CONDUCTOR AS MUSICIANSHIP MENTOR
Aleta King
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts
Sydney Conservatorium of Music University of Sydney 2020
Statement of Originality
I declare that the research presented here is my own original work and has not been submitted to any other institution for the award of a degree.
Signed: Aleta Serena King
Date: December 16, 2020
ii Abstract
This study investigates the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor through the rehearsal and performance process of three works for choir and orchestra. The concept of mentoring is examined through three research stages that parallel the three recitals.
In the first stage, twelve participants rehearsing and performing Bach Cantata
BWV 182 were asked about their experience of being mentored by the conductor.
Questionnaire and focus group data showed that the conductor’s musicianship mentoring role was significant to their progress. They found five musicianship elements most important: inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège. Of these, solfège was perceived as foundational to developing the other four.
In the second stage, the conductor’s self-mentoring process was analysed using a three-part self-reflective journal during preparation for a performance of
Fauré’s Requiem. Part A and C explored the core relational aspect of mentoring, while
Part B reflected on the conductor’s self-mentoring process.
In the third stage, four of the original twelve participants were asked about their self-mentoring process during the rehearsal and performance of Karl Jenkins’
The Armed Man: Mass for Peace. Participants reported that they had acquired the skills to enable self-mentoring and become early-career mentors over two years between the first and third recitals. Inner hearing, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège were again highlighted, as well as ensemble singing and conducting. Participants felt solfège and sight-singing would be most beneficial in the future.
The conductor as musicianship mentor model demonstrates the importance of self-mentoring to mentors and mentees, particularly mentees emerging as mentors.
iii When a pedagogically sequential voice-based musicianship program is intentionally aligned with an ensemble performance program, the resulting synergy has a unique, purposeful, and powerful impact on the teaching and learning environment.
iv Acknowledgments
A sincere thank you to my doctoral supervisors: Associate Professor Dr
Jennifer Rowley (thesis) and Associate Professor Dr Neil McEwan
(conducting). Without your example of expert mentoring, this thesis would never have happened. Thank you to Dr Philip Eames for your assistance with editing and to Sallyanne Dehn for your formatting expertise in the final stages.
Thank you to family, friends and colleagues who cheered me along the way, and Dr Grenville Kent, the wordsmith who encouraged me with both words and action.
v Table of Contents Statement of Originality ...... ii Abstract ...... iii Acknowledgments ...... v Figures ...... ix Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1 1.1 “I am Holding Guido’s Hand in My Hands” ...... 1 1.2 “If You Really Want to Know More, Then You Ought to Go to Hungary.” ...... 2 1.3 Rationale ...... 3 1.4 Research Questions ...... 3 1.5 Research Overview ...... 5 1.6 Thesis Overview ...... 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 8 2.1 “But When is She Going to Sing?” ...... 8 2.2 Defining Conducting ...... 9 2.3 Defining Musicianship ...... 10 2.4 The Importance of Singing in Musicianship ...... 11 2.5 Music Education in Classical Antiquity ...... 15 2.6 Boethius ...... 17 2.7 Early Christian Era ...... 18 2.8 Guido d’Arezzo ...... 19 2.9 Martin Luther and Music Education in the Reformation Era ...... 27 2.10 Johann Sebastian Bach ...... 28 2.11 Nadia Boulanger ...... 32 2.12 Mentoring ...... 38 2.13 Conclusion ...... 42 Chapter 3: Methodology ...... 43 3.1 Research Design ...... 43 3.1.1 Research Stages ...... 43 3.2 Recital 1: Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! ...... 44 3.2.1 Musicianship Program ...... 45 3.2.2 Avondale Chamber Singers ...... 46 3.3 Research Stage 1: Conductor as Mentor to Mentees ...... 47 3.3.1 Questionnaire ...... 48 3.3.2 Focus Group Discussion ...... 49 3.4 Recital 2: Gabriel Fauré Requiem...... 49 3.5 Research Stage 2: Conductor as Self-Mentor ...... 49 3.5.1 Self-Reflective Journal ...... 50 3.6 Recital 3: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace ...... 50 3.7 Research Stage 3: Conductor’s Mentees Become Self-Mentors ...... 52 3.7.1 Follow-Up Interview ...... 53 3.8 Summary ...... 54
vi Chapter 4: Results & Discussion Recital 1 | Research Stage 1 ...... 55 4.1 Recital 1: Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig sei willkommen! ...... 55 4.2 Research Stage 1: Conductor as Musicianship Mentor to Mentees ...... 55 4.3 Questionnaire: Question 9 ...... 56 4.4 Questionnaire: Question 11 ...... 59 4.4.1 Inner Hearing ...... 59 4.4.2 Musical Memory ...... 60 4.4.3 Sight-singing ...... 60 4.4.4 Intervals ...... 61 4.4.5 Solfège ...... 62 4.4.6 Triads ...... 63 4.4.7 Bach Chorale ...... 64 4.4.8 Diatonic Scales ...... 65 4.4.9 Simple Time Rhythm ...... 66 4.5 Focus Group Discussion ...... 68 4.5.1 Inner Hearing ...... 68 4.5.2 Musical Memory ...... 68 4.5.3 Sight-singing ...... 69 4.5.4 Intervals ...... 70 4.5.5 Solfège ...... 70 4.5.6 Ensemble (One Voice Per Part) ...... 72 4.6 Conclusions ...... 74 Chapter 5: Results & Discussion Recital 2 | Research Stage 2 ...... 75 5.1 Recital 2: Gabriel Fauré Requiem ...... 75 5.2 Research Stage 2: Conductor as Musicianship Self-Mentor ...... 75 5.3 Self-Reflective Journal ...... 75 5.3.1 Self-Reflective Journal: Part A Reflections ...... 76 5.3.2 Self-Reflective Journal: Part B Reflections ...... 78 5.3.3 Self-Reflective Journal: Part C Reflections ...... 79 5.4 Conclusions ...... 81 Chapter 6: Results & Discussion Recital 3 | Research Stage 3 ...... 83 6.1 Recital 3: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace ...... 83 6.2 Research Stage 3: Conductor’s Mentees become Self-Mentors ...... 83 6.3 Follow-Up Interviews ...... 84 6.3.1 Question 1A ...... 84 6.3.2 Question 1B ...... 88 6.3.3 Question 1C ...... 89 6.3.4 Question 1D ...... 91 6.3.5 Question 2 ...... 93 6.3.6 Question 3 ...... 94 6.3.7 Question 4 ...... 96 6.4 Reflections ...... 98 Chapter 7: Conclusions ...... 100 7.1 What is the Role of the Conductor as a Musicianship Mentor? ...... 100 7.2 What is the Conductor’s Personal Self-Mentor Preparation? ...... 101 7.3 What Musicianship Skills have Former Mentees Retained? ...... 102
vii 7.4 Limitations of the Study ...... 103 7.5 Recommendations for Further Research ...... 104 7.6 Concluding Comments ...... 105 Bibliography ...... 107 Appendices ...... 118 Appendix A: Human Ethics Approval ...... 118 Appendix B: Human Ethics Modification Approval ...... 120 Appendix C: Email Invitation to Participate in the Study ...... 121 Appendix D: Participant Information Statement ...... 122 Appendix E: Participant Consent Form ...... 126 Appendix F: Questionnaire ...... 128 Appendix G: Focus Group Discussion ...... 131 Appendix H: Self Reflective Journal Part A (Excerpts) ...... 132 Appendix I: Self Reflective Journal Part B (Excerpts) ...... 136 Appendix J: Self Reflective Journal Part C (Excerpts) ...... 142 Appendix K: Follow-Up Interview ...... 147 Appendix L: J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Critical Notes ...... 149 Appendix M: Master of Ceremonies Notes ...... 156 Appendix N: J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Program Notes ...... 158 Appendix O: Fauré Requiem Critical Notes ...... 162 Appendix P: Fauré Requiem Program Notes ...... 170 Appendix Q: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace Critical Notes ...... 171 Appendix R: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace Program Notes ...... 176 Appendix S: Recital Recordings ...... 180 Appendix T: Musicianship Program Overview (Semester 1, 2016) ...... 183
viii
Figures
Figure 1 Conductor as Musicianship Mentor Overview ...... 5 Figure 2 Ut Queant Laxis Early Notation ...... 22 Figure 3 Ut Queant Laxis Modern Notation ...... 23 Figure 4 The Guidonian Hand ...... 24 Figure 5 J. S. Bach’s Handwritten Annotation in his Bible ...... 31 Figure 6 Question 9 Analysis (Highest-Rated Musicianship Elements) ...... 57 Figure 7 Question 9 Analysis (Individual Participant Responses to the Highest-Rated Musicianship Elements) ...... 58 Figure 8 Participant Responses to Inner Hearing ...... 59 Figure 10 Participant Responses to Musical Memory ...... 60 Figure 11 Participant Responses to Sight-singing ...... 61 Figure 12 Participant Responses to Intervals ...... 62 Figure 13 Participant Responses to Solfège ...... 63 Figure 14 Participant Responses to Triads ...... 64 Figure 15 Participant Responses to Jesu, Deine Passion Choral, arr. J.S. Bach ...... 65 Figure 16 Participant Responses to Diatonic Scales ...... 66 Figure 17 Participant Responses to Simple Time Rhythm ...... 66
ix Chapter 1: Introduction
“If you can walk, you can dance, If you can talk, you can sing.” - Zimbabwean Proverb
1.1 “I am Holding Guido’s Hand in My Hands”
I can hardly believe I am holding in my two hands a small original fifteenth-century manuscript of Guido’s hand from Mantua in northern Italy. I am at Oxford University, and my anticipation is heightened as a small box containing the rare manuscript is brought out of the archives and presented to me in the special collections reading room of the Bodleian
Library. I open the box and carefully remove the treasured manuscript from within. Suddenly my senses transport me back in time through 600 years of history as I savour the first smell of the manuscript, almost a damp, sweet scent like that of an old wine cellar. The manuscript appears old and worn, akin to a much-loved possession. I run my hands over the leather cover that feels smooth and soft to touch. The folio pages within are faded and stained yellow with age, and the turning of these brittle pages creates a crisp but faint rustling sound. The black and red ink is still remarkably vibrant on the page. The calligraphy is stunning in its neatness and precision, undoubtedly the elegant strokes of a masterful hand. Each page is a treasure chest of lyrics accompanied by early music notation that evokes the spiritual songs of long- forgotten people and their places, objects, beliefs, and ideas.
In the very back pages of this manuscript is the hidden treasure I seek. Before me is one of the oldest surviving examples of the Guidonian hand perfectly preserved. Solmisation syllables and early music notation spread across its entire surface area like an intricately detailed aural guide map. As I read the musical symbols, they simultaneously translate into faint but distinct sounds in my head. I quietly reflect on the remarkable fact that this ancient
1 pedagogical tool, first implemented by Guido d’Arezzo almost 1,000 years ago,1 is one of the oldest existing examples of a pedagogical language that has continued to evolve and is still currently used in twenty-first-century music education.
A profound thought occurs to me: Guido’s hand means nothing at all without a specialist musician who is both conductor and musicianship mentor to interpret its symbolism, and through the act of singing to bring it to life. In this sense, Guido’s Hand is about conducting, musicianship, mentoring, and singing, and therefore symbolic of the key elements that comprise the very quintessence of this study.
1.2 “If You Really Want to Know More, Then You Ought to Go to Hungary.”
I was blessed to have quality teaching and learning experiences in musicianship during my time as an undergraduate music student in Queensland, Australia. My first introduction to the concept of musicianship as a discrete skill to be developed in a musician was through the first-year foundation and second-year intermediate studies in musicianship with two university mentors who had themselves studied at the Liszt Academy’s Kodály Institute in
Hungary. They were both very inspiring pedagogues who, upon observing my natural inclination and obvious enthusiasm for musicianship classes, encouraged me to go to Hungary for further specialised study. I still vividly recall the day one of these mentors, in response to my perpetually intense curiosity (bordering on obsession) for musicianship, said to me in an almost exasperated tone, “Well, Aleta, if you really want to know more, then you ought to go to Hungary.” And so, I did! This conversation was the humble beginnings of the aspiration that led me to pursue two invaluable years of postgraduate studies in musicianship pedagogy and conducting at the Liszt Academy’s Kodály Institute.
During my progression from undergraduate to postgraduate music student, I became increasingly aware that my musicianship and conducting skills had slowly but surely
1 c. 991/992 – 1033 C.E.
2 undergone a remarkable transformation during many years of intense study in Australia and
Hungary. Most significantly, the secure musicianship foundations laid during my formative years in Australia and strengthened in Hungary continue to remain the fundamental basis upon which my expertise, experience, confidence, and commitment to lifelong learning is built as a professional musicianship mentor and conductor. Unsurprisingly, I wish to inspire the same enthusiasm for excellence in my musicianship and conducting students. Thus, the reason for my curiosity into my role as a conductor and musicianship mentor. In the same way that my mentors have inspired me, I want to know and understand what my mentees value about the musicianship and conducting legacy passed down from me as their mentor.
1.3 Rationale
This thesis is about the conductor whose students use musicianship skills developed in musicianship class through the rehearsal and performance process. The focus of this study is on the correlation between (i) participant experience whilst completing part or all the musicianship program, (ii) their perceived value of the elements of this program when taking part in rehearsals and performances, and (iii) the independent application of these skills beyond the program.
There are three purposes to this research study: To examine the role of the conductor as a musicianship mentor to their mentees; to explore the conductor as musicianship self- mentor; and to investigate how mentees use musicianship skills in their self-mentoring. This research aims to highlight for the conductor the need for self-reflective best practice as a musicianship mentor.
1.4 Research Questions
This research was carried out with my students, who were willing participants, and myself as both musicianship mentor and conductor during the rehearsal and performance
3 process of three contrasting works for choir and orchestra. The conductor and the musicianship mentor are one and the same person. These three recitals were in partial fulfilment of my Doctor of Musical Arts requirements at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music. The mentoring role was examined from three different perspectives through three parallel research questions. Each research question explored the role of the Conductor as
Musicianship Mentor (CMM) as summarised here and represented in Figure 1 below. This diagram is expanded in Figure 6 and discussed in further detail in Chapter Three.
Recital 1 – J. S. Bach, Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig sei willkommen!
Research Question 1: What is the role of the CMM to mentees in the
preparation of a small vocal ensemble (n=12) through the rehearsal and
performance process?
Recital 2 – G. Fauré, Requiem
Research Question 2: What is the conductor’s personal self-mentor preparation
through the rehearsal and performance process?
Recital 3 – K. Jenkins, The Armed Man: Mass for Peace
Research Question 3: What musicianship skills have former mentees retained
and used in their personal self-mentoring preparation through the rehearsal and
performance process, as observed in selected members of the vocal ensemble
(n=4) from recital one?
4
Figure 1 Conductor as Musicianship Mentor Overview
1.5 Research Overview
These three public recitals took place across two years. For the first recital (June,
2016) I conducted Avondale Conservatorium’s twelve-voice chamber choir and eight-piece chamber orchestra in a performance of J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig sei willkommen!2 There were twelve participants in this research, eleven from the choir and one from the orchestra. Of these twelve, nine participants were in my musicianship classes at the
Conservatorium, where selected movements of the Bach cantata were studied concurrently during the rehearsal period. The three remaining participants had been in my advanced musicianship classes within the last three years. At the end of the rehearsal process, each of the twelve participants completed a questionnaire concerning which musicianship skills they had acquired that were most relevant to the cantata. Immediately after the performance, all twelve participants took part in a focus group discussion in which they reflected on which particular musicianship skills the performance had required of them.3
2 English translation: Heaven’s King, Welcome! 3 See Appendix M master of ceremonies notes for further explanation.
5 For the second recital (October 2016), I conducted the Sydney Conservatorium
Symphony Orchestra, Choir, and Chamber Choir in a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s
Requiem. My focus was on the musicianship skills I used in my preparation as a conductor.
For this purpose, I kept a self-reflective journal throughout the rehearsal and performance process.
For the third recital (June 2018), I conducted the Newcastle Wind Orchestra and
Avondale Singers in a performance of Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: Mass for Peace. This performance included seven of the original twelve participants from the first recital (June
2016). Under my guidance, they had completed the foundation, intermediate and advanced musicianship levels of their undergraduate musicianship program. As they were no longer students in my class, they were expected to prepare in their own time using the musicianship skills they had acquired and were now teaching to others. Four participants completed a follow-up interview. Two were now working as early career teachers, and the other two were in their final year of music education placements. The follow-up interview asked them to reflect on this change from being a mentee to being able to self-mentor and be a mentor of students.
1.6 Thesis Overview
This thesis falls into five parts, including this introduction. Chapter Two will review the relevant literature on musicianship and explore the historical significance of three prominent musicians from the western art music tradition: Guido d’Arezzo, Johann Sebastian
Bach, and Nadia Boulanger. They were selected as prominent examples of musicians whose mentoring in musicianship was integral to their life as a professional conductor. This chapter concludes with a brief overview of the role of mentoring and its present significance. Chapter
Three outlines the methodology involved in the remainder of this study. Chapters Four, Five,
6 and Six present the results for each of the three stages of research and discuss their implications. Chapter Seven concludes the study and considers further possible research.
7 Chapter 2: Literature Review
“Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start. When you read, you begin with A-B-C, When you sing, you begin with do-re-mi.” - Maria, The Sound of Music
2.1 “But When is She Going to Sing?”
In 2008 I arrived in Honiara, Solomon Islands, with my 1888 German violin in tow.
The instrument immediately raised its protest against the humid tropical climate, with its aged wood expanding and sweating and its steel-wound gut strings stubbornly refusing to stay in tune. I stood valiantly to play my solo in the face of mutiny from the tired old instrument. It was clear that most of the audience did not recognise the instrument or know what sound to expect. They looked and listened; some faces expressed curiosity while others showed blank bewilderment before, during, and after my solo. When I sat down, there was polite applause, and one elderly woman whispered not very quietly: “But when is she going to sing?” In this cultural context, it appeared that music and singing were almost synonymous.
Similarly, I often sense just how much singing is at the centre of musicianship that permeates everything I do, both as a teacher of musicianship and as a performer on the conducting podium. This synergy between musicianship, conducting and the role of singing in this process fascinates me. What is it? Furthermore, why, how, where, when, and with whom does it happen?
This review of the literature begins by defining conducting and musicianship and traces through history the idea of singing as a foundational element to the practice of conducting and musicianship. It highlights the significant contributions of Kodály, Boethius, and Luther. It examines three exceptional musicians, Guido d’Arezzo, Johann Sebastian
8 Bach, and Nadia Boulanger, whose musicianship underpinned their pedagogy and practice as a conductor. It concludes with a brief overview of mentoring in the context of this research study.
2.2 Defining Conducting
The origins of conducting as a modern art form can be traced back to ancient
Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Jewish communal worship practices in which hand gestures were used to lead chanting or singing of hymns, prayers, and sacred texts.4 During
Greek and Roman times, this practice was referred to as cheironomy from the Greek cheiros, meaning hand.5 The history of conducting “may conveniently be divided into three overlapping phases: the singer-timebeater (15th–16th century); the instrumentalist-leader
(17th–18th century); the baton conductor (19th–20th century).”6 These three overlapping phases correspond with the three exceptional musicians at the heart of this literature review:
Guido d’Arezzo provides one of the earliest examples of the singer-timebeater in the 11th century. Johann Sebastian Bach was a formidable example of the instrumentalist-leader during the first half of the 18th century. Nadia Boulanger was an iconic example of the first female baton conductor in the twentieth century.
