Pitch Perfect: a Theory and Practice of Choral Intonation
Pitch Perfect: a Theory and Practice of Choral Intonation

Author: Donald Brinegar

Publisher:

Published: 2019-10-13

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9781695710634

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Here is what the experts are saying:"Donald Brinegar's deeply scholarly, highly original "Pitch Perfect" is the result of his life-long study and practice of choral tuning. His decades of workshops on this topic have become legendary and his book details numerous areas of theoretical and practical means that form the basis of his approach, including various tuning systems, scales and modes, tetrachords and the medieval hexachordal system, acoustics, text study, rehearsal techniques and many others, all carefully organized through a system of nested hierarchies grouping related topics. Brinegar then applies his theories to a number of specific compositions from the Renaissance to the present day. "Pitch Perfect" is an essential book for the library of all choral conductors, written by an esteemed choral master." -- Dr. Morten Lauridsen, Composer, University Professor, USC, National Medal of Arts Recipient, 2007."Pitch Perfect brilliantly combines two of Don Brinegar's lifelong loves - teaching and the art of comprehensive score preparation. He connects a wide variety of important technical data, puts it in his "teacher centrifuge," and the result is a unique and fresh new perspective on musical nature, with practical application to conducting, score analysis, and performance. Serious emerging and seasoned conductors need a copy of this book!" Dr. Z. Randall Stroope, Composer and University Professor"My musical life changed when I discovered that the major third my tenors were singing at the final cadence of a Renaissance motet WERE in tune, but it was in tune to a different tuning system than the tempered piano. THANK Y0U maestro Brinegar for sharing your tuning system with me more than twenty years ago and codifying it in "Pitch Perfect." The tuning system outlined in this new book (with historical musical examples from major composers) is cellular, functional, historical, lunar, mathematical, musical, natural, over-tonal, partial, philosophical, practical, scientific, solar, spiritual, tetra-chordal, under-tonal, hexa-chordal, and visual. Vocal colors emerge from a natural system of balancing and tuning chords. Functional and helpful conducting gestures suggest themselves from an understanding of the tuning hierarchy. Sharing this tuning system with my singers enabled them to sing more beautifully, more balanced, more resonant, and more expressive than ever before, and has influenced all of my compositions. "Pitch Perfect" WORKS!" Dr. Ronald Kean, Composer and Professor Emeritus."Don is a master teacher. Over the years many of us have been greatly influenced by his work through his choirs, his choral adjudications, and in his classroom. In this book, Don eloquently and systematically explains his "principles and foundations" for improved intonation through his words and numerous musical examples. This book is a compilation of his lifetime journey of listening, learning, reflecting, and teaching--as if you were sitting in his classroom or speaking to you personally." Dr. J. Edmund Hughes, University Professor of Choral Studies."I have been singing out of tune with nature. This one idea made me want to dig deeper into this book and not put it down.As a choral singer and a conductor, this book is changing how I hear, how I rehearse, and how I sing. What a journey! Thank you, Don, for sharing your knowledge and your life-long love of choral beauty." Jenny Tisi, Choral Director and Vocalist."A big thank you to Donald Brinegar for this magnificent gift to the music community. The intellectual rigor of addressing this comprehensive subject is astounding. Professor Sigrid Johnson, Renowned Choral Conductor.Coming Soon!!! The Teacher's Companion to Pitch Perfect A Theory and Practice of Choral Intonation gives step by step lesson plans for the implementation of Pitch Perfect. Lesson plans include material for: Theory classes, Choral Seminars, Choral Rehearsals, Master Classes, and Conference Presentations

Conducting Primer Seven Principles of Choral Conducting
Conducting Primer Seven Principles of Choral Conducting

Author: Donald Brinegar

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-15

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13:

