation. In this process, amakwaya performance developed into a powerful means whereby class identity and consciousness could be constructed and communicated. The second part looks into the framework of amakwaya, and at the mission schools and colleges they attended and the competitions they organise. As a result of the practice of hymn singing, participation in a choir soon became an important part of the leisure time activities of the early mission converts. This formative phase of amakwaya is illustrated in a case study of one of the most influential schools in Natal, Adams College, near Amanzimtoti, where the first black South African School of Music was established. In order to promote the values important to the missionaries as well as their converts - discipline, progress, and success - competitions were encouraged at the mission stations. These became models for the competitions which today are the main feature of amakwaya practice. The voices of various members of the community are used to present a critical evaluation of the positive and negative aspects of present-day competitions. The last part of the thesis concentrates on amakwaya repertoire, particularly as it is represented at important choral competitions such as the National Choir Festival. This part also attempts to facilitate an understanding of the genesis, structure and aesthetic of the sectionalised repertoire, which consists of neo-traditional songs, Western compositions, and choral works composed by mission-educated musicians. Strict adherence to the sectionalised repertoire is a unique feature of amakwaya performance practice to the present day. / Thesis (Ph.D.-Music)-University of Natal, 2002.

This dissertation complements those analytical studies which discuss choral works and techniques of contemporary choral composition, by examining what twentieth-century literature was actually performed within one of the choral traditions of the United States.The a cappella choral tradition has spread widely throughout the United States. Previous studies have examined the history of the pioneering a cappella choirs and the biographies of the movement's leaders. This study also complements them in examining another aspect of the a cappella tradition.Three representative choirs were chosen: the Concordia Choir from Moorhead, Minnesota, Paul J. Christiansen, conductor; the Nordic Choir of Luther College from Decorah, Iowa, Weston Noble, conductor; and the St. Olaf Choir from Northfield, Minnesota, Kenneth Jennings, conductor. These choirs were selected because each had a long tradition of touring -- consequently exposing a broader public to the literature they performed, because each choir has been widely acknowledged for performance excellence, and because each has had remarkable continuity in leadership -having only one or two conductors during the thirty-six year span included in this study.The program archives of each choir were examined to determine the twentieth-century literature which had been performed. Three conductors, Paul J. Christiansen, Kenneth Jennings, and Weston Noble, were interviewed with regard to their ideas concerning selection and preparation of twentieth-century choral music.Though each choir was found to have some distinct patterns, there were also several elements in common among the choirs:1. Each took. seriously the relationship between music and text, and the fact that the choirs were representatives of Lutheran colleges.2. Each emphasized the highest possible level of performance in order that the expressive and aesthetic qualities of the music sung would be comprehended by both singers and audience.3. Each has given a prominent place to twentieth-century music by American composers.4. Each has given a comparatively minor role to music by Scandinavian composers.5. Each has repeated certain works several times during the thirty-six years, helping to establish them in the choral repertory.6. Each has performed an approximately constant quantity of twentieth-century music during the thirty-six years, but each has tended to program progressively more challenging works as time goes on. Appendices present listings of the choral literature included in the study, of the repertory for each choir, and of currently available recordings by the three choirs of twentieth-century choral music. / School of Music

This thesis surveys all the found British settings of A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad (1896) but concentrates on the period after 1940, which, the author believes, has not previously received critical attention. A new study is timely especially because of a renewed interest among composers in the poet's highly influential lyric collection. The author found about 110 British composers with about 340 settings of individual poems not listed in previous Shropshire Lad catalogues. This number adds more than fifty per cent to the known repertoire. The search was not restricted to art song; it found, in addition, multi-voice settings, settings in popular styles and non-vocal music. Largely because of the work of broadly trained musicians, there is now a much wider range of medium, style and compositional technique applied to A Shropshire Lad. There are also new ways in which words and music relate. Different catalogues in the thesis list settings according to period, genre, poem and composer. The author hopes to broaden the British canon of Shropshire Lad music, which, despite recent commissions and competitions, is still mostly limited to the major composers of the English musical renaissance (the early decades of the twentieth century). Accordingly, the catalogues let performers know how to obtain the settings. In preliminary chapters, the thesis attempts a literary examination of A Shropshire Lad and reviews the already-researched pre-Second World War settings. It then divides the post-1940 period into two parts–a Decline (to c.1980) and a Renewal (since c.1980)–and surveys them. The compositions of this period are placed in three tonal-stylistic streams of development: a mainstream tonal with ultraconservative and atonal tributaries. Then follow detailed literary-musical analyses of post-1940 songs, song cycles, collaborative sets, and multi-voice settings. A final summary draws together the conclusions of the individual chapters, summarizes and evaluates the achievement of the post-1940 composers, and suggests how further research might be carried out. / Art History, Visucal Arts and Music / D. Litt. et Phil. (Musicology)