4 Naomi Feuchtwanger-Sarig, “Chanting to the Hand: Some Preliminary Observations on the Origins of the Torah Pointer,” in Studia Renthaliana 37 (2004), 11, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41482486. Also, Kim M. Tavierne, “Conducting: How It Came to Be” (Podium Presentation presented at The Research and Scholarship Symposium, Cedarville University, April 1, 2015). Also, William Southerland, “Giving Music a Hand: Conducting History in Practice and Pedagogy,” in The Choral Journal 59, no. 8 (2019):30-43. Accessed June 11, 2021, https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/stable/26601977. 5 Ibid. Also, Edith Gerson-Kiwi, “Cheironomy,” revised by David Hiley, in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001, accessed June 11, 2021, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.05510. 6 John Spitzer, Neal Zaslaw, Leon Botstein, Charles Barber, José A. Bowen and Jack Westrup, “Conducting,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001, accessed June 11, 2021, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06266.
9 2.3 Defining Musicianship
Musicianship has been defined as “the level of musical skill evident in a musician,”7 which recognises the near truism that the quality of a musician is evidenced by the quality of their musical skills or, in other words, their level of musicianship. This study will assume that excellent musicianship is the foundation of an excellent conductor. The word musicianship was added to the Oxford English Dictionary only in 1867,8 yet this does not mean that the concept was unknown historically. There is certainly evidence to suggest that as far back as the classical Greek philosophers, music skill development was integral to music education.9
In common with numerous authors (Serafine,10 McAdams and Bigand,11 Levitin,12
Best,13 Karpinski14), this chapter will use the term musicianship as a contemporary umbrella term for the wide variety of musical skills that enable a musician’s ability to think intelligently in sound.15 These skills can be variously described in broad terms such as solfège16, music literacy, aural skills, inner hearing, audiating,17 auralising,18 and ear training.
It also encompasses composite fields such as sight-reading, sight-singing, memorising,
7 Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. “Musicianship,” accessed April 25, 2018, http://www.oed.com.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/view/Entry/124124?redirectedFrom=musicianship& 8 Ibid. 9 Philip Alperson, “Music Education,” in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, ed. Theodore Gracyk and Andrew Kania (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2011), 614. 10 Mary L. Serafine, Music as Cognition: The Development of Thought in Sound (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 69. 11 Stephen McAdams and Emmanuel Bigand, eds., Thinking in Sound: The Cognitive Psychology of Human Audition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001) 12 Daniel Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music (London: Atlantic Books, 2008). 13 Harold M. Best, “Music Curricula in the Future,” Arts Education Policy Review, 94, no. 2 (1992), 4, doi:10.1080/10632913.1992.9936901. 14 Gary. S. Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 4. 15 Serafine, Music as Cognition, 69. 16 Solfège in the context of this thesis is to be understood as synonymous with the terms tonic solfa, moveable do and/or relative solfa in which do is the major tonic and la is the minor tonic. 17 The concept of audiation was first developed and published by Edwin Gordon in Advanced Measures of Music Audiation. (Chicago: GIA Publications,1989). The GIML website headed by Gordon states that “audiation is the foundation of musicianship ... a cognitive process by which the brain gives meaning to musical sounds.” Edwin Gordon, “Audiation,” accessed 25 April, 2018, https://giml.org/mlt/audiation/. 18 See Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, 49.
10 listening, dictating, transcribing, arranging, composing, performing, conducting, and directing, though these terms can overlap somewhat in different cultural contexts.19
2.4 The Importance of Singing in Musicianship
“Musicianship is about training the student not just to be a player of an instrument, but to be a musician. The best way to do that is to take the instrument away.” - Michael Kaulkin20
Hungarian philosopher Zoltán Kodály argued that musicianship in instrumentalists was as effectively developed through singing as for vocalists. After observing the renowned
Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini using singing to communicate with his orchestra, Kodály later remarked:
I heard the finest singing in the world by the world’s worst voice – Toscanini’s, when at rehearsal he demonstrated a phrase in his blunt, hoarse voice for his players and singers. And this is why they could sing so beautifully under his baton. His most frequent comment to the orchestra was ‘Cantare! Cantare!’21
In teaching this way, Kodály was drawing on a tradition that stretched at least as far back as the Greek foundations of western civilisation.22 During Kodály’s lifetime, his beloved
Hungary had endured the forced influence of other cultures, the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918, later the Nazis until 1945, and finally Soviet Russia. Precisely because of this political turmoil, Kodály advocated for the Hungarian people to rediscover their unique
19 A larger discussion on how the subject of musicianship is considered in contemporary education pedagogy is outside the scope of this thesis due to word limit restrictions. However, I have provided a general overview of Avondale’s musicianship program (Semester 1, 2016) in relation to the first recital and research stage (March – June 2016) with the addition of supporting documentation that can be found in appendix T. 20 Michael Kaulkin, “What is Musicianship?” (blog), December 5, 2009, https://medium.com/@michaelkaulkin/what-is-musicianship-49b40031476a. 21 Zoltán Kodály, “Who is a Good Musician?” in The Selected Writings of Zoltán Kodály, ed. Ferenc Bónis, trans. Lili Halápy and Fred Macnicol (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1974), 193. The English literal translation of the Italian “cantare” is “to sing.” 22 Desmond Lee, trans. Plato: The Republic (London: Penguin, 2007), 93.
11 past, identity, and culture through music. Kodály “believed that music should have an essential cultural function and significant social status”23 in Hungarian society.
Kodály scholar Mihály Ittzés states: “Kodály’s ideas are rooted in various sources which he integrated into his own thinking – a combination that produced his own special philosophy on music education.”24 According to Ittzés, Kodály’s philosophy can be summarised as follows: “(i) music education should be provided in school for all children; (ii) the basis for music education should be singing; (iii) singing is most effectively taught by a value-centred selection of materials based on the music of the mother-tongue (folk music); and (iv) reading and writing of music should be based on relative solmisation (moveable doh).”25
For inspiration, Kodály turned to the Latin countries of Western Europe, 26 drawn by their long tradition of developing musicianship skills centred on singing. Kodály observed:
“Music-teaching in Latin countries starts with singing and therefore their instrumental playing also has the nature of singing.”27 This notion resonated with Germany’s most prominent nineteenth-century musicians, including Wagner, Bülow, Thalberg, and Schumann.28 The latter also explicitly encouraged singing in instrumental musical training, 29 demonstrating an awareness of the flaws in the Germanic teaching culture of the time. Heedless of political ideology, Kodály’s closing speech to mark the Liszt Academy of Music’s 1953 academic year posed the question “who is a good musician?” and concluding that required characteristics were:
1. A well-trained ear 3. A well-trained heart 2. A well-trained intelligence 4. A well-trained hand
23 Mihály Ittzés, “Zoltán Kodály 1882-1967: Honorary President of ISME 1964-1967,” International Journal of Music Education 22, no. 2 (August 2004): 132, doi:10.1177/0255761404044015. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 Kodály is primarily referring to Italy and France in this statement. 27 Kodály, “Who is a Good Musician?” 193. 28 Ibid, 192-193. 29 Robert Schumann, Advice to Young Musicians, trans. Henry H. Pierson, ([1860] 28 February 2009), http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28219.
12 All four must develop together, in constant equilibrium. As soon as one lags behind or rushes ahead, there is something wrong. So far, most of you have met only the requirement of the fourth point: the training of your fingers has left the rest far behind. You would have achieved the same results more quickly and easily, however, if your training in the other three had kept pace.30
Kodály referred to this “general training in musical skills” development as “technique généralé.”31 To aid this general technical training in music skill development, Kodály gathered the best music education practices of the time: from Italy (Guido d’Arezzo’s solmisation and music literacy);32 France (Pierre Galin, Aimé Paris, and Émile Chevé, who contributed Rhythm Names);33 and England (Sarah Glover who pioneered Tonic Solfa and later John Curwen who developed Hand Signs to compliment the solfa syllables).34 Much later, this would come to be known by others outside of Hungary as the Kodály philosophy or method. Kodály, his students, and successors openly acknowledged his borrowing, as the focus was not so much on creating a so-called ‘method’ but rather about utilising whatever best resources were available to create a quality music education culture. This eclecticism helped to create a formidable music education system embedded in Hungarian cultural practices with singing at its core.
Kodály is not without his critics. Bennet Reimer is best known for his leading contributions to aesthetic music education philosophy in the 1970s and 1980s. He is, therefore, quite critical of music education methodologies he believes to be narrowly aligned to practical performance rather than aesthetic music education ideals in which the musical work existed as an autonomous object to be studied independently of any performance of the work.35 Reimer refers to the Kodály concept as “active musicianship, construed primarily as
30 Kodály, “Who is a Good Musician?” 197. 31 Ittzés, “Zoltán Kodály,” (2004), 133. 32 See Section 2.8 below for further information on Guido d’Arezzo. 33 Bernarr Rainbow "French Time Names," in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001, accessed March 15, 2020, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.10213. 34 Bernarr Rainbow and Charles Edward McGuire, "Tonic Sol-fa," in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001, accessed March 15, 2020, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28124. 35 Bennet Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education, 2nd ed. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989), 150-167.
13 the ability to perform.”36 In this regard, Reimer’s aesthetic music education ideals appear to be far from that of Kodály’s beliefs about what constitutes quality music education. During the 1990s, Reimer’s former doctoral student David Elliott developed what he called a praxial philosophy of music education37 “in which the act of making music (musicing) reminds us that performing and improvising through singing and playing instruments lies at the heart of music as a diverse human practice.”38 Elliott is opposed to the aesthetic music education philosophy in which the musical work, not the performance of the work, is most important.39
Complementing this, Howard Gardner defines music as a unique way of knowing and doing in his theory of multiple intelligences.40 Elliott’s and Gardiner’s ideas together emphasise the practical experience (over the aesthetic experience) inherent in music’s unique way of knowing and doing that more closely aligns with the Kodály concept of music education.
Outside of Hungary, the work of Kodály continues to make a significant impact in research scholarship and best practice in musicianship skill development programs in the higher music education context. Recent examples of scholarly teaching and learning resources that are specifically aimed at the practical application of Kodály’s concepts in higher music education musicianship programs include Micheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka’s From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music41 and the current work of Mónika Benedek and David
36 Bennet Reimer, A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision, 3rd ed. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003), 245. 37 For a concise definition of praxis and paraxial music education see David J. Elliott and Marissa Silverman, Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 17. See also David J. Elliott, “Praxial Music Education” (2016), accessed April 25, 2018, http://www.davidelliottmusic.com/praxial-music-education. 38 David J. Elliott, Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 49. 39 Ibid., 29-38. 40 See Howard Gardner, “The Theory of Multiple Intelligences” (2016), accessed April 25, 2018, http://multipleintelligencesoasis.org/about/. See also Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind, 2nd ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2011) and Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice (New York: Basic Books, 2006). 41 Micheál Houlahan and Philip Tacka, From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
14 Vinden in Harmony through Relative Solfa.42 Kodály’s contribution is also acknowledged within a broader scholarship context. Two significant examples of these include contributions from Ida Vujović43 and Gary Karpinski, whose seminal work on the acquisition of aural skills in higher music education refers to the Kodály concept and places emphasis on using a tonic- centric solmisation system for skill development.44 With this contemporary foundation established, it is pertinent to examine historical traditions that have held to variations of the concept.
2.5 Music Education in Classical Antiquity
Music was one of the seven liberal arts of Greek classical education45 , and philosophers including Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras viewed it as essential to the development of society. Pythagoras understood the physical world as a “material working out
(representation) of numerical truth, and that this truth is immediately and easily apprehended, albeit superficially, in elementary musical consonances.”46
The first level of a liberal arts education was the trivium (an intersection of three roads), which included the study of the art of words and language acquired through grammar
(input), logic (process), and rhetoric (output). The second level of liberal arts was referred to as the quadrivium (four roads), which included a study of the art of numbers or mathematics, acquired through arithmetic (pure numbers), geometry (numbers in space), music (numbers in time) and astronomy (numbers in space and time). These seven liberal arts laid the foundation
42 Mónika Benedek and David Vinden, Harmony Through Relative Solfa: A Practical Approach Using Fine Music Examples Selected From Different Eras, 2nd ed. (London: Kodály Centre London, 2020). 43 Ida Vujović, “Between Building Foundational Skills and Instilling Self-guided Learning: Solfège Pedagogy in Higher Music Education” (2014), accessed November 6, 2020, https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/87162/87163. See also Ida Vujović and Banka Bogunović, “Metacognitive Strategies in Learning Sight-Singing,” in Psihološka Istraživanja 15, no. 2, 2012. 44 Gary Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). 45 Frederick A.G. Beck and Rosalind Thomas, “Greek Education,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, 4th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 489. 46 Barbara André, “Pythagoras,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2013, accessed April 25, 2018, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22603.
15 for the third level, which was considered the pinnacle of Greek education: the pursuit of truth and morality through philosophy and theology.47 The Greek liberal arts scholar pursued this quest for truth by acquiring and mastering the art of thinking. However, as Plato scholar
Desmond Lee observes, “Greek music was employed largely as an accompaniment to song.”48
Music, then, made rich connections between the spoken word of the trivium and the numbers in time of the quadrivium and was considered essential to intellectual development. It elevated the spoken word into singing, with or without instrumental accompaniment.
While Greek music education valued the pursuit of truth through the development of moral character and intellect, Roman culture seemed more interested in the practicalities of life. Barker provocatively suggests the Romans reacted to Greek philosophies regarding music because the “Romans seem to have thought of the musical elements in education either as a source of peripheral gentlemanly adornments or as a part of a thoroughly ungentlemanly professional training.”49 In the Roman era, music seemed to lose the elite philosophical status it had enjoyed in Greece, taking a more practical role to meet the functional demands of sacred and secular rituals in Roman society. Poetry breaking away from music was a significant reason for this change of status. As Barker notes, “sophisticated poetry had emancipated itself from occasions of musical performance and was primarily designed to be spoken or read.”50
At the same time, musical instruments gradually moved beyond the mere accompaniment of vocal performance to become solo instruments in their own right, thereby eroding the central role that singing had once enjoyed in secular music performance. This progression predictably influenced music education, giving rise to separate and distinct instrumental performance practices which relied less on the Greek philosophical emphasis on
47 Miriam Joseph, The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2002), 3. 48 Lee, Plato: The Republic, 93. 49 Andrew Barker, “Music,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 975. 50 Ibid.
16 music’s ability to influence the development of moral character in favour of a more Roman practical emphasis on the technical and theoretical study of music.51
2.6 Boethius
The “primary figure in the transition between the intellectual worlds of Classical
Antiquity and the Middle Ages”52 was the Roman philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius (477-524 AD). In his treatise De Institutione Musica or Fundamentals of Music,
Boethius compares the four mathematical arts of the quadrivium and singles out music as significantly different from the other three. He argues that music possesses the unrivalled potential to appeal to both intellectual reason and the physical senses. Further, it can therefore provide logical truth as well as evoke a pleasurable physical sound sensation, or even an offensive one.53 Boethius’ suggests that music has the power to connect the intellectual with the physical, which is a desired outcome of integrated musicianship education to this day.
Boethius confers the title musicus (musician) on the one who was considered musical, that is, skilled in the theoretical and philosophical understanding of music first and foremost.54 As a
Platonist whose philosophy valued the soul more highly than the body, Boethius tended to privilege the theoretical and philosophical over the practical skills.
Boethius recognised three kinds of music.55 Musica universalis (also called musica mundana), meaning the sound residing in the universe as envisaged in Pythagoras’ theory of the harmony of the spheres.56 Musica humana referred to the sound of the right relations between soul and body. He regarded these first two kinds of music as being inaudible to the
51 Ibid. 52 James McKinnon, “Boethius,” in Source Readings in Music History, ed. Oliver Strunk, rev. ed. (New York: W.W. Norton,1998), 137. 53 Anicius. M. S. Boethius, “Fundamentals of Music,” in Source Readings in Music History, 138. 54 Ibid., 142. 55 Boethius, “Fundamentals of Music,” 140. 56 See Dominique Proust, “Harmony of the Spheres from Pythagoras to Voyager 2,” The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposium, vol. 260 (2011), 358- 367. See also Barbara R. Gaizauskas, “The Harmony of the Spheres,” Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 68 (1974), 146-151.
17 bodily senses; the music of the spheres was too loud for the ears to hear but could be sensed by the soul. The music constituted in certain instruments, musica quae in quibusdam constituta est instrumentis included the voice as an instrument. For Boethius, “the voice, operated with the air and with the tongue as plectrum, was, of course, as much an instrument as any artificial musical instrument.”57
2.7 Early Christian Era
As Christianity increasingly permeated the Roman culture, vocal performance again returned to prominence. Early Christian church music was almost exclusively vocal, having developed out of Jewish and Byzantine chant traditions.58 Five significant early Christian church fathers, St. Basil,59 St. John Chrystostom,60 St. Jerome,61 Niceta of Remesiana62 , and
St. Augustine,63 all expounded upon the virtues of singing and the chanting of biblical psalms.
The liturgical chant had become the central focus of music in the early Christian church. So music education at this time centred on the practical development of the voice for chanting and singing in worship.
Rome had inherited Boethius’ ideas about what constitutes a true musician (musicus).
However, this ideology, in which the theoretical and philosophical was more important than performance ability, was increasingly challenged by the practical realities of Christian worship that demanded regular performances and lacked time to develop a theoretically and philosophically well-trained musicus. Pesce suggests the musicus ideal was no longer
57 Charles Burnett, “Perceiving Sound in the Middle Ages,” Hearing History: A Reader, ed. Mark M. Smith (London: The University of Georgia Press, 2004), 71. 58 Dimitri Conomos, Early Christian and Byzantine Music: History and Performance (2012), accessed April 25, 2018, http://www.asbm.goarch.org/articles/early-christian-and-byzantine-music-history-and-performance/. 59 St. Basil, “Homily on the First Psalm,” in Source Readings in Music History, 121-123. 60 St John Chrysostom, “Exposition of Psalm 41,” in Source Readings in Music History, 123-126. 61 St Jerome, “Commentary on the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians,” in Source Readings in Music History, 126- 128. 62 Niceta of Remesiana, “On the Benefit of Psalmody,” in Source Readings in Music History,128-131. 63 St. Augustine, “Confessions,” in Source Readings in Music History, 132-133.
18 plausible and that since “the church needed performers of chant... performance could no longer be relegated to a second seat.”64
2.8 Guido d’Arezzo
From this eleventh-century musical backdrop, Guido d’Arezzo emerged to become one of the earliest conductors and musicianship mentors in western art music history. He was educated at Pomposa Monastery, where he quickly established himself as a notable singing teacher and vocal ensemble director. As McKinnon observes, “Guido’s reputation reached mythic proportions, but there is no denying that he was a musical theorist of singular intelligence and originality.”65 Guido’s originality of thought can be attributed partly to his rejection of overly philosophical Greek ideas in favour of a more practical approach to meet the professional demands of his life as a musician. Guido boldly asserted that he was “not following Boethius, whose treatise is useful to philosophers but not to singers.”66 Pesce suggests that “Guido had little use for the speculative inquiries of the musicus, for he needed to train boys to sing chant as efficiently as possible. As a result, understanding had to serve the act of singing.”67 Guido faced fierce criticism from his contemporaries in the universities who insisted the art of music be primarily studied theoretically and philosophically as part of the traditional quadrivium of classical antiquity. As such, they saw little use in learning the practical application of Guido’s pedagogical methods.68 In this sense, Guido was well ahead of his time when compared to his academic contemporaries.
Nevertheless, Guido did not want his singers merely to memorise by rote learning. His understanding of the term musician is best clarified by the distinction he makes between the
64 Dolores Pesce, “Guido d’Arezzo, Ut Queant Laxis, and Musical Understanding,” in Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Susan Forscher Weiss, Russell Murray and Cynthia Cyrus (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010), 25-26. 65 James McKinnon, “Guido of Arezzo,” in Source Readings in Music History, 211. 66 Ibid., 218. 67 Pesce, “Guido d’Arezzo, Ut Queant Laxis, and Musical Understanding,” 26. 68 Emma Hornby, “On Guido’s Handiwork,” Early Music, 30, no. 1 (February, 2002), 123.