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A primer of the basic principles required for excellence in Choral Conducting. Author Donald Brinegar along with Primer editor Dr. William Belan and contributors Dr. Christopher Gravis, Dr. Joseph Schubert, and Dr. John St. Marie examine seven (7) principles of learning to be a choral conductor. Here is what the Professionals are saying-"This text (Conducting Primer) should be a requirement for all graduate conducting students. The questions presented in the text provide the reader an opportunity to self-assess and reflect upon their current approach to scores, rehearsal technique and podium time."--Nicholle Andrews, Director of Choral Studies, University of Redlands. "One might be tempted to say what else can be said about conducting that hasn't already been explored ad nauseam? On the contrary, Donald Brinegar and his fellow contributors have written a consequential resource that, in my opinion, will greatly influence the philosophy and application of undergraduate and graduate conducting curricula for many generations to come. But don't be fooled, this resource is not just for the university conducting classroom. The truth is, if you find yourself responsible for leading an ensemble, you will greatly benefit from the wealth found in Don's seven principles."--Michael Murphy, Stephen F. Austin State University "In Conducting Primer: Seven Principles of Choral Conducting, Donald Brinegar has coalesced several of the most important concepts pertaining to conducting pedagogy in one beautiful source. The guidebook is an absolute must for serious students and teachers of conducting. I absolutely would buy this book if only for the information held within Principle 7: Space and Time - -Fermatas. Nowhere in the conducting pedagogy literature is such a concise yet impactful collection of thoughts and applied techniques pertaining to the enigmatic musical idea of the fermata."--James Bass, University of California, Los Angeles. "In my first choral seminar class with Donald Brinegar, in the Three-Summer MM in Choral Conducting Program at Cal State LA, he finished his initial lecture and asked the class, " Questions?, Comments?, Suggestions?, Epiphanies?" In this book, Professor Brinegar leads the reader through a refreshing process for score study, preparation, and gesture. When a conductor begins to study a score they come to the score with questions or asking questions. Those questions guide the study until comments are stated, potentially argued or countered, or found true. Through questions and comments, the score begins to suggest context and meaning, and an audiation is forming. Then, the conductor arrives at epiphanies of context and meaning through audiation, allowing for all musical elements to be accounted for and seen in one's conducting gestures. This book is a significant contribution to choral conducting and pedagogy; It will encourage its readers to explore all musical elements at a depth that opens up audiation, imagination, musicianship, and gesture."--Alan Davis, Music Educator "Finally, the book you didn't know you have been waiting for! In Conducting Primer: Seven Principles of Choral Conducting, the brilliant professor Donald Brinegar and his colleagues unpack the 'big ideas' of choral conducting that we all should be eager to digest. The principles of this text are essential for any self-respecting conductor who wishes to put musical gestures before physical gestures, musicianship before conducting, and art and others before the self."--Davy Chinn, Director, Indiana Wesleyan University Chorale"Donald Brinegar and his colleagues at CSULA, in Conducting Primer, rattle traditional assumptions and conducting methodologies, and through seven laser-sharp principles, creates THE most comprehensive book/study on this subject available to date. Required reading for the serious conductor.-- Z. Randall Stroope, Regent's Professor and Doug and Nickie Burns Endowed Chair, Oklahoma State University.

The Oxford Handbook of Singing
The Oxford Handbook of Singing

Author: Graham F. Welch

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 1200

ISBN-13: 0192576070

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Singing has been a characteristic behaviour of humanity across several millennia. Chorus America (2009) estimated that 42.6 million adults and children regularly sing in one of 270,000 choruses in the US, representing more than 1:5 households. Similarly, recent European-based data suggest that more than 37 million adults take part in group singing. The Oxford Handbook of Singing is a landmark text on this topic. It is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wishes to know more about the pluralistic nature of singing. In part, the narrative adopts a lifespan approach, pre-cradle to senescence, to illustrate that singing is a commonplace behaviour which is an essential characteristic of our humanity. In the overall design of the Handbook, the chapter contents have been clustered into eight main sections, embracing fifty-three chapters by seventy-two authors, drawn from across the world, with each chapter illustrating and illuminating a particular aspect of singing. Offering a multi-disciplinary perspective embracing the arts and humanities, physical, social and clinical sciences, the book will be valuable for a broad audience within those fields.