In 1936, André Jolivet (1905-1974), Yves Baudrier (1906-1988), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (1908-2002), and Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995) founded the group Jeune France. They initiated this group under the influence of politically nonconformist movements in France which had started in the 1920s. The ideology of Jeune France was to revive in music 'true human qualities', free from 'extreme political domination'. At a time when some composers, associated with a revolutionary Left wing, were exploring avant-garde ideas in music that included atonalism, serialism, and other advanced techniques out of the common practice, other composers fell into a nationalistic Right wing, recalling the French Catholic traditions, and promoting an exclusive and true 'French' music. In contrast to these polarizing trends, Jeune France tried to trace back its art to its origins, and the goal of Jeune France was to re-establish music composition as something less 'abstract' than the Left, and more 'human' than the Right. The most powerful sound that can reflect the tenets of humanism in music is probably the human voice, especially multiple voices in a choral setting. Thus unaccompanied choral works, in particular, came to be a hallmark of many major composers of the 20th Century. The prevailing social and political environment of the pre-World War Two era also played an important role in contributing to the revival of unaccompanied choral music as a major genre. To demonstrate how these general social and political forces operated in the particular in France at this time, I have used Daniel-Lesur's Le Cantique des Cantiques (1952) to show how these affected a composer at this time. The goal of this research has been to look in depth at both Daniel-Lesur and his most famous work, about which little has been written in English; and to add to a growing body of literature which explores the rise of unaccompanied choral compositions as an important genre in the early 20th Century, a shift that is tied to political, cultural, and social conditions as well as musical ones. Taking Le Cantique des Cantiques as a token of a type, I show how this work reflects these issues as well as the aesthetics behind Jeune France. Finally, I have tried to show just how the experience of Jeune France influenced Daniel-Lesur as a composer as it did his more famous contemporary, Messiaen.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T17:06:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 115843.pdf: 1029698 bytes, checksum: b17c9ac17c774191d3c06f2d376414ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation goal was to investigate teaching strategies used by conductors in three university choirs in the Vale do Itajaí region, in Santa Catarina state, Brazil. Specific objectives were: to discuss the choir practice from the perspective of music education; reflect on the musical education in the choir practice and more specifically in the university choir; identify the main teaching strategies adopted by the conductors for the development of choral practice and; verify musical content covered in the practice of university choirs participating in the research. The work is situated within the qualitative research on the design of a multi case study and the techniques of data collection used semi-structured interviews, systematic observations and interviews by stimulation of remembrance. Data were divided into six categories initial activities, studying a new piece, rehearsing old pieces, preparing a performance, organizing the time, space and use of material resources and analyzed in the light of the literature of the choir area and also in the field of didactics. The results indicate a number of didactic strategies used by conductors in the development of activities in the respective choirs, evidencing the uniqueness and richness of the investigated contexts. / Essa dissertação teve como objetivo geral investigar estratégias didáticas utilizadas pelos regentes em três coros universitários da região do Vale do Itajaí, no estado de Santa Catarina. Os objetivos específicos foram: discutir a prática coral em uma perspectiva de educação musical; refletir sobre o ensino musical na prática do canto coral e mais especificamente no canto coral universitário; identificar as principais estratégias didáticas adotadas pelos regentes para o desenvolvimento da prática musical dos corais e; verificar conteúdos musicais abordados na prática de corais universitários participantes da pesquisa. O trabalho situou-se no âmbito da pesquisa qualitativa sob o desenho de um estudo multicaso e as técnicas de coleta de dados utilizadas foram entrevistas semiestruturadas, observações sistemáticas e entrevista por estimulação de recordação. Os dados coletados foram divididos em seis categorias atividades iniciais, ensaio de música nova, ensaio de música conhecida, ensaio para apresentação, organização do tempo e do espaço e utilização de recursos materiais e foram analisados à luz da literatura específica da área do canto coral e também do campo da didática. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam uma série de estratégias didáticas utilizadas pelos regentes no desenvolvimento de suas atividades, evidenciando a singularidade e riqueza dos contextos investigados.