19 musician and the singer. In his treatise Regule Rithmice, Guido laments the divide between musicians and singers, stating that “the latter talk about what music comprises, while the former understands these things. For he who does what he does not understand is termed a beast.”69 These were harsh words aimed at singers serving in the context of sacred medieval worship. Guido needed to transform his singers into musicians in which both theoretical understanding and practical performance facility were intrinsically linked. Pesce states that
Guido “clearly derided a singer who remained the ‘unknowing’ cantor and wanted a singer to be independent of a teacher and, ultimately, to be able to sight-sing a melody.”70
Prior to Guido’s innovations educating musicians had traditionally relied on oral dissemination via rote learning, repetition, and memory to perpetuate music aurally from teacher to student. Guido considered this approach unnecessarily laborious, time-consuming, often unreliable, and even “childish.”71 Guido, the experienced pedagogue, identified the inefficiencies of always having to rely on rote learning from the external sound of an instrument or another voice to learn one’s part. Years of practical experience meant he understood the inevitable shortcomings of this approach, which prompted the following observation: “I have seen many keen-witted philosophers, not only in Italy, but also in France and Germany, and even in Greece, try this approach but not become what I would call musicians, or even singers, unable to match the ability of our choirboys.”72
To promote musical understanding in his singers, Guido focused on developing the sensus, which he defined as the mind and body. In his treatise Prologus, Guido states that “in every art, exceedingly more numerous are the things that we learn through our sensus than
69 Dolores Pesce, “Guido D'Arezzo's Regule Rithmice, Prologus in Antiphonarium, and Epistola Ad Michahelem: A Critical Text and Translation with an Introduction, Annotations, Indices, and New Manuscipt Inventories” in Musicological Studies 73 (Ottawa: Institute of Medieval Music, 1999), 330-33, doi: 10.1017/S0961137101220129. 70 Pesce, “Guido d’Arezzo, Ut Queant Laxis, and Musical Understanding,” 26. 71 Guido d’Arezzo, “Epistola de Ignoto Cantu,” [Epistle Concerning an Unknown Chant], Source Readings in Music History, 216. 72 Ibid.
20 those that we have learned from a teacher.”73 This concept of sensus echoes the philosophical thoughts of Boethius. It can be defined in two ways: corporeal and mental, with corporeal being defined as the body’s physical perception, feeling, or sensation of something, and mental being defined as the mind’s intellectual reason or moral understanding of something.74
For Guido, therefore, musical understanding was what intrinsically happened at the nexus between the body and the mind, where the physical senses and the mental intellect intersect.
Guido d’Arezzo’s absolute commitment to musical understanding as a pedagogical outcome is why he is one of three historical figures central to this thesis.
Guido’s treatise Epistola outlines the pedagogical method he developed to impart musical understanding to his singers.75 First, a brief explanation of the hexachord is necessary to understand the context of Guido’s pedagogical method. The hexachord was named for its grouping of a six-pitch tone set or scale. The three basic hexachords F-G-A-Bb-C-D | C-D-E-
F-G-A | G-A-B-C-D-E had already been well established in Greek music theory. According to scholars, “the hexachords beginning on C, G, and F received the names ‘natural’, ‘hard’ and
‘soft’ (naturale, durum, molle) respectively.”76 The primary interval sequence inherent in a hexachord tone set is, therefore, tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone. Guido’s genius was in creating a method to assist with memorising or internalising the property or function of each pitch in relation to every other pitch within any given hexachord tone set. Pesce observes that “in directing his singers to internalize the proprietas or property of every pitch by means of this vehicle, Guido called into play both sensory perception and intellect.”77
In his Epistola, Guido first mentions the use of the plainchant hymn Ut queant laxis
(see Figure 2) in relation to his method. Whilst the chant text appears to have existed from
73 Guido d’Arezzo, “Prologus in antiphonariam,” [Prologue to His Antiphoner], Source Readings in Music History, 211. 74 Pesce, “Guido d’Arezzo, Ut Queant Laxis, and Musical Understanding,” 26. 75 Guido d’Arezzo, “Epistola de Ignoto Cantu,” [Epistle Concerning an Unknown Chant], 217-218. 76 Andrew Hughes and Edith Gerson-Kiwi, “Solmisation,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001, accessed December 10, 2020, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26154. 77 Pesce, “Guido d’Arezzo, Ut Queant Laxis, and Musical Understanding,” 25.
21 about the ninth century; scholars generally acknowledge the composer of this chant melody to be unknown. Significantly though, the melody is arranged so that each successive phrase begins one note higher. This would suggest inherent pedagogical purposes embedded into the construction of the melody that likely attributes its melodic compositional origins to Guido.78
Analysis of the first verse of Ut queant laxis reveals four interesting features. Firstly, it is written on the F clef in Roman chant notation,79 and therefore the start pitch of the opening phrase is the C that corresponds to the lowest pitch of the C Hexachord (C-D-E-F-G-A).
Secondly, the first verse is divided up into seven short phrases. When comparing the first six phrases of this melody, each successive phrase starts on the next ascending pitch of the C hexachord. Thirdly, five of the seven phrases conclude on D, the apparent tonal centre of this melody and suggesting the D Dorian mode. This also explains why the seventh phrase adds contrast and balance to the melodic shape through an organic descending melodic line that comes to a close on the D tonal centre.
Figure 2 Ut Queant Laxis Early Notation80
78 See McKinnon, “Epistle Concerning an Unknown Chant” [Epistola de Ignoto Cantu], in Source Readings in Music History, 217. 79 Referred to as the ‘Fah Clef’ in Benedictines of Solesmes, ed., The Liber Usualis (Belgium: Descleé & Co, 1956), xvii. 80 The Liber Usualis, 1504.
22
Finally, if the first syllable of each of the first six phrases is isolated, the following syllabic pattern results: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la. This pattern can be more clearly seen in the modern notation of Ut queant laxis as seen in Figure 3 below, where the first syllable of each of the first six phrases is highlighted.
Figure 3 Ut Queant Laxis Modern Notation81
These syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la are the prototype for what became known as the solmisation system to aid aural recognition still in use in the western world today. Guido developed his solmisation system as a practical way to achieve the desired result: giving his singers the ability to read music. Allaire clarifies this point further by suggesting that
“solmisation was to both the medieval and the renaissance musician what solfeggio or solfège is to the modern: a means to an end – more specifically, a technique for the development of accuracy in reading and singing music.”82 Ut eventually gave way to do, and the seventh pitch si was later added as the hexachord extended to the eight-note diatonic scale.
81 Guido d’Arezzo, “Ut Queant Laxis,” in Ezer Év Kórusa [A Thousand Years of Choral Music], ed. M. Forrai (Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1977),14. 82 Gaston Allaire, The Theory of Hexachords, Solmisation and the Modal System: A Practical Application, vol. 24 of Musicological Studies and Documents, ed. Armen Carapetyan (Dallas: American Institute of Musicology, 1972), 43.
23 Guido’s first important innovation was to develop the solmisation syllables that were primarily an aural mnemonic aid for singers. Guido’s second innovation was to develop a visual mnemonic aid to complement them: he assigned the solmisation syllables of the hexachord to specific parts of his hand. Known affectionately as Guido’s Hand (see Figure 4 below), this diagram served as an intermediate step between solmisation syllables and staff notation.
Figure 4 The Guidonian Hand83
83 Guido d’Arezzo, “Guidonian Hand,” MS Canon, Liturg. 216. f. 168 recto, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Reproduced with permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
24
Following these developments, Guido’s third innovation was to connect these intermediary steps with early staff notation. There appears to be a scholarly consensus that early notation (neumes), pitch names, and the practice of solmisation were already in existence in some form well before Guido d’Arezzo.84 Guido’s genius was to draw all these elements together to develop a unique pedagogical system of music literacy that combined solmisation syllables, hand signs, and a more cohesively standardised staff notation to give precise pitch and facilitate accurate, instantaneous sight-singing of previously unknown music.85 Because of these innovations, Guido’s work has significantly impacted music literacy across every century since and continues to do so today. The particular importance of solmisation’s influence can be summarised as follows:
It has been mistakenly supposed that solmisation had become obsolete and redundant even before the 16th century or, at best, that it was used solely by beginners who, having once acquired a good technique of music reading, had no further need for its principles and rules. We do not support the view that musicians invariably learned their music with the aid of solmisation syllables. What we do believe is that, after having acquired adequate reading facility, the musician could indeed sing or play without reference to these syllables, but in accordance with the rules of the system, just as a modern musician performs at sight without recourse to solfeggio. In short, solmisation was to the medieval and renaissance musician what spelling is to the reader. Once sufficient ability has been developed, reading becomes a simple automatic process.86
It is important to note, however, that this significant pedagogical shift towards musical literacy did not mean that the eyes (visual) were considered superior to the ears (aural) or that the ear was no longer required or was somehow subservient to the eye. On the contrary, it was by formalising a system of solmisation, and using the Guidonian Hand as an intermediary pedagogical step of visual representation connected to aural perception that led eventually to
84 John Haines, “The Origins of the Musical Staff,” in The Musical Quarterly 91, No. 3/4 (Fall-Winter, 2008): 328, doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdp002. 85 Emma Hornby, “On Guido’s Handiwork,” in Early Music 30, no. 1 (February, 2002), 123, doi:10.1093/em/XXX.1.123. 86 Allaire, The Theory of Hexachords, Solmisation and the Modal System, 43-44.
25 the reading of staff notation. Thus, Guido effectively refined and strengthened the organic connection between the eyes (sight) and ears (sound) as equal partners in the musical literacy process. Thinking intelligently in sound requires both aural and visual analytical skills to work together and inform one another. This process is quality music literacy in action.
Guido’s most profound contribution was undoubtedly facilitating the fundamental shift towards music literacy. His primary motivation for advancing the cause of music literacy would seem a matter of practical efficiency. However, Guido also appears to have been imbued with a sense of divine purpose. He refers to his new pedagogical approach as a
“favour divinely bestowed upon me … so that those who come after … learn with the greatest ease the ecclesiastical melodies which I and all my predecessors learned only with the greatest difficulty.”87 He also saw the results as near miraculous:
We do not need to have constant recourse to the voice of a singer or to the sound of some instrument to become acquainted with an unknown melody so that as if blind, we should seem never to go forward without a leader; we need to implant deeply in memory the different qualities of the individual sounds and of all their descents and ascents. You will then have an altogether easy and thoroughly tested method of finding an unknown melody, provided there is someone present to teach the pupil, not merely from a written textbook, but rather by our practice of informal discussion. After I began teaching this procedure to boys, some of them were able before the third day to sing an unknown melody with ease, which by other methods would not have been possible in many weeks.88
Guido had developed and refined a music literacy system whereby he was able to speed up this transfer between theoretical musical knowledge and practical musical understanding. Guido’s innovations in musical education were driven by his choristers’ need to learn the sheer volume of monastic chants efficiently in order to perform them at a suitably high standard. One small step for Guido became one giant leap for western art music. His new pedagogical method attracted wide attention, arousing admiration and jealousy amongst his
87 Guido d’Arezzo, “Epistola de Ignoto Cantu,” 215. 88 Ibid., 217. 88 Gary Tomlinson, “Introduction,” in Source Readings in Music History, 282.
26 peers, and even gained him an unexpected private audience with the Pope. Guido later decided to move to a monastery just outside the town of Arezzo, which became one of the traditional custodians of his pedagogical innovations, as well as his namesake.
2.9 Martin Luther and Music Education in the Reformation Era
Guido’s patriarchal contributions to musicianship education were driven by his practical role as a conductor and musicianship mentor. So too was Martin Luther’s contribution driven by the pragmatic needs of music education during the time of the
Protestant Reformation in Germany. Martin Luther is best known for his prominent role in initiating the Reformation, but he was also an accomplished composer and musician with a
Latin education. Like Guido d’Arezzo before him, Luther’s own educational experience and his future educational ideals grew out of Greek and Roman music education traditions embodied in German Latin Schools of the time. A typical Latin School (equivalent to an
English Grammar School) in the heartland of Luther’s pre-Reformation and post-Reformation
Germany was arguably a variation on the ancient Greek educational ideals in which the study of music through the science of singing was an integral part of the trivium and quadrivium.89
Luther “affirmed music as a gift of God and argued for the inclusion of good music in education for its influence on moral development,”90 particularly in young people. In the foreword to his Wittenberg Gesangbuch,91 Luther insists that the young “should and must be trained in music and in other proper arts” to enable them to “yield willingly, as becomes them, to the good.”92
There are several reasons why music education played a crucial role in Luther’s
Reformation. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, singing was an integral and universal
89 See John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), 39. 90 Marie McCarthy and J. Scott Goble, “Philosophy of Music Education,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2011, accessed June 11, 2017, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2093412. 91 The English literal translation of the German ‘gesangbuch’ is ‘hymnbook.’ 92 Martin Luther, Wittenberg Gesangbuch, in Source Readings in Music History, 362.
27 part of cultural life throughout Europe. Singing was the way to learn and transmit information in a largely illiterate oral culture, and people expected to listen and learn in this way. For
Luther, all music was spiritual and helpful for the development of one’s theological worldview. As such, he composed new music and borrowed from artistic models, sacred and secular folk melodies, and popular tunes, adapting lyrics to impart sacred truths orally. One of his central values was that religion was for the people, not just the clergy and that every person should be able to read the Scriptures,93 think for themselves, and worship in their native German language. Singing, then, was vital for worship and teaching.94
For this reason, singing remained a central component of music education, particularly in Germany’s Latin Schools of Martin Luther’s era. It appears that the headmasters of these
German Latin Schools doubled as the cantor: the singing teacher, choir director, and music educator. In this context, it is unsurprising that Luther remarked, “a schoolmaster must be able to sing; otherwise, I won’t acknowledge him.”95 For Luther, like Guido d’Arezzo before him, singing was the central focus point of quality music education.
2.10 Johann Sebastian Bach
In keeping with Lutheran tradition, Johann Sebastian Bach was educated at a Latin school in his birth town of Eisenach. Although Bach’s musical family environment likely laid the foundations for his earliest informal musical education, Gardiner suggests that “ultimately the responsibility for a child’s [formal] musical education lay with the local cantor.”96
According to German traditions of the time, the cantor could also have been the schoolmaster, the director of church (sacred) music, the director of town (secular) music, or a combination of two or all three. The young Bach’s enrolment at the Eisenach Latin School between the
93 Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s recent innovation of the printing press. 94 Lilianne Doukhan, In Tune With God (Maryland: Autumn House, 2010), 161-199. 95 As quoted in Gardiner, Bach, 39. 96 Ibid., 66.
28 ages of eight and ten probably meant that he auditioned for the town’s local church choir at
Georgenkirche at the suggestion of the school cantor. The audition requirements for this choir indicate an expected understanding of “clefs, time signatures and rests” and an ability to “sing at sight a fugue, motet, and concerto.”97 This would suggest that these musicianship skills were necessarily developed specifically through the medium of singing.
When Bach arrived in Lünberg at the age of fifteen to join the elite St Michael’s
Cloister chamber choir on a scholarship, effectively indicating he was a “poor singing scholar,”98 he was expected to be able to “sing fluently in canon and to be able to read at sight polyphonic motets of the Renaissance as well as the more complex music by recent and modern composers.”99 Bach would later expect the same rigorous musicianship of his pupils, with training that also included “mastery of thoroughbass and voice-leading in four-part chorales before attempting inventions of their own,”100 and an ability to “work out their musical ideas mentally.”101 In other words, they were expected to develop a mastery of inner- hearing or audiation. When asked to give a reason for his astonishing musical prowess as an adult, he is believed to have replied, “I was obliged to work hard; whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well.”102 Similarly, when complimented on his impressive organ skills, Bach responded dismissively: “There is nothing very wonderful about it; you have only to hit the right notes at the right moment, and the instrument does the rest.”103
A thirty-eight-year-old Bach was likely very experienced in matters of musicianship training upon arrival in Leipzig to take up his new appointment as cantor of St Thomas school
97 Ibid. 98 Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work, trans. John Hargraves (Orlando Florida: Harcourt, 2006), 42. 99 Gardiner, Bach, 66. 100 Ibid., 209. 101 Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art and Work, trans. Charles Sanford Terry (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 96. 102 This quote is generally attributed to Forkel in Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art and Work, 106. This same anecdote is paraphrased in Gardiner, Bach, 209. 103 Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany 1685-1750, vol. 3, trans. Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller-Maitland (London: Novello, Ewer & Co. 1885), 262.
29 and music director for the city.104 Bach’s formative years of training in the musical traditions of Latin Schools had undoubtedly equipped him for his new appointment as cantor at St
Thomas School. Here he was expected to mentor his students in rigorous musicianship skill development with singing at the core that constituted the music education of his time. It was in Bach’s best interests to ensure that his St Thomas schoolboys received a quality music education, and therefore, the musicianship mentoring tradition continued.
Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, writing in his father’s obituary, listed the musicianship skills that made the elder Bach such a fine composer: “Harmonising, realising figured bass, transposing, handling clefs, transcribing, studying and copying scores, composing by inventing ideas, mastery of harmony enough to create full-voiced music.”105
None of this would have been possible without Bach’s foundational music experience as a chorister in the Latin school traditions. Comparing German musical education ideals with those of contemporary Italian and English choir schools reveals many shared values. Italian choir boys “received intensive daily training in the singing of chant, polyphony, counterpoint, and new music,”106 English choir boys in the elite Chapel Royal Choir received daily singing lessons and music theory.107 Evidently, singing was assumed to be at the core of quality musicianship, which was, in turn, the mark of a quality musician.
Perhaps the most revealing of Bach’s thoughts on his role as musicianship mentor can be found in the pages of his personal study Bible.108 Of interest is the Old Testament book of
First Chronicles, Chapter 25,109 in which King David selects 288 musicians: “All of them trained and skilful in music … for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres,
104 Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach, 115. 105 Peter Williams, Bach: A Musical Biography, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2016. 106 Wendy Heller, Music in the Baroque. (New York: Norton, 2014), 149. 107 Ibid., 151. 108 See facsimile with notes and commentary in Robin A. Leaver, ed., J. S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia, 1985), 93-94. 109 1 Chronicles 25:7 (New King James Version)
30 and cymbals.”110 They were all “under the direction” of various leaders; usually, their fathers, all of whom in turn worked “under the order of the king,”111 a clear structure of mentoring which combined “the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.”112 Bach’s handwritten note in the right-hand column at the beginning of this chapter (see Figure 5) enthuses: “NB. Dieses Capitel ist das wahre Fundament aller gottgefälliger Kirchen Music. usw.” This translates as “Note: This chapter is the true foundation of all God-pleasing church music, etc.”113 This Bible contained Luther’s translation and commentary and additional commentary by Abraham Calov and was part of Bach’s extensive personal theological library. Bach’s “Lutheran faith is of the utmost significance for [his] creative work”114 judged by the fact that “a high proportion of Bach’s music, unlike that of his peers, was addressed to a church congregation, rather than a lay audience. Religion was central not just to his upbringing and his education but to the locus of his employment and his general outlook on life.”115 Clearly then, this biblical chapter was a part of Bach’s very personal commitment to mentoring and which he took very seriously as his sacred calling.
Figure 5 J. S. Bach’s Handwritten Annotation in his Bible116
110 Ibid., Verse 1. 111 Ibid., Verse 6. 112 Ibid., Verse 8. 113 See Howard H. Cox, ed., The Calov Bible of J. S. Bach, (Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1985), 418. A literary analysis of this text as one of the intelligible entries can be found on page 22 of the same edition. 114 Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach, 653. 115 John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, 125-126. 116 Robin A. Leaver, ed., J. S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia, 1985), 93-94.