A Cappella Arranging 2.0
A Cappella Arranging 2.0

Author: Deke Sharon

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-06-03

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 1538172674

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In this highly anticipated sequel to A Cappella Arranging, Deke Sharon and Dylan Bell provide even more tools and insights to help musicians master the craft of a cappella arranging—including new creative principles and theoretical techniques to expand the palate, as well as arranging in various musical genres spanning several decades of music. Since the publication of the original book in 2012, a cappella as a genre has grown enormously. Using conversational yet instructive tone, A Cappella Arranging 2.0: The Next Level picks up where the previous book left off, helping people deepen their a cappella arranging skills. In four parts, the book addresses a variety of topics including: The creative process An advanced understanding of vocal ranges Counterpoint and polyphony Harmonic concepts and techniques Arranging for the studio Live looping arrangements Instrumental idioms Arranging in different styles, including world styles Medleys and mashups This is the perfect resource for taking your a cappella arrangements to the next level.

Musicophilia
Musicophilia

Author: Oliver Sacks

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2010-02-05

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0307373495

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What goes on in human beings when they make or listen to music? What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, power delectable and beneficent for the most part, but also capable of uncontrollable and sometimes destructive force? Music has no concepts, it lacks images; it has no power of representation, it has no relation to the world. And yet it is evident in all of us–we tap our feet, we keep time, hum, sing, conduct music, mirror the melodic contours and feelings of what we hear in our movements and expressions. In this book, Oliver Sacks explores the power music wields over us–a power that sometimes we control and at other times don’t. He explores, in his inimitable fashion, how it can provide access to otherwise unreachable emotional states, how it can revivify neurological avenues that have been frozen, evoke memories of earlier, lost events or states or bring those with neurological disorders back to a time when the world was much richer. This is a book that explores, like no other, the myriad dimensions of our experience of and with music.

The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy
The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy

Author: Frank Abrahams

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-02-01

Total Pages: 569

ISBN-13: 019937337X

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As the landscape of choral education changes - disrupted by Glee, YouTube, and increasingly cheap audio production software - teachers of choral conducting need current research in the field that charts scholarly paths through contemporary debates and sets an agenda for new critical thought and practice. Where, in the digitizing world, is the field of choral pedagogy moving? Editor Frank Abrahams and Paul D. Head, both experienced choral conductors and teachers, offer here a comprehensive handbook of newly-commissioned chapters that provide key scholarly-critical perspectives on teaching and learning in the field of choral music, written by academic scholars and researchers in tandem with active choral conductors. As chapters in this book demonstrate, choral pedagogy encompasses everything from conductors' gestures to the administrative management of the choir. The contributors to The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy address the full range of issues in contemporary choral pedagogy, from repertoire to voice science to the social and political aspects of choral singing. They also cover the construction of a choral singer's personal identity, the gendering of choral ensembles, social justice in choral education, and the role of the choral art in society more generally. Included scholarship focuses on both the United States and international perspectives in five sections that address traditional paradigms of the field and challenges to them; critical case studies on teaching and conducting specific populations (such as international, school, or barbershop choirs); the pedagogical functions of repertoire; teaching as a way to construct identity; and new scholarly methodologies in pedagogy and the voice.

Vocal Warm-ups
Vocal Warm-ups

Author: Klaus Heizmann

Publisher: Schott Music

Published: 2019-02-08

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 3795716241

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What choral conductor or soloist has not looked around for new ideas for warming up the voice? Here are 200 suggestions all at once! And these creative exercises do more than just warm up the voice: they help to relax the body, train the ear and develop an awareness of dynamics and rhythm. "Klaus Heizmann's collection is a wonderful new resource of ideas and techniques: practical, varied, challenging, relaxing and stimulating. I am always looking for new ideas, as I like to use a different set of warm-ups at every rehearsal with my choirs, and I tend to choose specific exercises to suit the repertoire for the day. This collection gives us 200 excellent "tools-of-the-trade"; they are clearly labeled, intelligently set out, well-designed and extremely useful." (Simon Carrington, Director of Choral Activities, New England Conservatory since 2001; Director of Choral Activities, The University of Kansas 1994-2001; Founder and co-director of the King's Singers 1968-1993)

Basic Music Theory
Basic Music Theory

Author: Jonathan Harnum

Publisher: Questions Ink. Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780970751287

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Basic Music Theory takes you through the sometimes confusing world of written music with a clear, concise style that is at times funny and always friendly. The book is written by an experienced teacher using methods refined over more than ten years in his private teaching studio and in schools. --from publisher description.