Orientador: Adriana Giarola Kayama / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T11:36:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernandes_AngeloJose_D.pdf: 15120528 bytes, checksum: 34f7101f7688b07174d8d6f268fdceb2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Com o objetivo de prover material de pesquisa capaz de auxiliar o regente coral em sua função de preparador vocal, o presente trabalho é um amplo estudo sobre técnica vocal e práticas interpretativas no âmbito da música coral. Trata-se de um trabalho direcionado a regentes que atuam à frente de coros mistos adultos, de natureza amadora e formação de câmara cujo número de cantores varia de 16 a 45 vozes. Após uma reflexão introdutória, são apresentadas características históricas, técnicas e estilísticas de diversos estilos de música vocal e coral. Entre esses estilos estão a Renascença, o Barroco, o Classicismo, o Romantismo, a música do século XX e, por fim, a música coral brasileira do período colonial à atualidade. Em cada um dos estilos são abordados aspectos como a qualidade sonora das vozes, as técnicas de produção vocal, a natureza da prática coral, bem como sugestões para a construção da sonoridade desses vários estilos nos dias atuais. Na sequência, partindo de uma reflexão sobre a função do regente de preparador vocal, são definidos e descritos diferentes aspectos técnicos envolvidos na construção da sonoridade coral. Entre esses aspectos estão a administração da respiração, ressonância vocal, dicção, registração vocal, timbre, vibrato, homogeneidade, equilíbrio, afinação e precisão rítmica. Em seguida, é apresentado, como estudo de caso, um relato sobre a elaboração e a aplicação de um programa experimental de preparo vocal para coros com o Madrigal Musicanto de Itajubá, coro regido pelo autor deste trabalho. Por fim, como conclusão de toda a pesquisa realizada, apresenta-se uma linha metodológica para o preparo vocal de cantores corais que aborda aspectos como postura, respiração, ataque vocal, ressonância, dicção, registração vocal, legato, staccato, agilidade vocal, extensão vocal, dinâmica, homogeneidade e afinação / Abstract: With the objective of providing useful research material for choral conductors who are also responsible for the vocal preparation of their singers, the present work is an ample study on vocal technique and performance practice in choral music. It is a work for choral conductors of mixed chamber choirs of adult amateurs singers whose number of members varies from 16 to 45 voices. After introductory considerations, historical, technical and stylistic peculiarities of various styles of vocal and choral music are presented. Among these styles are the Renaissance, the Baroque, the Classicism, the Romanticism, the Modernism, and finally, the Brazilian choral music from the Colonial period to the present time. For each of these styles, aspects like tone color, vocal techniques, the essence of choral practice as well as suggestions for sonority building are approached. In the sequence, based on the role of the conductor as a vocal coach, different technical aspects related to the construction of the choral tone - breath management, vocal resonance, diction, vocal registration, timbre, vibrato, blend, balance, intonation, and rhythmic precision - are defined and described. Afterwards, the author presents a case study that describes the elaboration and application of an experimental program of vocal preparation with the Madrigal Musicanto of Itajubá, a choir conducted by this author. Finally, to conclude this research, methodological guidelines for the vocal preparation of choral singers - dealing with the various technical aspects discussed in this work - are presented / Doutorado / Praticas Interpretativas / Doutor em Música

Orientador: Eduardo Augusto Ostergren / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T22:55:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Toledo_VastiAtiqueFerrazde_M.pdf: 1313450 bytes, checksum: e57a817580e3051544fea67ea3e24f68 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Tendo em vista a preparação de um regente que se disponha a executar a Missa em Dó menor de Henrique Oswald, este trabalho sugere um processo para auxiliá-lo desde o primeiro contato com a partitura até a sua apresentação pública. O trabalho, que tem como foco central a Missa em Dó menor, é composto por quatro capítulos e um anexo. Nele abordam-se assuntos diversos em busca de uma maior compreensão dessa obra. O primeiro capítulo apresenta dados sob uma perspectiva histórica do contexto em que o compositor escreveu a obra. O segundo é uma reflexão sobre os textos utilizados, seu significado e suas origens. Já o terceiro capítulo é uma análise da partitura, sendo abordados os parâmetros da forma, da orquestra e do órgão, da escrita vocal e da música em relação ao texto. Concluindo, o quarto capítulo apresenta elementos de interpretação da obra, com sugestões para sua preparação e execução. Este último capítulo é o objetivo primeiro do trabalho e justifica todo o esforço para sua realização. O anexo é a edição eletrônica da Missa, a partir dos manuscritos originais, com as devidas correções e sugestões / Abstract: The objective of this study is to provide elements to help the conductor in the performance of Henrique Oswald's "Mass in C minor" in a gradual process from the initial preparation of the music score to the final public presentation of the work. It is divided into four chapters with an addendum to provide the reader with not only a complete overview of the work but to examine in detail the various musical, textual and esthetical aspects of the composition. The first chapter discusses the historical context in which the composition was written; the second analyses the origin and meaning of both biblical and liturgical texts employed by the composer; the third presents an analysis of the music score, including discussion about structure parameters, vocal and instrumental writing, music and text relationship and the use of the orchestra and of the pipe organ. As conclusion, the fourth chapter discusses interpretive elements and offers rehearsal and performance suggestions as well. The addendum consists of a digital edition of the "Mass in C minor", with the necessary corrections and editorial remarks having as basis a microfilm of the original manuscript found in the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, made possible through the courtesy of Prof. Dr. Eduardo Ostergren of Unicamp / Mestrado / Mestre em Música