31
Guido, Luther, and Bach all inherited the legacy of generations who had gone before them. They each had a significant influence on the music education of their time and helped to create a legacy for future generations of music educators. Approximately 150 years later, we observe Zoltán Kodály, another who had a remarkable influence on the music education of his time. Kodály looked back to these German and Latin influences to clarify what he understood as the way forward for music education in the early twentieth century.
2.11 Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a contemporary of Kodály, who similarly had a distinctive influence on music education in the last century. Boulanger provides an inspiring and outstanding example of the CMM model. Boasting an impressive musical pedigree, she excelled in solfège, harmony, fugue, organ, piano accompaniment, and composition whilst a student at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire, where she was also a finalist (1907) and second prize winner (1908) in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition for young composers.
However, it was not primarily as a composer that Boulanger was to make her mark on the musical world. In fact, she regarded her compositional output as “useless,”117 particularly compared to her beloved sister Lili Boulanger. Nadia believed her to possess a superior compositional ability, but she tragically died aged twenty-four. Rather, Nadia Boulanger’s professional career spanned an incredible seventy-five years and included the roles of teacher, conductor, organist as well as composer.
She is perhaps best remembered as an outstandingly gifted teacher and one of the first professional female conductors. As Jeanice Brooks asserts, “her astonishing success was due to a combination of factors, chief among them her undeniable musicianship and legendary
117 Boulanger candidly states in her live interview with Bruno Monsaingeon for his 1977 documentary film Mademoiselle about the life and work of Nadia Boulanger: “I realised at 20 that I wasn’t a composer. That was so obvious! The music I have written is what I call useless!” See also Don G. Campbell, Master Teacher: Nadia Boulanger (Washington: Pastoral Press, 1984), 31.
32 charisma. But Boulanger’s achievement was also due to her successful negotiation within a culture unwilling to accept female conductors.”118 It was Boulanger who conducted the international premiere performance of the Requiem by her beloved composition teacher
Gabriel Fauré in London in 1936. In both capacities as pedagogue and conductor, she was nationally and internationally recognised in her lifetime and remains iconic to this day.
Boulanger has been described as “the most influential teacher since Socrates,”119 and her list of former students reads like a uniquely illustrious list of composers and conductors.120 Nevertheless, she did not refer to herself as a teacher of composition; rather, she called herself a teacher of technique. What exactly is Boulanger’s technique? In one of
Boulanger’s many conversations with documentary film director Bruno Monsaingeon, he attempted to clarify what she meant by technique, to which Boulanger forcefully replied: “A draconian technique!” 121 Monsaingeon then asked her to describe what happens first when a new student comes to consult with her. Her candid response was, “I make him work at solfeggio with Mademoiselle Dieudonné.”122 Evidently, Boulanger’s ‘technique’ can be understood to mean musicianship, which will be discussed below.
Boulanger’s teaching method is known only through her students as she never published any teaching materials, and “she was always keen to emphasise that the musical work, rather than the performer or a commentator on the music, should be the centre of
118 Jeanice Brooks, “Noble et Grande Servant de la Musique: Telling the Story of Nadia Boulanger’s Conducting Career,” The Journal of Musicology 14, no. 1 (Winter 1996), 92. 119 Ned Rorem, review of Nadia Boulanger: A Life in Music, by Léonie Rosenstiel, New York Times, May 23, 1982, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/23/books/the-composer-and-the-music-teacher.html. 120 See www.nadiaboulanger.org for a list of American composers who studied with Nadia Boulanger. 121 Bruno Monsaingeon, “Opus 11: Mademoiselle. A Portrait of Nadia Boulanger” (EuroArts / Naxos, 1977), DVD. 122 The relationship between Boulanger and Dieudonné is significant: “Dieudonné studied with Boulanger for fourteen years from 1910 and became one of her closest confidants and work colleagues. Nadia Boulanger often sent pupils to Dieudonné to study solfège with her, and while some appreciated the thoroughness of her training, others remarked that she completely lacked Boulanger’s gifts of communication” in Caroline Potter, Nadia and Lili Boulanger (London: Routledge, 2006), 130, doi:10.4324/9781315597188.
33 attention.”123 It is evident then that the “great composers” of the western art music tradition and “the masterpieces they wrote” were foundational to her teaching methods.124 Her students’ accounts consistently reveal a pattern of rigorous musicianship skill development, leading to thorough and fluent training in what she believed to be the primary technical foundation required of every serious professional musician. These foundational elements included solfège,125 clef reading, score reading, transposition, figured bass realisation, harmony, counterpoint, and score analysis. 126
Boulanger’s students came first from Paris and, as her fame gradually spread, eventually from across Europe and America. Composers Aaron Copland and Virgil
Thompson were two of the first American students to study with Boulanger in the early
1920s. From that time onwards, a steady stream of American music students undertook the pilgrimage to Paris. In his autobiography, Philip Glass recalls Virgil Thompson’s famous remark, “Every town in America has a drugstore and a student of Boulanger.”127 Boulanger referred to her American pupils as “brilliant students, very talented people, but the grounding isn’t secure in many cases, their ear isn’t developed: the basics haven’t been drummed into them.”128 American choral conductor Harriet Simons, after her first conducting lesson with
Boulanger, stated, “I was very angry at all former teachers and professors for somehow failing
123 Potter, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, 130. Potter references a live interview with Irene Slade recorded in 1960 on an LP preserved in the British Library’s National Sound Archive. 124 Ibid., 128. 125 The use of solfège in the French music educational context means that do = C and therefore this fixed-pitch system of reading notation is often referred to as fixed do. This is in direct contrast to Guido d’Arezzo’s original intention that Ut (which later became do) was simply the first note of Ut Queant Laxis in which re was the tonal centre. 126 Caroline Potter refers to some of these elements as auxiliary disciplines in Potter, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, 128. 127 Philip Glass, Words Without Music (Faber: London, 2015), 129. 128 Bruno Monsaingeon and Nadia Boulanger, Mademoiselle: Conversations with Nadia Boulanger, trans. Robyn Marsack (Manchester: Carcanet, 1985), 29-30.
34 to teach me as much as I needed to know in order to prepare me for life as a professional musician. My education in music had finally begun!”129 Simons said further:
I had gone to France to study conducting, but I soon discovered that all of us, regardless of intended focus of study, spent most of our time in classes of harmony and solfège. We also participated in choral rehearsals that summer of Bach’s Cantata 4 and Fauré’s Requiem, works we also studied in conducting class. I thought, of course, that my days of studying music theory were long behind me…[but] we were expected to sing, play harmonic progressions, conduct and do music every day. All elements seemed to be considered equally important.130
Lennox Berkeley, a noted English composer and one of Boulanger’s first European students from the 1920s, rhapsodised about the value of her technique to his development as a composer:
Nadia Boulanger teaches that the composer must first be a good workman who knows his job, and that then only is he free to write what he likes, and to realize whatever ideas he has: that it does not matter how much drudgery you go through to gain that freedom, for a man must lose his life in order to find it, and in music he must lose his originality and personality in order to find them. Moreover, there is no risk in the case of a man who has really got something to say that he will become dry and pedantic through a severe technical training.131
For Berkeley, Boulanger was more than just a teacher of technique, “she [was] a teacher of the art of music as a whole… she infused into her pupils that power of self- criticism and discipline which is so essential to the composer.”132
Philip Glass, the eminent American composer, spent two years during the mid-1960s studying with Boulanger in Paris. In his autobiography, Glass gives an intriguing insight into his time with her. He studied the entire first book of Bach’s preludes and fugues in the first year, followed by all of Mozart’s piano concertos in the second. His harmony studies began
129 Harriet Simons, ‘Nadia and Me,’ in Wisdom, Wit, and Will: Women Choral Conductors on their Art, ed. Joan Catoni Conlon (Chicago: GIA, 2009), 324. On a personal note, I had a very similar reaction after completing a rigorous audition week to gain entry to study conducting and musicianship at the Liszt Academy’s Kodály Institute in Budapest, Hungary. 130 Simons, ‘Nadia and Me,’ 325. 131 Lennox Berkeley, ‘Letters to Nadia Boulanger 1929-74,’ in Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters and Interviews, ed. Peter Dickinson (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2012), 49. 132 Ibid. 48.
35 with first species counterpoint, renaissance music, sight-reading, solfège (with Mademoiselle
Dieudonné), figured bass, clef reading (all seven C clefs!), transposition into all keys, the regular weekly task to learn a four-part Bach chorale in open score using original soprano, alto, tenor and bass clefs, to sing and play cadences and chord progressions in every key, and to improvise soprano, alto, tenor or bass parts over a given melodic line in the style of Bach following all the usual rules of voice leading. Glass summarised his learning experience as follows:
Slowly, over those two years, her teaching began to take root in me, and I began to notice a marked difference in the way I could ‘hear’ music. My attention and focus became heightened, and I began to hear music in my ‘inner’ ear with a clarity I had never had until then, even suspected was possible. I became able to have a clear audio image in my head. I could hear it, I knew what it was, and also – something a little bit more difficult than that – in time, I could hear something I hadn’t heard before, and I could find a way to write it down. That is actually quite hard to do and a major accomplishment by itself.133
Glass goes on to explain the result of Boulanger’s development of technique in her students:
I would describe it this way: If you wanted to be a carpenter, you would learn how to use a hammer and a saw and how to measure. That would be basic. If someone said, “Here, build a table,” but you had never done it before, you would pick up the tools and maybe you could build a table, but it would be shaky and probably a mess. What Mlle. Boulanger taught was how to hold a hammer, how to use a saw, how to measure, how to visualize what you were doing, and how to plan the whole process. And when you had learned all that, you could build a really good table. Now, she never thought the ‘table’ was itself music composition. She thought her training was simply about technique. Basically, when you left her, if you had studied with her diligently, you would end up with a toolbox of shiny, bright tools that you knew how to use. And that was a tremendous thing. You could build a table, you could build a chair, you could put in a window – you could do anything that was needed.134
133 Glass, Words Without Music, 133-134. 134 Ibid., 129-130.
36 Like Berkeley, Glass also maintained that Boulanger taught much more than mere technique.135 He describes technique as the key to understanding a composer’s overarching signature style or unique fingerprint. He recalls the day near the end of his two-year study with Boulanger when he realised that he had transitioned from learning technique to talking about style:
I had thought she was teaching technique – the how you ‘do’ or ‘not do’ in music. But that was over. She had raised the ante. Now we were talking about style. In other words, there could be many correct solutions to a musical problem. Those many correct solutions came under the rubric of technique. However, the particular way a composer solved the problem … became the audible style of the composer. Almost like a fingerprint … style is a special case of technique … that in a nutshell is what Mademoiselle Boulanger was teaching.136
In 1974, her seventieth year of teaching, Boulanger was interviewed by the prominent
Hungarian musician and author Bálint András Varga. Boulanger recounted her musical education in her formative years:
We were lucky in that we received a thorough elementary technical education early on: solfeggio, sight-reading, ear-training – all of which is beyond the reach of so many children nowadays. We only acquire it at twenty-five or twenty-eight when it is too late: we ought to have begun at five. After all, it would be absurd if we only started to learn reading at twenty-five. If one has a lively imagination but has not got the necessary background, one can end up in a dangerous situation. I may be wrong; in any case I do believe that if we do not know a language, we cannot express ourselves in it.137
Boulanger’s convictions about developing technique, as shown in her teaching style, are similar to Kodály’s views on the importance of rigorous and systematic musicianship education from a very early age in order to become fluent in the language of music.138 Quite
135 Ibid., 133. 136 Ibid., 134-135. 137 Emphasis mine. Bálint András Varga, “Nadia Boulanger,” in From Boulanger to Stockhausen: Interviews and a Memoir (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2013), 191. 138 Kodály is quoted as saying, "A child's musical education begins nine months before - not his own - but his mother's birth" in conversation with Helga Szabó. The original sound recording of this conversation is in Hungarian and was later translated to English. The English transcription of this interview is found in Helga
37 clearly, Boulanger’s technique was built upon a solid pedagogical foundation of musicianship skill development with singing at the core, a foundation that she considered central to the success of every professional musician, especially conductors.139 Significantly, the foundation
Boulanger espoused is essentially the same as those of the figures examined in this literature review so far: Greek philosophers, Boethius, Guido d’Arezzo, Martin Luther, Johann
Sebastian Bach, and Kodály.
2.12 Mentoring
The concept of mentoring and the related concepts of self-mentoring and peer- mentoring are central to this thesis. Mentoring, self-mentoring, and peer-mentoring through the literature will be explored here to give greater contextual meaning to the CMM model explained in more detail in the methodology chapter of this thesis.
Historically, the popular belief amongst scholars is that the concept of mentoring can be traced back to c.750 BC with the ancient Greek classic Odyssey. Odysseus leaves his young son Telemachus in the care of a trusted friend and guardian called Mentor.140 There is strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that the mentoring concept existed as far back as c.5000 BC in ancient Egypt.141 As Clutterbuck et al. state: “Many cultures, on all inhabited continents, have philosophical traditions that include the role of a wise companion, who joins a younger person on their journey towards maturity and wisdom of their own. Sage, guru, elder – all have similar elements, including the use of metaphor or narrative, and the posing of
Szabó and Zoltán Kodály, The Kodály Concept of Music Education, ed. and trans. Geoffry Russell-Smith (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1969), 4. 139 Notably, two of the twentieth century’s most prominent conductor-composers, the European Igor Markevitch and the Jewish American Leonard Bernstein, both credit Nadia Boulanger influencing their careers as conductors and composers. See their respective live interviews in Monsaingeon, “Opus 11: Mademoiselle. A Portrait of Nadia Boulanger,” DVD. 140 Beverly J. Irby, Nahed Abdelrahman, Rafael Lara-Alecio, and Tammy Allen, “Epistemological Beginnings of Mentoring,” in The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring: Paradigms, Practices, Programs, and Possibilities, ed. Beverly J. Irby (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2020), 19. 141 Ibid., 20-26.
38 questions that provoke reflection and insight.”142 A prominent example of this would be King
Solomon, who in the Hebrew sapient tradition was known as one of the wisest men of his time. Much of his sage advice is encapsulated in the Old Testament wisdom books of Job,
Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.143
While the current discourse around the concept of mentoring would suggest that there is no single definition, most scholars agree that mentoring is fundamentally about relationships. The earliest and most used definitions centre on the relationship between an older or more experienced person (the mentor) and a younger or less experienced person (the mentee). As Kerka expands, “mentoring is typically defined as a relationship between an experienced and a less experienced person in which the mentor provides guidance, advice, support, and feedback to the protégé.”144 Other definitions allow for a breadth and depth of understanding that would suggest “mentoring is, in its most basic form, a developmental relationship grounded in and [moulded] by philosophical, historical, and sociological factors
… there is also a basic tendency to personify mentoring as a relationship between an older, more experienced mentor and a younger, less experienced mentee.”145
Mentoring in relation to this thesis is situated within the higher education context and, as such, two interpretations are utilised. The first by Patricia Castanheira aptly applies to the context of higher education: “Mentoring as a developmental relationship in which the mentor shares knowledge and expertise to support the mentee’s learning and professional
142 David A. Clutterbuck, Frances K. Kochan, Laura Lunsford, Nora Dominguez and Julie Haddock-Millar, “Introduction,” in The SAGE Handbook of Mentoring (London: SAGE Publications, 2017), 3, doi: 10.4135/9781526402011.n1. 143 Robert Alter, The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (New York: Norton, 2011), xiii-xiv. 144 Sandra Kerka, “New Perspectives on Mentoring. ERIC Digest,” accessed July 13, 2020, https://www.ericdigests.org/1998-3/mentoring.html. 145 Nora Dominguez and Frances Kochan, “Defining Mentoring: An Elusive Search for Meaning and a Path for the Future,” in The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring, 3.
39 development.”146 Perhaps more importantly, the second interpretation outlines that the mentor relationship has the capacity for transformation, elegantly described by Bean et al.:
“Mentoring is first and foremost a relationship. The mentor can be all or one of the following: a trusted [counsellor], coach, tutor, advisor, trusted guide, trainer, advocate, and/or role model. At its best, mentoring can be a life-altering relationship that inspires mutual growth, learning, and development. Its effects can be remarkable, profound, and enduring; mentoring relationships have the capacity to transform individuals, groups, organizations, and communities.”147
Mentoring, through the mentor-mentee relationship utilised in this research project, is more akin to what is understood to be the American model of mentoring. This model
“involves a one-way learning process where a mentor is a sponsor or advocate for a protégé and is often an experienced individual in the same field.”148 This is particularly relevant to stage one (with the author/conductor as mentor and participants as mentees) and stage three
(where participants become mentors to mentees of their own) of this research topic, outlined further in the methodology (Chapter Three), and the results and discussion Chapters Four and
Six.
Self-mentoring is a “variation of the core model of mentoring”149 in which one intuitively mentors their curious self through a gathering of accessible resources that results in a learning process ultimately aimed at a better awareness, an enlightened way of knowing, and a clearer understanding.150 Self-mentoring strategies may include actively seeking out a mentor, conversing with knowledgeable or skilled others, consulting online or hard copy
146 Patricia Susana Pinho Castanheira, “Mentoring for Educators’ Professional Learning and Development: A Meta-Synthesis of IJMCE Volumes 1-4,” International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education 5, no. 4 (2016), 334. doi:10.1108/IJMCE-10-2015-0030. 147 Nadine M. Bean, Lisa Lucas, and Lauri L. Hyers, “Mentoring in Higher Education Should be the Norm to Assure Success: Lessons Learned from the Faculty Mentoring Program,” Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning 22, no.1 (2014), 57, doi:10.1080/13611267.2014.882606. 148 Natalie Lancer, David Clutterbuck and David Megginson, “Introduction,” in Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring, 2nd ed. (Abingdon Oxon: Routledge, 2016), 5-6. 149 Bob Garvey, foreword to Self-Mentoring: The Invisible Leader, by Marsha L. Carr (Scherr, WV: printed by author, 2015), 5-10. 150 For a concise overview of self-mentoring in the higher education context see Marsha L. Carr, Diane K. Pastor, and Pamela J. Levesque, “Learning to Lead: Higher Education Faculty Explore Self-Mentoring,” in International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching and Mentoring 13, no. 2 (2015): 1–13.
40 information in the form of books, journals, and articles, seeking professional development opportunities, or even simply solving challenges independently.151 These strategies are often innately utilised without a conscious awareness that they are, in fact, forms of self-mentoring.
William T. Holmes and Marsha Carr frame self-mentoring as “self-initiated training practice [with] four-tiered, self-paced and individualised levels … that build on skill development from the previous level.”152 These four levels are “self-awareness, self- development, self-reflection, and self-monitoring.”153 Overall, they identify that “as a growth mindset, self-mentoring is both cyclical and forward-thinking regarding expectations.”154 This mentoring model is particularly relevant to research stages two and three of this research topic as outlined in Chapter Three and further explored the results and discussion Chapters Five and
Six.
Mentoring, through the peer mentor relationship, is a specific type of mentoring that
“entails the informal sharing of information or expertise from people of the same or similar rank as well as colleagues across rank.”155 In this regard, peer mentoring is more akin to what some thought leaders refer to as the European model of developmental mentoring in which the mentor helps the mentee “develop their own high-quality thinking. The mentor has wisdom and experience but uses them to help the mentee become courageous and develop their own wisdom rather than to impart knowledge.”156 This mentoring model is particularly relevant to research stage two of this research topic outlined in the Methodology Chapter
Three and the Results and Discussion Chapter Five. The concept of mentoring, in particular
151 Lu Ann W. Darling, “Self-Mentoring Strategies,” in The Journal of Nursing Administration 15, no. 4 (Spring 1985), 42-43, doi:10.1097/00005110-198504000-00010. 152 William T. Holmes and Marsha Carr, “Motivating Language and Self-mentoring: A Training Program Supporting the Development of Leaders in Organizations,” in Development and Learning in Organizations 31, no. 5 (2017), 4-5, doi:10.1108/DLO-02-2017-0010. 153 Ibid. 154 Ibid. 155 Dannielle Joy Davis, Kara Provost and Sonya Clark, “Peer Mentoring and Inclusion in Writing Groups,” in The SAGE Handbook of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 445. 156 Lancer, et al., “Introduction,” 5.
41 mentor-mentee relationships, self-mentoring, and peer-mentoring relationships, permeates the methodology, results, and discussion chapters of this thesis.
2.13 Conclusion
This literature review began with a focus on defining musicianship and its importance to the development of the CMM. A brief historical survey of key periods of western art music history, beginning with Greek foundations and continuing through Roman, Early Christian,
Reformation, and Baroque eras up to the twentieth century, highlights the importance of musicianship and demonstrates how often singing was placed at the core of musicianship development. Three musicians stand out amidst this historical timeline due to their expertise as both conductors and musicianship mentors, namely, Guido d’Arezzo, Johann Sebastian
Bach, and Nadia Boulanger. All three demonstrably valued excellent musicianship skills as significant to their personal self-mentoring development and to the development of those they mentored. The following chapters will endeavour to show that the strength of a conductor and the CMM model comes from this strong foundation of musicianship, of which singing is a core component.
42 Chapter 3: Methodology
“In one short, spicy sentence, musicianship is what your ear hears while you are conducting.” - Elizabeth A. H. Green, Conducting Pedagogue157
3.1 Research Design
In exploring the musicianship-mentoring role of the conductor, the research design utilised a mixed-methods approach containing elements of both qualitative and quantitative research data interwoven with the accompanying recitals. This particular design had the characteristics of a qualitative method and analysis with a small but significant amount of quantitative data. The research data collection tools employed comprised a questionnaire, focus group discussion and follow-up interview for recital participants, and a self-reflective journal for the conductor.158
3.1.1 Research Stages
The three-recital format of the Doctor of Musical Arts program necessitated three parallel research stages, and data collection was spread across these stages over a period of two years. Each stage highlighted a different aspect of the conductor as musicianship mentor role. The research data tools examined the conductor as musicianship mentor role from three distinct yet complimentary perspectives: conductor as a mentor to mentees; conductor as self- mentor; and conductor’s mentees become self-mentors. A triangulation approach was taken to data analysis, allowing the results of each stage to inform and interrogate each other. Cohen,
157 Elizabeth A. H. Green and Mark Gibson, The Modern Conductor, 7th ed. (New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004), 2. 158 Refer to Appendices F to K for templates of these research data collection tools.
43 Manion, and Morrison provide the following definition for triangulation in the context of research design:
“… the use of two or more methods of data collection in the study of some aspect of human behaviour … triangular techniques … attempt to map out, or explain more fully, the richness and complexity of human behaviour by studying it from more than one standpoint and, in so doing, by making use of both quantitative and qualitative data. Triangulation is a powerful way of demonstrating concurrent validity, particularly in qualitative research.”159
Potential participants were identified using purposive160 or criterion-based sampling: as students and members of my choir. To alleviate any bias and or coercion, all participants were volunteers. The first stage and recital examined the conductor as musicianship mentor to their mentees. The second stage and recital focused on the conductor as musicianship self- mentor. The third stage and recital considered the conductor’s original mentees emerging as their self-mentors. The research design of this study is illustrated earlier in Figure 1 of this dissertation.
3.2 Recital 1: Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen!
As shown in Figure 1, the first research stage of this study explored the role of the conductor as a musicianship mentor to their mentees during the rehearsal and performance process. The first doctoral recital was a performance of J. S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 182
Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! on June 3, 2016, in Recital Hall West at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music.161 This cantata was performed with a vocal ensemble of twelve voices and a chamber orchestra consisting of flute, violin (concertante), violin (ripieno), two violas, cello (continuo), violone (continuo), and harpsichord. The study participants were music students (past and present) from the Avondale Conservatorium who were enrolled in the musicianship program and were also members of the small vocal ensemble Avondale
159 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion, and Keith Morrison, Research Methods in Education, 7th ed. (Oxon: Routledge, 2011), 195. 160 Burns, Introduction to Research Methods, 465. 161 For a recording of this performance, refer to Appendix S.
44 Chamber Singers. Participants were invited to participate in this stage of the research study, and all twelve members of the ensemble agreed. They then completed a pre-performance questionnaire and took part in a post-performance focus group discussion.
3.2.1 Musicianship Program
In my professional role as Director of Music at Avondale Conservatorium, I purposefully integrated elements of the Bach Cantata BWV 182 into the repertoire for my musicianship classes during Semester 1, 2016. Time spent studying any excerpts in the musicianship program can be considered part of the rehearsal process. These classes covered three levels of musicianship - foundation (first year), intermediate (second year), and advanced (third and fourth year). Musicianship classes at each level were offered for two hours per week over thirteen weeks, giving a total of twenty-six hours per semester. Of the twelve participants, three were recent graduates who had completed all three levels of musicianship and were not currently enrolled in these classes. Of the remaining nine participants, eight had completed the foundation and intermediate level and were enrolled in the advanced level, and one participant had completed the foundation level and was currently enrolled in the intermediate level.
Musicianship students at all levels were initially introduced to the cantata through the study of the chorale melody Jesu, Deine passion.162 This melody appears in the key of G major as the foundation of the soprano part of the seventh choral fantasy movement of the cantata. Additional harmonisations of this particular chorale melody can be found amongst standard J. S. Bach chorale collections. All nine current musicianship students were given the
E flat major chorale harmonisation as a sight-singing exercise. Foundation students were asked to make a basic aural and visual analysis of the tonal centres of each phrase.
162 J.S. Bach’s harmonization of Paul Stockmann’s 1636 Chorale melody appears as number 194 in E flat major in Johann Sebastian Bach, 389 Chorale-Gesänge, trans. Bernhard F. Richter (Weisbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, n.d.), 129. This particular Jesu, Deine Passion chorale is a setting of verse 33.
45 Intermediate students did the same and added a harmonic analysis of the cadence points of each phrase. Advanced students completed a full, detailed, aural and visual analysis of the harmonic progression of each phrase in the chorale. They also completed a detailed harmonic and formal analysis of the chorale melody in the context of the Chorale (7th movement) in the cantata.
Advanced students also studied this chorale harmonisation through various singing exercises: singing each of the soprano, alto, and tenor voice parts against the bass line as a two-part sing and play exercise on the piano; singing each part against other parts as three- and four-part sing and play exercises on the piano; singing one voice per part in SATB quartets, and; by conducting their peers in a performance of the chorale utilising recently acquired foundational conducting techniques. Further, these students also studied the opening sonata movement through formal analysis, harmonic analysis and performed it by singing the tenor and alto C clef parts while simultaneously accompanying themselves at the keyboard with a simple figured bass line. Advanced musicianship students also studied the bass recitative (3rd movement) through initially singing the melody whilst playing the continuo bass line and then by taking turns conducting their peers as bass recitative soloists and continuo players.
3.2.2 Avondale Chamber Singers
The twelve participants had been invited to sing with the Avondale Chamber Singers for the cantata’s three choral movements. Ten of the twelve participants attended weekly sectional and tutti rehearsals over a period of twelve weeks, while the remaining two participants joined rehearsals closer to the performance. For the performance itself, eleven of the twelve participants sang (3 sopranos, three altos, three tenors, three basses) with the
Avondale Chamber Singers and one participant joined the chamber ensemble to play violin
46 (ripieno) for the entire cantata163. In addition to singing as part of the small vocal ensemble, one other participant briefly joined the orchestra on violin for the instrumental Sonata movement. Another took on the role of understudy to the bass soloist, and another was the alto soloist for the performance.
3.3 Research Stage 1: Conductor as Mentor to Mentees
For this first stage, the research question was defined as: What is the role of the conductor as musicianship mentor to mentees in the preparation of a small vocal ensemble
(n=12) through the rehearsal and performance process? The data collection tools utilised for this first research stage were the questionnaire and the focus group discussion. A human ethics application was approved for this stage on May 27, 2016. Students who were identified as potential participants were invited to take part in the research study via a cover letter email on May 30. This initial email also included the Participant Information Statement (PIS) as an additional attachment. Any student who subsequently agreed to take part in this study as a confirmed participant was given a hard copy of the Participant Consent Form (PCF) and invited to sign it prior to the recital on June 3, and was given the questionnaire to fill out.
Immediately after the performance, all participants took part in a guided debrief in the form of a focus group discussion.
Both the questionnaire and the focus group were designed to elicit each participant’s perception about the value of musicianship to the rehearsal and performance stages of this cantata. The focus group facilitation emphasised narrative enquiry, looking for themes and keywords to complement the questionnaire and bring to light any further aspects. Participants were also invited to take part in a follow-up interview later. The research data collected from the first stage of this study completed questionnaires, and the transcription of the focus group
163 This participant was a principal study violinist. So, although they chose to sing with the chamber choir during rehearsals, they were expected to play in the chamber orchestra for the performance to meet the ensemble performance assessment requirements.
47 discussion was first analysed in June 2016. Together they provided a rich source of information and revealed students’ perceptions of how the musicianship classes had affected their preparation through the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach cantata. This first stage of research formed the basis of a paper presented at Oxford Conducting Institute’s inaugural International Conducting Studies Conference at St Anne’s College, Oxford, on June
24, 2016. This paper was also presented at the Kodály Music Education Institute of
Australia’s biannual national conference in Brisbane on September 29, 2016, and again at the
Australian Society for Music Education XXI National Conference in Melbourne on July 17,
2017. It was subsequently published in the latter’s conference proceedings.164
3.3.1 Questionnaire
The pre-performance questionnaire comprised twelve questions grouped into four parts. The first part of the questionnaire (Questions 1-8) involved the collection of demographic information that helped to define the background profile of each participant.
Demographic information was compiled on a spreadsheet for comparison between participants. The second part (Questions 9-10) listed the various elements of musicianship that participants had studied and asked them to rank these elements by their relevance to the preparation process during the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach Cantata. The collected data were subsequently transformed into graph charts for quantitative analysis, as discussed in Chapter Four below. The questionnaire’s third part (Question 11) allowed participants to give an open-ended response identifying which elements of musicianship covered in class were most helpful to their preparation through the rehearsal and performance stages of the cantata and to elaborate on why. These responses were also graphically represented on a spreadsheet for comparison and were subsequently analysed using colour- coding to highlight keywords. These keywords were later grouped into emerging themes that
164 Aleta King, “That’s A Lot of Dots,” in Australian Society for Music Education XXI National Conference Proceedings, ed. David Forrest and Louise Godwin (Melbourne: ASME, 2017), 45-51.
48 will be discussed in Chapter Four below. The questionnaire’s fourth and final part (Question
12) asked participants to indicate by way of a yes/no response whether they were willing to be involved in a follow-up interview at a later stage. All participants agreed to this.
3.3.2 Focus Group Discussion
The focus group discussion took the form of a thirty-minute debrief session immediately after the final performance. This discussion was audio- and video-recorded, and a full transcription was made of the dialogue. This transcript was then analysed, first for keywords and later for emerging themes. These results are discussed further in Chapter Four below.
3.4 Recital 2: Gabriel Fauré Requiem.
The second research stage of this study occurred in tandem with the second recital and considered the conductor’s role as self-mentor during the rehearsal and performance process
(see Figure 1 above). The second doctoral recital involved a performance of Gabriel Faure’s
Requiem with a large chorus (approximately eighty voices) and symphony orchestra. The combined forces of the Sydney Conservatorium Choir, Chamber Choir, and Symphony
Orchestra performed the concert, with Associate Professor Neil McEwan as conductor for the first performance on Friday, October 22, and I was the conductor for the second performance on Saturday, October 22, 2016, in Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music.165
3.5 Research Stage 2: Conductor as Self-Mentor
For this second stage, the research question was defined: What is the conductor’s personal self-mentor preparation through the rehearsal and performance process? The research data collection tool utilised for this second research stage was a self-reflective
165 For a recording of this performance, refer to Appendix S.
49 journal divided into three parts. Part A logged my self-reflective thoughts on the time spent working with the choir, Part B journaled my self-preparation process as a conductor, and Part
C logged my self-reflective thoughts on the time spent working with the orchestra.
3.5.1 Self-Reflective Journal
In order to address the research question, I kept a self-reflective journal and regularly made observational field notes that focussed on three main areas. Firstly, it summarised key learnings in my role as assistant conductor to Associate Professor Neil McEwan, the then
Director of the Sydney Conservatorium Choral Program and Conductor of the
Conservatorium Choir and Chamber Choir. Secondly, it noted insights gained from my role as
Guest Conductor for Dr Eduardo Diazmuñoz, who was Artistic and Musical Director and
Chief Conductor of the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra at the time. Finally, it detailed how musicianship influenced my preparation as a conductor during the rehearsal and performance process. This part of the self-reflective journal outlines the technical and musical aspects of my preparation. Articulating these aspects also developed my own researcher’s voice to describe the dual roles of conductor and musicianship mentor from my subjective viewpoint. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the musicianship skills I expected of myself were the same as I expected of my participants. The journal concludes with a consideration of the emerging relationship between my conducting mentors and myself. The dissemination of this journal is the focus of Chapter Five.
3.6 Recital 3: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace
The third research stage of this study aligned with the third and final recital and examined the conductor’s mentees, who had since become self-mentors during the rehearsal and performance process. The third doctoral recital was a performance of Karl Jenkins’ The
50 Armed Man: Mass for Peace on June 2, 2018, at Avondale College Church.166 Of the original twelve participants from the first recital, seven took part in the small vocal ensemble for this final recital performance.
This recital performance also happened to be the Australian premiere of Martin
Ellerby’s arrangement, scored for soloists, chorus, and symphonic wind orchestra. In April
2000, Karl Jenkins premiered his original scoring of The Armed Man: Mass for Peace conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Great
Britain. In 2010 Ellerby arranged the work for symphonic wind orchestra. My colleague Dr
Ian Cook, Director of Newcastle Wind Orchestra, was aware of the existence of this new wind orchestra arrangement along with the fact that it had not yet been performed in
Australia. He suggested a collaboration between the Newcastle Youth Orchestra and
Avondale Conservatorium choirs in an Australian premiere performance.
This creative vision eventually grew to include collaborations with an additional choir, dancers, and a narrator.167 Kathryn Dries was invited to be the alto soloist. The invitation was extended to her community choir, Port Harmony Inc., to further augment the choral forces by combining with Avondale Singers. Working with two separate choral ensemble entities brings its own set of unique challenges, and both Kathryn and I were acutely aware of the importance of a consistent blend in choral sound between the two choral entities. As the director of the Avondale choral program, it would be easy for me to facilitate the crafted choral sound I was after.
Additionally, I decided to direct the first rehearsal with Port Harmony to lay the foundation for musical interpretation. Kathryn and I also kept in close contact to exchange music interpretative ideas throughout the choral rehearsal process. When the two choral entities finally came together for the first tutti rehearsals in the week before the scheduled
166 For a recording of this performance, refer to Appendix S. 167 For further detail on how the dancers and narrator were incorporated, see Appendix P.
51 performance, the biggest challenge was blending the two choral entities quickly to achieve a homogenous choral sound.
The majority who sing with the Avondale Choral program are university students between the ages of 18-22, with a small minority of Avondale alumni and community members. Due to this age range, there is a natural tendency towards a lighter, breathier, youthful choral sound with a smaller vibrato. In contrast to this, Port Harmony is a community choir with most members between 50-70 years of age. There is a tendency toward a heavier, less breathy, larger vibrato, more mature choral sound. In the performance context, standing positions became extremely important.168 The first consideration was to voice-place the small vocal ensemble (which included the seven participants) at the front and centre of the choir. Following this, the remaining choristers from Avondale and Port Harmony were voice- placed surrounding the small vocal ensemble.
3.7 Research Stage 3: Conductor’s Mentees Become Self-Mentors
For this third stage, the research question was defined as: What musicianship skills have former students retained and used in their own personal self-mentoring preparation through the rehearsal and performance process, as observed in selected members of the vocal ensemble (n=4) from recital one? The research data tool utilised for this third and final research stage was the follow-up interview.
All of the original twelve participants were invited to take part in the performance; however, only seven participants (two undergraduate pre-service teachers and five graduate teachers) were available for the performance, which took place on June 2, 2018, at Avondale
College Church. The participants were all part of the small vocal ensemble at the core of the
168 See Weston Noble, Achieving Choral Blend Through Standing Position (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2005), DVD. I first encountered this remarkable concept in 1994 during my undergraduate choral experience under the direction of the late Dr John Nickson. Since then, I have experimented with choral sound in relation to standing positions and was delighted to discover Weston Noble’s practical demonstrations in this DVD. This concept is also endorsed in the choral work of James Jordan and others at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey.
52 large choir for the chorus numbers: The Armed Man (1st movement), Kyrie (3rd movement),
Sanctus (5th movement), Hymn Before Action (6th movement), Charge (7th movement),
Agnus Dei (10th movement), Benedictus (12th movement), and Better is Peace (13th movement). Additionally, they performed as part of the small vocal ensemble for “Save Me from Bloody Men” (4th movement), “Torches” (9th movement), and the final a cappella
“God Shall Wipe Away All Tears” (13th movement). Two of the seven participants were also soloists for the Kyrie (3rd movement), Angry Flames (8th movement), and Better is Peace
(13th movement).
3.7.1 Follow-Up Interview
The purpose of the follow-up interview was twofold. Firstly, it examined how participants perceived the impact or benefit of cumulative musicianship skills across the two years between the first and third recitals. Secondly, it examined how selected participants who had been mentees from the first research stage may have progressed to self-mentors and even the mentorship of others by the third research stage.
The remaining seven participants had agreed in writing two years earlier to participate in the follow-up interview. However, to ensure there was no coercion, each of the seven participants was again invited to take part in the interview voluntarily. All seven participants responded in the affirmative. The week before the final recital, the seven participants were emailed a copy of the follow-up interview questions.
In the week after the recital, a reminder email was sent. Four of the seven participants responded: two undergraduate pre-service music teachers and two graduates who were early- career music teachers. Three participants did not respond even after two additional reminder emails.169 My research focussed on the four remaining participants. No longer actively
169 Perhaps not all music graduates are interested in research. See D. Jones, R. Fowler, S. Wilson, et al, “Musicians as Researchers – Insight or Insanity?,” in International Society for Music Education: 32nd World
53 mentored by me in musicianship and conducting, they were now self-mentoring, and three of the four had experiences of mentoring their students. This follow-up interview was intended to examine how they now viewed the connection between musicianship and performance. In effect, I was asking how effectively the baton had been handed on.170 I presented findings from this third stage of research at the Oxford Conducting Institute Second International
Conducting Studies Conference at St Anne’s College, Oxford, on June 22, 2018, and again at the Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia’s biannual national conference in Perth, on
October 2, 2018.
3.8 Summary
This study centred its three research stages around the three major recitals. The first used a questionnaire and focus group discussion to collect data on the role of musicianship in the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor to student mentees. The second used a self- reflective journal to collect data on the role of musicianship in the conductor’s self-mentoring process. The third consisted of a follow-up interview to collect data on the role of musicianship in each of the remaining four participants’ transition from mentee to self-mentor and mentor of others. The results of this three-stage, mixed methods research study outlined above will be discussed in more detail in the following chapters.
Conference on Music Education, ed. David Forrest and Louise Godwin (Malvern: International Society of Music Education), 2016: 147-157. 170 Aleta King, “Handing On The Baton: When Mentee Becomes Mentor,” Paper presented at the Oxford Conducting Institute’s Second International Conducting Studies Conference, St Anne’s College, Oxford, June 22, 2018.
54 Chapter 4: Results & Discussion Recital 1 | Research Stage 1
“…at the heart of great musicianship is the ability to manipulate in one's mind rich representation of the desired soundscape.” - Daniel Levitin, Neuroscientist171
4.1 Recital 1: Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig sei willkommen!
This recital comprised a live performance of Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata BWV
182 Himmelskönig sei willkommen! together with a critical commentary highlighting aspects of historically informed performance practice relevant to this work.172
4.2 Research Stage 1: Conductor as Musicianship Mentor to Mentees
The purpose of this first research stage is to focus on the conductor’s role as a musicianship mentor to mentees. In this paradigm, I am the conductor and musicianship mentor, and the participants in this research stage are my mentees. The results for this stage were gleaned from the written and verbal responses of the twelve participants through two primary data sources – a questionnaire and a focus group discussion.173
Each of the twelve participants was asked to fill out the questionnaire immediately prior to the first recital. All twelve participants took part in a focus group discussion immediately after the first recital. The questionnaire results, together with the transcript of this focus group discussion, form the raw data from which the results were gathered.
Therefore, this chapter will consider participant responses to Question 9 and Question 11 of
171 McGill University, "Don't Scan So Close To Me: Sting's Musical Brain Scanned," in ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160815134825.htm (accessed November 27, 2019). For the full article see Daniel J. Levitin and Scott T. Grafton, “Measuring the Representational Space of Music with fMRI: A Case Study with Sting,” in Neurocase 22, no.6 (December 2016), 548-557, doi:10.1080/13554794.2016.1216572. 172 For critical commentary and program notes, see Appendices L and M. 173 For sample questionnaire and semi-structured focus group discussion, see Appendices F and G.
55 the questionnaire and the focus group discussion. Finally, these two data sets will be compared and contrasted to highlight any emerging themes, where appropriate.
4.3 Questionnaire: Question 9
Question 9 focused on specific musicianship elements integral to musicianship skill development in musicianship classes. Participants were asked to rate each of the forty-six listed musicianship elements in relation to its perceived degree of relevance to participants through the Bach Cantata rehearsal and performance process. The ratings were established on a 5-point Likert scale as 5 = extremely relevant, 4 = very relevant, 3 = somewhat relevant, 2 = not relevant, 1 = not applicable.
Nine of the twelve participants (P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P9, P10, P11, P12) were currently in my musicianship classes. The remaining three participants (P1, P7, P8) had been in my musicianship classes in previous years but were not current students. Their responses to
Question 9 at times showed they understood this question as not applicable to them.
Nevertheless, the data results suggested an apparent consensus among most participants regarding which musicianship elements were considered most important. Of the forty-six musicianship elements listed, thirty-seven received lower overall ratings with an average score of 3.9 or below and were therefore not considered for further analysis. The remaining nine musicianship elements received higher overall ratings with an average score of 4.0 or above and were considered for further analysis. The average for these highest-rated musicianship elements was 4.4, a significant mean score for a 5-point Likert scale. These nine elements are listed in descending order in Figure 6 below.
56 HIGHEST-RATED MUSICIANSHIP ELEMENTS
Inner Hearing (Thinking in Sound) 4.8
Musical Memory 4.7
Sight Singing 4.7
Intervals 4.6
Solfa (Solfége) 4.5
Triads 4.3
Jesu Deine Passion Chorale arr. J.S.Bach 4.3
Diatonic scales 4.1
Simple Time Rhythm 4.0
Figure 6 Question 9 Analysis (Highest-Rated Musicianship Elements)
Each participant’s response to these nine musicianship elements was then compared and contrasted in relation to responses from other participants. Figure 7 below plots the responses of each participant (n=12) on the vertical axis against the musicianship elements on the horizontal axis using a Likert scale where 1 = not applicable, 2 = not relevant, 3 = somewhat relevant, 4 = very relevant, and 5 = extremely relevant.
57
Figure 7 Question 9 Analysis (Individual Participant Responses to the Highest-Rated Musicianship Elements)
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4.4 Questionnaire: Question 11
The nine highest-scoring musicianship elements from the twelve participants’ responses at Question 9 were examined in relation to Question 11’s open-ended responses about what musicianship elements the participants viewed as most helpful throughout the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach cantata.
4.4.1 Inner Hearing
Inner hearing was the consistently highest-ranked musicianship element, considered very relevant (three participants) and extremely relevant (nine participants) to the rehearsal and performance process. Three of the twelve participants (P1, P3, P4) referred specifically to the value of developing the skill of inner hearing. Further, P3 stated that being able to hear the score “in my mind” was “necessary…before my part came in.” P4 commented that
“musicianship has overall [helped] my … inner hearing which has overall aided me for learning the Bach cantata.” This reference to using one’s mind to internally hear the score correlates with the idea of thinking intelligently in sound, as discussed in Chapter Two.
Inner Hearing (Mean = 4.8)
5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 8 Participant Responses to Inner Hearing
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4.4.2 Musical Memory
Musical memory was also a consistently highly ranked musicianship element, considered very relevant (four participants) and extremely relevant (eight participants) to the rehearsal and performance process. Three of the twelve participants (P1, P3, P5) made specific reference to a well-developed musical memory as a valuable skill that aided in their ability to memorise quickly and efficiently during the beginning learning stage to allow more time for the final musical polishing stage towards the end of the rehearsal process. As P5 stated: “Musical memory tasks helped with memorising the piece quickly. Once it is memorised, we can work on making it beautiful.” P3 said that melodic memory had been an important part of their preparation which “consisted of listening to recordings of the part … memorising the patterns [and] then visualising” these melodic patterns on the score.
Musical Memory (Mean = 4.7)
5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 9 Participant Responses to Musical Memory
4.4.3 Sight-singing
Sight-singing was considered somewhat relevant (one participant), very relevant (two participants), and extremely relevant (nine participants) during the rehearsal and performance process. A third of the participants (P4, P5, P11, P12) made specific mention of sight-singing as being one of the most useful skills to have developed in musicianship classes. P4 stated
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that “in [the] early stages I was able to learn my parts due to … making use of my sight- singing skills,” and P10 agreed that sight-singing “also played a key role in the learning.” P12 summarised the value of sight-singing skills as “the most useful part of the musicianship class, especially when concerning the Bach cantata.” These responses would suggest that being able to sight-sing enabled quicker and more efficient learning of the Bach cantata for many participants.
Sight Singing (Mean = 4.7) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 10 Participant Responses to Sight-singing
4.4.4 Intervals
The ability to identify intervals fluently and accurately was considered very relevant
(five participants) and extremely relevant (seven participants) to the rehearsal and performance process. Five of the twelve participants (P2, P3, P4, P9, P11) referred to intervallic fluency. Four participants (P2, P3, P9, P11) mentioned solfa as a tool that helped their fluency and accuracy with intervals. P3 said, “Musicianship classes have guided me to remember melodic intervals and patterns and to even hear these in solfa.” P9 also agreed that
“the different scales and intervals with the use of solfa was extremely helpful in making the unexpected notes and scale passages in the [vocal] line more secure.”
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Intervals (Mean = 4.6) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 11 Participant Responses to Intervals
4.4.5 Solfège
Solfège (solfa) was considered somewhat relevant (two participants), very relevant
(two participants), and extremely relevant (eight participants). Although two participants ranked solfège a little lower in importance than inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals, it is perhaps significant that ten of the twelve participants made specific reference to the usefulness of solfège skills during the rehearsal and performances stages of the Bach cantata. P10 observed that “solfa was incredibly useful as a tool in learning the work.” P11 expanded on this, stating it was “extremely helpful in making the unexpected notes and scale passages in the [score] more secure.” Further, P1 remarked that “solfège has assisted me in helping efficiently sight-read the pieces,” and P2 supported the value of “solfa for accurate intonation, and interval/sight-reading made learning the pieces faster, easier and more accurate.” P5 also stated that “solfa is useful to clarify pitches in tricky passages,” and
P9 said, “skills such as solfa … made it significantly easier to learn as well as remember the cantata. I believe that I would not have achieved it as well or in the time without [this] skill.”
P12 commented that “The music wasn’t really easy, mostly for the fact that the music wasn’t completely homophonic, and it was difficult to hear my part. The solfa has helped me tremendously with sight-reading and learning my part quicker and more efficiently.” P3
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commented in this same vein: “Musicianship classes have guided me to…hear in solfa”.
Interestingly, by way of contrast, P7 observed that “as a violinist, I didn’t use much solfège because I imagined the finger numbers which helped my intonation and memorisation, but solfège is definitely a tool that I used when leading out in [choral] sectional rehearsals.”
Significantly, most participants acknowledged solfa as one of the fundamental musicianship tools that underpinned their ability, efficiency, and confidence in relation to all eight other musicianship elements listed in Figure 6 above.
Solfège (Mean = 4.5) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 12 Participant Responses to Solfège
4.4.6 Triads
The ability to identify triads fluently and accurately was considered somewhat relevant
(two participants), very relevant (four participants), and extremely relevant (six participants) during the rehearsal and performance process. The significance of triads for all participants can perhaps be better understood in the broader context of visual and aural harmonic analysis.
P7 expressed the value of triads in this way: “Harmony, scales, and visual analysis were most helpful for me because of how Bach uses each vocal part. Tonal and formal analysis [were] very important to my practices because knowing which chord is coming next and how your part fits in (especially in the #7 chorale) helped me understand the functions of each part,
63
chord, phrase, and section of the cantata.” P9 also stated that triads were one of the skills that
“made it significantly easier to learn as well as remember the cantata” and believed that they
“would not have achieved it as well or in the time without these skills.”
Triads (Mean = 4.3) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 13 Participant Responses to Triads
4.4.7 Bach Chorale
The Bach chorale Jesu, Deine Passion chorale harmonisation in E flat major, was one of three highly-ranked musicianship elements that garnered a mixed response amongst participants. One participant indicated that the chorale was not relevant to them, whilst the other eleven participants considered it somewhat relevant (one participant), very relevant
(four participants), and extremely relevant (six participants) during the rehearsal and performance process. Part of this mixed response could be attributed to the fact that three participants had not been part of musicianship classes and therefore had not undertaken an in- depth study of the chorale harmonisation before performing the cantata. Another possible explanation was that some participants might have considered Bach’s earlier choral harmonisation in E flat major not particularly relevant. Bach later used just the chorale melody in G major as the foundation of the much more harmonically sophisticated seventh movement of the cantata. P2’s comment in support of the preliminary study of the Bach
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chorale indicated that it gave them a “good ability to understand and recognise every voice while singing your own [which] was very helpful.” Pedagogically, if time had allowed, perhaps it would have been useful for participants to have undertaken an in-depth study of all the chorale settings in various keys to give a broader picture of why Bach perhaps chose to reharmonise this particular melody in the context of a choral fantasy movement in the cantata.
Jesu, Deine Passion Chorale, arr. J.S.Bach (Mean = 4.3) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 14 Participant Responses to Jesu, Deine Passion Choral, arr. J.S. Bach
4.4.8 Diatonic Scales
The study of diatonic scales was another of three highly-ranked elements that drew a more divided response. One participant indicated that the study of diatonic scales was not relevant to them, whilst the other eleven participants considered it somewhat relevant (one participant), very relevant (six participants), and extremely relevant (four participants). P9 stated that scales were one of the skills that “made it significantly easier to learn as well as remember the cantata” and believed that they “would not have achieved it as well or in the time without these skills.” Significantly, P11 believed that “the different scales … with the use of solfa was extremely helpful [to] make the unexpected notes and scale passages in the bass line more secure.” Overall scales were considered to be more valuable than not.
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Diatonic Scales (Mean = 4.1) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 15 Participant Responses to Diatonic Scales
4.4.9 Simple Time Rhythm
Simple time rhythm (i.e., the study of beat, rhythm, and metre in the context of simple time) was the remaining highly ranked musicianship element that garnered a mixed response amongst participants. One participant indicated that the study of simple time rhythm was not relevant to them, whilst the other eleven participants considered it somewhat relevant (two participants), very relevant (five participants), and extremely relevant (four participants), during the rehearsal and performance process. Two participants did refer to the connection between sight-reading rhythms, which they referred to as “following rhythms” (P3) and
“clapping complex rhythms” (P5) during musicianship classes with the fact that strong rhythm reading skills “came in handy for sight-reading” during rehearsals.
Simple Time Rhythm (Mean = 4.0) 5 4 3 2 Rating 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Participant No.
Figure 16 Participant Responses to Simple Time Rhythm
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In summary, the questionnaire responses given for Question 9 would suggest that although there are nine highly-rated musicianship elements - inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals, solfège, triads, Bach chorale, diatonic scales, simple time rhythm – highly rated overall, each participant appears to favour different elements as extremely important to them individually. Collectively, there appears to be a consensus across all participants that inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals are the four musicianship elements that stand out as being the most important due to their consistently high rating across all participants.
Additionally, the questionnaire responses for Question 11 would suggest that solfège is the most valued skill in the musicianship toolbox that underpins the four highest-rated musicianship elements. Although the participants rated solfège slightly lower in relevance compared to inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals, solfège was the musicianship element that appears to have enabled the greatest efficiency to the learning process as the numerous comments in Question 11 would suggest. The adjective “efficient” and its adverb “efficiently” were commonly referred to by most participants when describing the value of solfège in relation to inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals.
As such, it was evident that participants perceived solfège to be an essential foundation musicianship skill that enabled them to more efficiently develop what they discerned to be the higher-order musicianship goals of inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals. Therefore, the fundamental purpose of solfège can be understood as a musicianship tool that enables functional meaning and efficiency of thought to the musical process of thinking intelligently in sound. Together the five musicianship elements: inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège, were identified as key themes for analysis in the focus group results.
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4.5 Focus Group Discussion
The focus group provided a fascinating Bach cantata post-performance debrief together with all twelve participants. The discussion that ensued enabled an opportunity for further analysis and reflection on common themes that emerged in light of the questionnaire responses. Specifically, these themes will be discussed in direct relation to the following five musicianship elements - inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège - with particular emphasis on the importance of solfège as the solid foundation upon which the other four rest. Ensemble (OVPP) will be discussed as an important theme that emerged from the focus group discussion, even though its significance was not evident from the questionnaire responses alone.
4.5.1 Inner Hearing
Solfège and its various uses permeated much of the focus group discussion. It was particularly evident that solfège was the underlying basis for the following analytical discussion in relation to inner hearing or thinking in sound. P9 believed that the ability to hear other vocal parts in solfège internally helped with knowing where and when to come in with their vocal part. There was also general agreement among participants that a lot of practice can happen silently in one’s head. P5 commented that “the inner hearing thing is helpful” during rehearsals while the conductor is working with another section. Rather than disengaging during this time, they observed: “You can spend time figuring it out even though you are not singing out loud so you can utilise every moment of practice.”
4.5.2 Musical Memory
Musical memory is something that quite a few participants agreed had just happened gradually and almost imperceptibly over time. This almost accidental memorisation of the
Bach cantata was candidly summarised by P9’s response when they stated: “I’m not an actual
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vocal student and… when we had that [final] run through and we could sing the whole thing by memory and in German, I was like ‘What?’ If you’d told me that at the beginning I would have been like ‘No, one-hundred percent that is not going to happen,’ but it did!” P12 also declared: “I feel like I can sing every single line of the choir. I can sing the cello, viola, and violin parts and all the choir parts.” P7 added: “That’s the good thing about learning the music that well because you become so involved with it that it becomes part of you.” P1 and P8 had both been unable to sing with the choir until the dress rehearsal on the performance day. P1 made the salient observation that “the choir was more settled because they knew it by memory. I could tell, I could feel [the choir was] really confident and really sure of [their] parts which was awesome.” At this point, P8 nodded in agreement.
Whilst solfège was not directly mentioned in relation to musical memory in the focus group discussion, it is clear that the use of the solfège was integral to many other musicianship elements that worked together to ensure a thorough preparation of the cantata.
Further, this would suggest that this integrated musicianship approach enabled the participants to memorise the work so thoroughly.
4.5.3 Sight-singing
Solfège also helped with sight-singing, particularly with securing the difficult vocal passages. A particular bass line in the seventh movement chorale (b. 11-13) was especially difficult for the bass section to master lar because it transitioned through a rapid succession of chords. One of the basses (P10) recalled that “it definitely helped having the strings there too.
But man, that section was a killer.” Another bass (P11) agreed that solfège definitely helped get all the “accidentals… in the right place.” P8 admitted they were perhaps not as fast at looking at the score and singing immediately in solfa. However, they also remarked: “When I practiced by myself at home, parts I struggled with or intonation-wise I’d write the solfa in
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and just practice it like that and that helped.” P12 similarly stated, “I always use solfa. That’s the first and only tool I go to when I sight-read.”
4.5.4 Intervals
Solfège appears to be directly foundational to intervallic reading fluency for P12, who acknowledged the connection like this: “solfa and intervals, but I know intervals based on solfa. If I hear do-fa, then I know immediately what interval it is so that’s what really helps me a lot.” P3 acknowledged that “musicianship classes have guided me to remember melodic intervals and patterns and even hear these in solfa.” P4 suggested that “in the early stages I was able to learn my parts due to identifying intervals” and believed that “knowledge of intervals…has overall aided me for learning the Bach cantata. When considering the relationship between solfa and intervals in the context of performing the Bach cantata, P3 believed that “some intervals were hard to simply memorise, therefore it was necessary to write solfa underneath and hear it in my mind before my part came in.” P9 commented that having a secure working knowledge of intervals also “made it significantly easier to learn as well as remember the cantata.” P11 thought that the intervallic work done in musicianship class “with the use of solfa was extremely helpful in making the unexpected passages in the bass line more secure.”
4.5.5 Solfège
The relevance of solfège has been shown to inform the aforementioned musicianship elements. Solfège was also attributed to a variety of other musicianship elements that will be briefly considered here. The discussion touched on the use of tonic solfa or moveable do in relation to the skill of transposition by P12 with general agreement from all other participants.
P2 observed that “our general understanding of a piece grows as a result of knowing solfa.”
P5 added to this by recalling that in musicianship class, they were asked to sing the do or la of
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a piece… “it got a bit annoying, singing the do or la like… why are we doing this? But now it’s like you hear a song and you can just find the tonic.” As an experienced musicianship pedagogue, I believe this is one of the most valuable attributes of the solfège (tonic solfa or moveable do) system. Functional meaning is embedded into each pitch in relation to all other pitches and particularly in relation to the tonic.
There was also reference made to the usefulness of solfège in regard to secure intonation. P1, who was an early-career music teacher, observed that solfège “fine-tunes your intonation as well” and had already “noticed in teaching that if you go over it in solfa and in letter names, the solfa is more secure. They know the interval is a fifth and they know what it sounds like. Whereas if you say to them sing C to G they are like ‘okay um’ they are all over the place with it.” This statement led to a friendly debate amongst the focus group participants as to which was more beneficial: singing in solfège or letter names. P7 was firmly in favour of letter names as a pitch reference point, which was primarily because they have absolute pitch.
P7 found letter names strongly associated with absolute pitches and stated: “For me, it was more letter names. I still use solfa sometimes, but for me mostly because of the way that I was brought up from a younger age, it’s always been letter names and finger numbers as a violinist
… because I know all the pitches it goes straight into my head.” Interestingly, P7 also made a comment in Question 11 of the questionnaire that solfège “is definitely a useful tool that
[they] used when leading out in sectional rehearsals.” P7’s comments are generally in keeping with common responses I have heard anecdotally over many years from my musicianship students and professional colleagues (string players in particular), who possess a well- developed sense of absolute pitch. They at first do not tend to see the usefulness of relative solfège because they already have a clear aural understanding of intervallic relationships memorised in their head. However, what many of my students and professional colleagues
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with perfect pitch do eventually come to understand and appreciate is the inner-hearing sense of extra-fine precision tuning of intonation that the use of relative solfège can help cultivate.
P7’s position regarding letter names being more valuable than solfège was countered by P12, who said that they had been brought up from an early age with both solfège and letter names but “always preferred solfège ... Letter names for me [are], like what [P7] mentioned, as a violinist I can see notes in finger numbers, but as a singer it is [in] different sections in my head. As a singer I always look at solfège. Letter names for some reason, except for when
I’m trying to figure out something specific, [don’t] really immediately register; it has to go through an extra step in my head.” So, what is it about relative solfège that makes it incredibly useful? A few participants (P1, P10, P12) responded with the following similar answers: that it functions in any key; that it provides a “visual” representation of sound; that it is always
“relative” to the tonic, so it’s good for developing relative pitch; and that it is excellent for
“fine-tuning intonation” as mentioned above.
Solfège also enabled some participants to learn quickly and efficiently. P1 stated:
“When it comes to musicianship, how important it is to learn something so efficiently. This is not me bragging so please don’t take this the wrong way but after a couple of years of practice
I was able to look through it and sight-read it in my head using solfa because [the conductor] has equipped me with those skills. And I think if you guys keep practicing, you will be able to do that too if you can’t already.”
4.5.6 Ensemble (One Voice Per Part)
Ensemble (OVPP) deserves a special mention as a significant theme in the focus group discussion. This musicianship element received an overall rating of 3.9, slightly below the 4.0 threshold from Question 9 of the questionnaire and therefore not included as one of the musicianship elements discussed above. However, ensemble performance featured heavily in the focus group occupying approximately 20% of the discussion. P4 believed ensemble
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singing (OVPP) helped develop the skill of listening to their own part against other parts. P2 made the insightful comment: “I find that performing and practicing in a small group really helps with being able to … perform with an understanding that you’re actually a part of a piece developing in a unique structure of a piece. You are not just on your own. So, when you are singing or when you are performing … you have to have the other parts in mind in order for it to come together really well and when it does, and when each member has that, the piece takes off. It has a completely different dimension. That’s what I feel as though the ensemble groups help us to do.” P8 and P12 observed that ensemble singing with one voice per part increased their confidence, and P7 agreed by saying, “if all the parts are confident, then the whole group is going to sound confident.”
On the historically informed performance question of whether Bach had originally intended the choral parts to be sung with just one voice per part, P7 made the perceptive observation that Bach had thankfully scored the orchestral string parts to double the vocal parts if one voice per part was to be considered. P1, P4, and P9 were undecided about whether singing one voice per part was even possible. This was mainly on the grounds of what they believed to be necessary teamwork required in relation to “scatter breathing” in order to maintain the musical integrity of the vocal line. Finally, P12 stated: “I found the discipline that develops having been in a small ensemble … there is a lot of responsibility on you to actually pull your weight and not to just kind of fall back on somebody who is a stronger leader. You are actually forced to be in charge of your own part, which helps a lot in choir and in any ensemble, even in your solo performance, it gives you more confidence [that] you can do it.” Finally, solfège was quoted by several participants as having helped them immeasurably with sight-singing in the ensemble context. Specific reference was made to the use of solfège in relation to hearing one’s part against the others and inner-hearing the part’s place in the interval, chord, or key being sung or played.
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4.6 Conclusions
Solfège is a goal of both the musicianship program and the rehearsal process. The participant responses to Questions 9 and 11 of the questionnaire suggested that solfège is the fundamental musicianship element that underpins the development of the four highest-rated musicianship elements: inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, and intervals. Together these five elements, along with the addition of ensemble singing (one voice per part), formed the basis of the focus group discussion that again highlighted solfège as a foundational musicianship element. This is in keeping with the significant body of literature discussed in
Chapter Two that asserts the pedagogical importance of a tonic-centric solmisation system to musicianship skill development.174
174 See Chapter Two for a more in-depth discussion on the value of solfège to musicianship skill development.
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Chapter 5: Results & Discussion Recital 2 | Research Stage 2
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” - Isaac Newton
5.1 Recital 2: Gabriel Fauré Requiem
The second research stage examined my musicianship self-mentor preparation as a conductor through the rehearsal and performance process that culminated in my second doctoral recital. This recital comprised a live performance of Gabriel Fauré Requiem together with a critical commentary and program notes highlighting aspects of historically informed performance practice relevant to this work.175
5.2 Research Stage 2: Conductor as Musicianship Self-Mentor
Research stage two occurred in conjunction with the second recital. The purpose of this second research stage was to focus on the conductor’s role as musicianship self-mentor.
In this paradigm, I am the conductor who functions as my musicianship self-mentor. Stage two research results were therefore gleaned from a self-reflective journal.176
5.3 Self-Reflective Journal
The self-reflective journal documented the rehearsal and performance process from three different perspectives. The first perspective (Part A) reflected on my role as understudy and assistant to Associate Professor Dr Neil McEwan, artistic director and conductor of the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Choir and Chamber Choir, and my eventual role as guest conductor of these combined choirs. The second perspective (Part B) reflected on the role of musicianship in my self-mentoring preparation as conductor for Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.
175 For critical commentary and program notes, see Appendices N and O. 176 For self-reflective journal excerpts, see Appendices H through J.
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The third perspective (Part C) reflected on my role as understudy and guest conductor of the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, which necessitated liaising closely with the orchestra’s chief conductor, Maestro Eduardo Diazmuñoz. The self-reflective journal process unexpectedly brought to consciousness the possibility that there was also an informal peer mentoring relationship occurring simultaneously in the background, informing the foregrounded self-mentoring process. This emergent idea informs the ensuing three-part self- reflective journal discussion below.
5.3.1 Self-Reflective Journal: Part A Reflections
Excerpts from this first part of my self-reflective journal were selected for their ability to highlight my personal thoughts and ideas about the conductor as musicianship mentor in the context of my initial role as assistant to Neil McEwan and my eventual role as guest conductor of the combined Sydney Conservatorium choirs (see Appendix H). The key themes that have emerged from my self-reflective journal are highlighted in the following discussion.
From a musicianship perspective, three ideas were readily apparent. Firstly, the level of musicianship skill ability each student brings to the choral rehearsal and performance space is varied. Musicianship skill development is integral to the undergraduate music program for music students who participate as singers in the Sydney Conservatorium Choir and Chamber
Choir. However, not all members of each choir study music as their primary focus, as both choirs are open to audition, and any student at the University of Sydney may apply.
Secondly, one of my key roles as an assistant to McEwan was to take the vocal warm- up session at the beginning of choir rehearsals. I became increasingly more strategic in my planning of the vocal warm-up sessions in order to develop the kind of musicianship skills I thought would be complementary to the particular choral situation. Specifically, where the two separate choirs would eventually merge to become one choir in the performance. This meant that musicianship exercises during vocal warm-up sessions were focused particularly
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on inner hearing in relation to intonation, balance, and blend as a priority. I intended to complement McEwan’s work with each choir and enable ideal conditions for a homogenous sound when the two choirs later merged into one choir in the rehearsal and performance space.177
Thirdly, it was generally accepted that a certain level of sight-singing ability was a prerequisite expectation for membership in either or both choirs. An adequate sight-singing ability was expected for the Conservatorium Choir, and a confident sight-singing ability was expected for the Chamber Choir. Nevertheless, the level of sight-singing ability was noticeably varied during the early stages of learning the repertoire in the first few rehearsals and more strikingly evident in some of the vocal sectional rehearsals that I was often assigned to lead. With limited rehearsal time available, it was the expectation that individual students with lower-level sight-singing ability would work harder away from the rehearsal in their own practice time to develop this skill quickly to cope with the sheer volume of music and the corresponding demands during rehearsal.
From a mentoring perspective, it slowly occurred to me that an informal peer mentor relationship between McEwan (my doctoral conducting supervisor) and myself had emerged alongside my self-mentoring as an additional mentoring outcome throughout the second research stage. While my self-reflective journal documented an overt awareness of my self- mentoring process, I came to realise, perhaps unsurprisingly, that my journal also revealed another layer of simultaneous mentoring from McEwan that occurred during this time. On reflection, what began as a mentee-mentor relationship, ended as more of what I would term an informal peer-mentor relationship. I do recall that McEwan intentionally referred to me as
177 For a historical overview of musicianship skill development in the context of the choral warm-up see Peggy Dettwiler, “Developing Aural Skills Through Vocal Warm-Ups: Historical Overview of Pedagogical Approaches and Applications for Choral Directors,” The Choral Journal 30, no. 3 (October 1989): 13-20, http://www.jstor.com/stable/23547783.
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his colleague during the early rehearsal stages of the Fauré Requiem, particularly when handing the choir over to me to rehearse on his behalf. This was a kind and generous referral that helped to instil the choir’s confidence in my leadership during rehearsals, but also, more importantly, because I would be their conductor during the final performance.
This informal peer-mentoring relationship can also be reciprocal, but first, “a paradigm shift from ‘maestro to mentor’ needs to happen.”178 It became increasingly evident that I did have a slowly emerging sense of this paradigm shift in how I viewed McEwan from that of maestro-mentor to that of informal peer-mentor that began during the rehearsal process for the Fauré Requiem. Indeed, over the entire period of five years where McEwan was my official conducting supervisor for my doctoral degree, this shift was evident when considering the informal collegial professional relationship that now exists between McEwan and myself.
The most important point to make here is that although the mentor-mentee relationship between McEwan and myself remained consistent throughout the doctoral journey, it was the nature of this relationship that shifted ever so slightly. This was evident by McEwan increasingly referring to me as his colleague even though I was still technically the conducting mentee student, and he was still the conducting mentor supervisor.
5.3.2 Self-Reflective Journal: Part B Reflections
Excerpts from Part B of the self-reflective journal provide a comprehensive overview of the musicianship and conducting self-mentoring process I followed to prepare for my first performance of the Fauré Requiem as conductor of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony
Orchestra and Choirs (see Appendix I).
The musicianship self-mentoring process I followed in my preparation of the Fauré
Requiem179 was comprehensive, in-depth, and breadth of purpose and required an intense intellectual focus together with a rigorous practice routine to ensure a thoroughly deep and
178 Castanheira, “Mentoring for Educators’ Professional Learning and Development,” 338. 179 This included both choral and conductor scores.
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meaningful knowledge of the work as a whole. The musicianship process outlined in
Appendix I utilised the same musicianship skills valued by Guido d’Arezzo, Johann Sebastian
Bach, and Nadia Boulanger.180 They are also the same musicianship skills valued by my mentors over the past three decades and particularly during my two intense years of musicianship and conducting studies at the Liszt Academy’s Kodály Institute in Hungary. The musicianship self-mentoring preparation process I learned and still utilise as a conductor is precisely the same preparation process I now model to my music students, expecting that this process will assist them in developing into self-mentors also at some point through the mentor-mentee process. In this way, the conductor as musicianship mentor model informs my own professional best practice and ensures the legacy continues through my students, past, present, and future.
5.3.3 Self-Reflective Journal: Part C Reflections
Excerpts from this third part of my self-reflective journal have been selected to highlight my role as understudy and guest conductor of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Symphony Orchestra, which meant liaising closely at times with the orchestra’s chief conductor, Eduardo Diazmuñoz. This brought about another brief, informal mentoring relationship.
From a conducting perspective, a further three ideas became apparent during my preparation. Firstly, the highly disciplined approach I applied to the study of both the full orchestral and choral conductor scores for the Fauré Requiem was undoubtedly in no small part owing to the rigorous routine of musicianship training I had learned during my time as a student in both Hungary and Australia.
Secondly, my professional experience as a pianist was an extremely efficient way to help me prepare the vocal score and full conductor score. Well-developed musicianship skills
180 See Chapter Two for a more comprehensive discussion of musicianship’s value to Guido d’Arezzo, Johann Sebastian Bach and Nadia Boulanger.
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like sight-singing and score reading at the piano enabled me to efficiently sing and play my way through the essential choral and orchestral score preparation process. This preparation process is discussed briefly in the reflections of Part B above and outlined in more detail in
Appendix I.
Thirdly, one of the challenges of any conductor is to be thoroughly conversant with the orchestral instruments one is conducting. Although I had many years of experience working with wind, brass, and percussion musicians in an orchestral context, there is always more to learn about the individual nuances of each particular instrument. Fortunately, my considerable experience as a string player enabled an instant connection between at least two- thirds of the orchestra that was a distinct advantage in this situation as the Fauré Requiem is heavily scored for strings, particularly the viola section.
As mentioned earlier in the journal discussions above, the rigorous musicianship self- mentoring process I followed in my preparation of the Fauré Requiem was essential to ensure
I felt musically confident and secure at all rehearsals with the orchestra. When I reflected on the Part C journal entries, it is clear that by the time I met the orchestra, my thoughts were no longer consumed with the detailed musicianship process. A secure musicianship foundation gave me much-needed confidence as a conductor to know that I was well prepared musically and technically for this first meeting. Therefore, this enabled me to concentrate on other equally important logistical and administrative matters like rehearsal schedules and seating plans and to focus on important musical considerations during rehearsals, like setting tempos together with the orchestra, exploring expressive elements, and refining the overall balance of the orchestra internally between the sections and in relation to soloists and the choir.
In summary, the feeling of self-assurance that gradually emerged throughout my self- mentoring journal entries was due in no small part to the thorough musicianship preparation journey that I had undertaken. This may also explain why my self-reflective journal entries
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were increasingly brief towards the end of the rehearsal process; I was no longer preoccupied with these self-reflections as I was totally absorbed with the demands of the music in the moment. My self-reflective journaling had served its purpose in that this emerging element of confidence in my general overall feeling of preparedness had superseded the need to express any self-doubts or concerns in writing. At that moment, I was in my element in front of the orchestra and choir, secure in the knowledge that my musicianship was the sure foundation that enabled me to be my most authentic self as a conductor who brings the music to life.
The informal mentor relationship with Eduardo Diazmuñoz was distinctly different from that of Neil McEwan, as evidenced in my self-reflective journal. To me, Diazmuñoz remained the maestro, partly because that was his official title, but also because of the nature of my relationship to Diazmuñoz, which remained much more formal in my designated role as understudy and guest conductor for the Fauré Requiem. Diazmuñoz did alternate between mentor and colleague in his professional dealings with me. He was generous in his willingness for me to sit in on rehearsals so I could observe and get a general feel for working with the orchestra. He also kindly allowed me to sit in on various conducting masterclasses and workshops too. When it finally came time for me to work with the orchestra, Diaz Muñoz actively mentored me on a few occasions at McEwan’s request, through observation of my conducting and rehearsal technique and giving me valuable feedback where necessary.
5.4 Conclusions
It is fitting to end this mentoring discussion with a quote by Bean et al. that emphasises the valuable relational aspect of mentoring. “Mentoring is first and foremost a relationship. At its best mentoring can be a life-altering relationship that inspires mutual growth, learning, and development. Its effects can be remarkable, profound, and enduring;
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mentoring relationships have the capacity to transform individuals.”181 That my conducting mentor relationship with Neil McEwan was a significant factor in my development as a conductor cannot be underestimated. McEwan was ever the gentleman and while his diplomacy was much valued during challenging moments during rehearsals, so too was his capacity to recognise, nurture and champion my conducting abilities. In short, it was a genuinely transformational mentoring relationship.
Finally, self-reflective practice is a key feature of research stages two and three. The notion of self-reflective practice and its value to the reflective practitioner originated with the work of Donald Schön in the 1970’s. He argued that skilled practitioners demonstrate
“reflection-in-action,” which is essentially the process of “thinking what they are doing while they are doing it.”182 More recently, the influence of this original concept is evident in the work of scholars like David Elliott, who refers to “critically reflective engagement” as central to “reflective and creative practitioners” in his praxial philosophy of music education, and
Linda Candy, who explores the concept of the reflective practitioner in the context of the creative process as discussed in her recently published work, The Creative Reflective
Practitioner.183 In the context of the second research stage, the conductor as self-mentor can be understood to assume this role of a critical, creative, and reflective practitioner.
181 Bean, et al. “Mentoring in Higher Education Should be the Norm to Assure Success,” 57. 182 Donald A. Schön, Educating the Reflective Practitioner (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2020), xi. 183 Linda Candy, The Creative Reflective Practitioner, (London: Routledge, 2019).
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Chapter 6: Results & Discussion Recital 3 | Research Stage 3
6.1 Recital 3: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace
This third research stage examined the means by which the original mentees emerged as their own self-mentors through the rehearsal and performance process for the third doctoral recital. This recital comprised a live performance of Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for
Peace together with the program notes and a critical commentary highlighting creative performance aspects in relation to the Australian premiere performance of this work.184
6.2 Research Stage 3: Conductor’s Mentees become Self-Mentors
Research stage three occurred in conjunction with my third DMA recital. The purpose of this third research stage was to focus on the conductor’s mentees who had emerged as their own self-mentors over the two intervening years between the first and third recitals. In this paradigm, I am the conductor, and the participants in this research stage are some of my original mentees, who had since become independent self-mentors. Stage three research results were therefore gleaned from follow-up interviews with four of the original twelve participants.185 The research data for this third research stage were written responses from P4,
P6, P7, and P12 in relation to a follow-up interview. These four participants were given the follow-up interview questions in the week leading up to the recital date, with instructions to consider the questions prior to the performance but to wait until after the recital before answering. Immediately following the performance, the four participants were encouraged to answer the questions as a post-performance reflection. With reference to the concluding comments in Chapter Five, a parallel can be drawn with this stage of the study, as the
184 For critical commentary and program notes, see Appendix P and Q. 185 For sample follow-up interview questions, see Appendix K.
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participant self-mentors become critical, creative, and reflective practitioners. This reflective process is the wisdom of hindsight that informed the participants, and they brought this to the follow-up interview two years later.
6.3 Follow-Up Interviews
The follow-up interview was comprised of four questions. The first two questions were designed to highlight the ways in which mentees had become their own self-mentors.
Question 1 was divided into four subsections and, together with Question 2, asked participants to reflect over the intervening years between the first and third recitals. The remaining questions were designed to investigate the ways in which mentees may have also become emerging mentors. Question 3 focused on the two participants who were in their fourth and final year of an undergraduate music education degree and who were about to begin their career as music teachers. Conversely, Question 4 focused on the two participants who were both recent music education graduates and early-career music teachers. Participants were asked to choose between Question 3 and 4 by answering the one that seemed most appropriate to their current circumstances.
6.3.1 Question 1A
Two years ago, you participated in the rehearsal and performance of a Bach cantata. Think back to that time and where your musicianship skills were. With reference to the following - solfège, letter names, intervals, intonation, inner hearing, establishing the tonic, transposition, ensemble, one voice per part,186 conducting, clef reading, sight-singing - what particular musicianship skills have been the most beneficial to your personal musicianship development in relation to performance over the past two years, and why? Two years earlier, during stage one of the research study, participants were asked to rate all forty-six musicianship elements according to their perceived importance and to make
186 Ensemble and one voice per part (OVPP) are listed as two separate musicianship elements on the questionnaire and follow-up interview however, participant responses suggest that they understand these terms to overlap in the context of this discussion. Therefore, they will be referred to together.
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brief comments about the most highly rated musicianship elements in relation to their perceived relevance to the rehearsal and performance process. The twelve musicianship elements listed in Question 1A above were selected from the forty-six musicianship elements listed in the original stage one questionnaire. Six elements (inner hearing, sight-singing187, intervals, solfège, ensemble, OVPP) were chosen for their highlighted significance from stage one analysis.188 The other six musicianship elements (letter names, intonation, establishing the tonic, transposition, conducting, clef reading) were included for their perceived significance by the researcher. It was my intention to draw respondents to comment specifically on four of the five elements from research stage one (solfége, inner hearing, sight-singing, and intervals) as well as encourage participants to comment on the additional eight elements included in this question. By purposely narrowing down the musicianship elements that could be commented on, it was hoped that participant responses would reveal a deeper, more mature understanding of their significance now that each participant was two years older.
These eight musicianship elements were commented on by at least two of the four participants as having been the most beneficial to their personal musicianship development in relation to performance over the past two years: inner hearing (P4, P6, P12), sight-singing
(P6, P7, P12), intervals (P4, P6, P12), solfège (P4, P6, P12), ensemble / one voice per part189
(P4, P6, P12), intonation (P4, P6, P12), letter names (P6, P7), and conducting (P4, P6). Of the other three musicianship elements, one (establishing the tonic) was referred to by one participant and will be commented on briefly. The remaining two (clef reading, transposition) were not referred to and therefore not included for further discussion.
187 Although sight-reading and sight-singing are acknowledged as slightly different but overlapping skills both terms are understood to be interchangeable in the context of this discussion of participants’ responses in relation to follow-up interview Question 1A. 188 One element highlighted in stage one analysis (musical memory) was not included again in research stage three as memorisation of the score was not an expectation for the third recital performance. 189 See footnote 186 for explanation as to why ensemble and one voice per part are considered as one element
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P4 wrote about how these musicianship skills had been transformational in relation to their individual ability to sing confidently in public: “The work I put into the Bach cantata has been pivotal for me in choral singing … the huge development that I have had in these areas of my musicianship have dramatically increased my confidence of publicly singing.” P4 also stated that ensemble singing with one voice per part “really developed my intonation” and
“understanding how to conduct” had “really helped [them] in rehearsals.”
P6 was aware that their musicianship skills had “very much developed over the past two years,” stating that when first starting to learn the Bach cantata, “I liked to rely on skills that I had become more familiar with.” For example, learning vocal parts by first playing the vocal line on the flute to help “hear my voice part… however, I have since developed my skills in more areas through musicianship classes,” and emphasised that “having the time to have information sink in and develop” over the two years was vitally important. They could
“now see the interval and hear it within” themselves (i.e., inner hearing) and “often used solfège as an extra backup,” which made “sight-reading more fluent.” P6 mentioned that the ensemble singing with one voice per part “really helped to ensure that I had learnt it well
…and you know exactly how to sing your part which may be harder [to do] on your own.” P6 also credited ensemble singing one voice per part with improved intonation. They observed:
“Hearing your part in context is always helpful for intonation … I am more confident in my intonation and am now aware of the intonation of others around me.” With reference to conducting, P6 commented: “I knew how to follow the score but would occasionally get lost for various reasons. I find now that I am paying more attention and asking more questions about what the conductor is doing to [more confidently] follow along.” P6’s response would suggest that their emerging confidence is directly proportional to their level of musicianship ability, evident from the development that occurred between the first and third recitals when compared. P6 said that “having the time to [let the] information sink in and develop” was
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invaluable to their overall musicianship skills. This is undoubtedly a very pleasing response from the perspective of a musicianship mentor. From the conductor’s perspective, the greater the musicianship of each individual, the greater efficiency in the rehearsal process, and the greater the level of musicality attainable from the ensemble as a whole.
P7 made brief observations that centred primarily on sight-reading skills. They believed that “using letter names was the best way of practice” for them but also acknowledged that “solfège came in handy with the trickier intervals.” P12, by way of contrast, believed that sight-reading using solfège and interval recognition “definitely made the whole process faster” when needing to learn repertoire quickly. P12 then commented on the experience of singing in ensembles with one voice per part in the rehearsal context: “Once
I knew my part, the real challenge lay in being able to sing with other voices within an ensemble without losing the sense of intonation or 'togetherness,' so having those skills previously developed throughout my musicianship training [was] very beneficial.”
Interestingly, P12 had been the one designated to give starting pitches during vocal rehearsals and comments positively about the development of this valuable skill: “During the rehearsal of Bach's cantata, I was also in charge of giving the correct starting pitches for the ensemble by just using a tuning fork tuned to A440. Therefore, the interval recognition skills and the ability to establish a tonic made the whole process easier and less stressful.” P12’s comments indicate a level of confidence directly proportional to the security of their musicianship skill development.
A significantly notable correlation evident in the overall responses to Question 1A is the fact that of the eight musicianship elements commented on, four of them (inner hearing, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège) were also in the five highest-ranked musicianship elements gleaned two years earlier from the stage one questionnaire. Each of these four elements was referred to by at least three out of the four participants. Participant comments
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regarding ensemble singing with one voice per part (OVPP) suggest that an already established confidence in this ability is invaluable, particularly because these participants were learning their individual parts quite independently away from the ensemble.
Taken as a whole, participant’s responses to this question indicate overall confidence in their individual and collective ability to prepare “quickly” and “faster” because of their musicianship skills which “made the whole process easier and less stressful,” according to
P12. The two-year time period between the first and third recitals is likely an essential ingredient in developing overall confidence in each of the four participants, whose responses collectively suggest that the depth and breadth of musicianship skills developed over time.
6.3.2 Question 1B
Thinking forward, what particular musicianship skills would be most beneficial to your ongoing personal musicianship development in relation to performance in the future, and why? P4 highlighted intonation, intervals, conducting, and sight-reading as the four most useful skills; and made the following interesting observation: “I find that conducting myself in rehearsal helps me give expression to the music.” P6 emphasised the fact that all musicianship skills would “forever help me in my musicianship development,” but thought solfège, intervals, and intonation were the most important of these skills for the future. They emphasised the continued importance of “working with different ensembles and conducting” because of the perceived opportunity to “further develop my skill…and expose me to new works that I may not have chosen myself, forcing me to use all my skills to deliver what is required.” P7 reiterated the usefulness of solfège for trickier intervals (e.g., diminished and augmented) but stated that their “primary practice will still be sight-reading and letter names” because of their “training as a violinist.” P12 said the skills considered most beneficial at present were solfège and sight-reading skills but, like P6, agreed that all skills would be
“beneficial to my ongoing musicianship development” because of plans to become a music
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teacher. One would hope that this same self-awareness might also mean that participants will continue to value their musicianship skill development as professional music educators when passing these skills to their students.
Overall, solfège and sight-singing were the musicianship elements most commented on, with three out of the four participants referring to the usefulness of these two elements.
Fluency in solfége being the foundation upon which fluent sight-singing skills are built for
P4, P6, and P12. In contrast, P7 highlights fluency in both solfége and letter names as the dual foundation upon which their sight-singing skills are built. This is consistent with the results from research stage one, in which these two musicianship elements - solfége and sight-singing
- were highly rated in the questionnaire and mentioned significantly in the focus group discussion.
6.3.3 Question 1C
Reflect on the synergy between musicianship class and the Bach cantata rehearsal and performance process. How meaningful was it to study the Bach cantata repertoire in musicianship class during the rehearsal and performance process, and why? P4 remarked: “I found it very interesting looking at the Bach cantata in-depth during musicianship classes. I found the harmonic analysis we did assisted me in performance by hearing the harmonic progressions and hence made it much easier to hear starting notes.” P6 further elaborated: “I thoroughly enjoyed studying the Bach cantata repertoire in class. It gave me a deeper knowledge and appreciation for the context and execution of each section, not only in ways that my conductor wished for but in ways that perhaps [historically] Bach may have wanted as well.” P7 commented that “studying Bach during class and rehearsals was very beneficial as we were beginning to understand what Bach was trying to accomplish in his musical word painting and the relationship which he always brings out between the orchestra and the choir.” P12 observed:
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I believe that by studying the Bach cantata during the musicianship class, I was able to get a more in-depth approach to learning the piece. We learned the meaning of the words in greater detail, learned all the parts of the cantata, so we were aware of other voice lines other than our own, and we also had the chance to apply the cantata in different and creative ways (e.g., improvisation on the main theme, changing the cantata to a minor key, etc.) which ultimately helped in retaining the cantata for a longer period of time.
Some of these comments in response to Question 1C are interesting because they hint at each participant’s growing awareness of historically informed performance (HIP) practice.
Indeed, performing the Bach cantata in an historically informed way was one of my focus points as a conductor in preparing the score and as a mentor when preparing the vocalists and instrumentalists during the rehearsal and performance process. Although HIP aspects were not the central focus of the first recital, I was genuinely pleased that awareness of HIP approaches was present in the participant responses and significant enough for them to have commented on two years later.
These responses suggest that all four participants believed their in-depth study of the
Bach cantata during musicianship class, in parallel with the rehearsal of the Bach cantata, allowed for a richer, more profound, integrated learning experience overall. P4 and P12 commented positively about the in-depth approach, while P6 and P7 referred to a deeper understanding of Bach’s cantatas and a new appreciation of HIP practices regarding the
Baroque era.
Musicianship and ensemble performance happen to be two components that sit side by side in several music units of study through the Avondale Conservatorium. This decision to pair these two components was both a practical and pedagogical one at the time. However, with the wisdom of hindsight, this pairing has also allowed the opportunity for incredible synergistic learning to take place at the nexus between musicianship and ensemble performance. This synergy allows for a richer and more holistic teaching and learning experience for the participants and their conductors and musicianship mentors.
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When comparing and contrasting the Bach cantata experience to the Jenkins The
Armed Man experience, quite obviously, the pedagogical scaffolding deliberately used to guide the participants through the Bach cantata by the conductor and musicianship mentor was no longer in place for the participants who performed the Jenkins work two years later.
However, what is interesting to note is that without their reliance on a mentor to provide the scaffolding, they had become their own self-mentors, providing their own self-directed learning. They had absorbed enough of the routines, discipline, and training required to acquire the musicianship skills to become confident and efficient self-mentors.
Thus, the synergy between musicianship class and the Bach cantata rehearsal and performance process would appear to have allowed for a deeper and more meaningful learning experience for participants, particularly in the area of historically informed performance practice, and eventually led to self-directed learning during the rehearsal and performance process for the Jenkins The Armed Man two years later.
6.3.4 Question 1D
Reflect on the synergy between conducting class and the Bach cantata rehearsal and performance process. How meaningful was it to study the Bach cantata repertoire in conducting class during the rehearsal and performance process, and why? All participants were expected to participate in a conducting class as part of the musicianship program. P4 was a beginner conductor and made the following observations:
“Through the conducting class, I felt like I learnt all vocal parts in various pieces in the cantata inside out. Being able to hear the other parts and know what they were doing in the performance helped my intonation and rhythmic accuracy.” P6’s response is rather insightful, perhaps because as a principal study vocalist, their primary role in conducting class was to sing the bass recitative and aria for each student conductor. P6 elaborated:
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I found the conducting component the most helpful. It showed me how to use the techniques studied from musicianship class in practice, and that everyone does have their own interpretation of how pieces should be performed. They are not bad or wrong, some just made more sense than others. I was the performance soloist for our conducting class during this time. Singing the bass [recitative and] aria repeatedly for each student to perform their conducting style gave me insight to these nuances but also experienced the way in which they felt. It also solidified why my conductor wanted to present her performance in the way that she did.
P7 believed that “conducting class helped us understand where the entries for each part are. All of the choruses in this cantata are fugal in nature, so to be able to look through the full score, and to conduct it ourselves, made that a very handy rehearsal tool when it came to individual practice and the rehearsals.” P12 did not comment, as they had not been present in the conducting class.
Ironically, around the time of the cantata performance, I do remember being increasingly aware that some participants may have reached a saturation point because J. S.
Bach and his cantata had been the concentrated focus of both musicianship and conducting classes, and choral and orchestral ensemble rehearsals for almost the entire thirteen weeks of the semester. Despite my reservations, these responses would suggest all participants appeared to reflect positively on the opportunity to undertake a thorough study of various elements of the Bach cantata in both musicianship and conducting classes. Upon reflection, it would have been good to have counter-balanced the steady Bach cantata diet with the occasional and timely addition of contrasting repertoire and associated activities, perhaps even just for sheer enjoyment rather than for pedagogical outcomes.
Accordingly, the synergy between conducting class and the Bach cantata rehearsal and performance process was perceived to be a very positive learning experience that contributed to a deeper understanding of the cantata as a whole for all participants.
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6.3.5 Question 2
You have been a participant in the rehearsal and performance process of Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace but you are no longer a musicianship and/or conducting student at Avondale. Therefore, you were not required to simultaneously do an intense, guided study of this work in musicianship and/or conducting class during the rehearsal and performance process. With this in mind, are there any acquired musicianship and/or conducting skills that you found particularly helpful in your individual, independent, personal preparation for this performance? Firstly, as with Question 1A, inner hearing, intervals, and solfège were again the musicianship skills frequently referred to by three out of the four participants as the most helpful in their personal preparation. Secondly, this question was designed to tease out the individual, independent, personal preparation process for each participant. When all four participant responses are taken as a whole, the overarching theme that emerged was that the foundational musicianship and conducting skills established and developed while they were students in musicianship and conducting classes had now become a habitual part of their own personal preparation process. Two years later, these skills, and the habits of practice that formed in association with their development, continued to contribute to each participant’s ability to be thoroughly prepared. From the comments made by each of the four participants, it is clear that they had matured in their attitude and confidence in relation to their self- directed learning during the rehearsal and performance process.
P4 stated: “I found with all the background listening I was doing [that] I became very familiar with the pieces and hence found it easy to learn my parts.” P6, when faced with a particular musical challenge during rehearsals, felt confident that they had the necessary skills to solve it, stating: “It was the work I had done previously that helped with that transition.” P7 commented on how their musicianship and conducting skills had been utilised “leading a sectional practice with the tenors” and also about how “having a prior performance knowledge of the music and being able to relearn it was very helpful too.” P12 talked about
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an established learning pattern that utilised the musicianship skills developed as a student.
This established learning pattern, although unique to each participant, is common to all four participants and appeared to be modelled directly from the routines established during their time as musicianship and conducting students in my classes. As I was their original mentor two years earlier for the Bach cantata, this realisation was exactly what I had hoped for; to know that my role as mentor was all but redundant because the mentees had now become their own self-mentors.
So, whilst three musicianship elements - inner hearing, intervals, solfége - were highlighted, they were not the focus of each participant’s discussion. Rather, each participant gave a much broader view of what was most important, which was that their own personal preparation process had been positively influenced by habits formed during musicianship class two years earlier that had developed into a reliable self-mentoring process.
6.3.6 Question 3
Reflect on your overall involvement in the musicianship and/or conducting program in relation to performance here at Avondale. In your experience as a final year undergraduate music education student and pre-service teacher can you please comment on how you anticipate your involvement in the musicianship and/or conducting program in relation to performance has prepared you for a beginning career as a music teacher. Participants were instructed to answer this question if they were a final year undergraduate music education student and about to become an early-career music teacher.
Only one response to this question was received from P6 as P4, P7, and P12 declined to answer this question.
While reflecting on their involvement in the musicianship, conducting, and performance aspects of the undergraduate music program, P6 was well aware that these aspects had prepared them for a beginning career as a music teacher. This was evident in their response: “The musicianship and conducting courses have helped develop my skills for
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teaching immensely. They … not only [gave] me the tools to analyse and understand the music I perform for myself but [also gave] me the confidence to find and teach these techniques to my students.” P6 made specific reference to four musicianship elements consistently ranked highly in research stage one, namely, solfège, intervals, conducting, and inner hearing. In P6’s own words:
I have had the privilege to use some of these skills in schools already on my placements with conducting bands and choirs. My teachers were impressed at the skills I had already developed and excited by some of the tools I used myself to teach to the students…they were not only proof to the students and my supervisor that I knew what I was doing but that I knew what I wanted to have these ensembles accomplish.
P6 mentioned these elements as integral to their increased sense of self-confidence during prac-teaching placements, particularly in their interactions with their supervising teachers and within the learning and teaching environment. P6’s comments would suggest that a secure musicianship skill foundation gives confidence to final year practice teachers and early-career music teachers and is an asset that has the potential to keep appreciating over a lifetime.
P6’s response is insightful, particularly when viewed through the lens of the conductor as musicianship mentor model, first outlined in Chapter Three. In this model, the research objective of stage three was twofold: to examine the process by which mentees become self- mentors and to examine the process by which mentees may become mentors to others.
Concerning this twofold objective, P6’s response to Question 3 would suggest that they were both confident in their ability to self-mentor and increasingly aware of their transition from mentee to mentor, in parallel with their transition from final year music education student to an emerging music teacher. Reid, Rowley, and Bennett explore this increased awareness of
‘sense of self’ identity in relation to the gradual transformation from undergraduate music
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education student (current self) towards professional music educator (future self). 190 Viewed in this paradigm, P6’s ‘sense of self’ identity is growing in confidence as a final year music education student transitioning into an early-career music teacher.
6.3.7 Question 4
Reflect on your progression from an undergraduate mentee student in musicianship and conducting in relation to performance at Avondale to an early-career teacher who has now become a mentor to your own students. Can you please comment on how you believe you have grown from mentee to mentor over the past two years, particularly in the area of musicianship and/or conducting in relation to performance? Question 4 made specific reference to the transition from mentee to mentor and asked participants to comment on this transition. Participants were encouraged to answer this question if they were a recent music education graduate and an early-career music teacher.
Two responses to this question were received from P4 and P7, while P6 and P12 declined to answer this question.
P4 explained this transition from mentee to mentor in several important ways. Firstly, by recognising the inherent value of musicianship skill development as a mentee undergraduate music education student, and later as a mentor in the professional teaching and learning environment: “In the last two years of my degree, I learnt the importance of developing my musicianship skills to the best of my ability, as it then lets my students have the access to the best possible learning.” Secondly, P4 also realised the importance of seeking ongoing development opportunities in support of the teaching and learning environment: “I have had more access to musicianship and conducting classes through professional development opportunities that I have been completing to make sure my musicianship stays at a high level and does not fall to the current level of my students.” Thirdly, P4 recognised the personal and professional need to remain a practicing musician by continuing to seek out
190 See Anna Reid, Jennifer Rowley and Dawn Bennett, “From Expert Student to Novice Professional: Higher Education and Sense of Self in the Creative and Performing Arts,” in Music Education Research 21, no. 4 (2019), 402.
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opportunities to perform: “I have also found that maintaining opportunities to perform works such as The Armed Man has also given me that added benefit of engaging in musical activities outside of the classroom. Taking part in these opportunities also gives me the chance to show to my students that I'm not just a music teacher, I'm a musician.” Thirdly, this comment highlights the importance of P4’s growing confidence in their emerging identity as an early- career music teacher. P4 believed that conducting opportunities also enabled them to develop from mentee to mentor: “I am using my conducting skills more than ever in my classes and in my infant choir. The progress I have made in conducting has given me the confidence that I am a conductor in a regular classroom too.” Finally, P4 stated that they are “so grateful for the training I have had through my degree, especially in the areas of musicianship and conducting. I feel that it has extended me past the requirements of an average music teacher and has given me the confidence to be the best teacher I can be.” This highlights the importance of formal musicianship and conducting training in the higher music education context to ensure students are ready for a professional environment.
As a recent music education graduate and early-career music teacher, P7 was able to answer Question 4 by looking objectively from the perspective of both the mentee and the mentor:
From a mentee's perspective, [the conductor] demonstrated to us what it takes to gain a full understanding of a piece through our rehearsals and classes. Having the role of a mentor demonstrated in front of us knowing that one day we would become music mentors was invaluable to have. Learning how to effectively use the practice techniques (sight-reading, solfège intonation practice, self-conducting practice, analysing the score etc …) and sharing of basic vocal techniques is something that I want to use in my professional role now as a music mentor myself. As a leader of the tenor section this time around … I was able to put these points into practice during our sectionals and smaller group practices (soloists especially) and I was using the same practice techniques that [the conductor] taught me; and they worked very well with the group that I was rehearsing with.
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Like P4’s earlier response, this comment above from P7 suggests that they too exhibit increased confidence in their abilities commensurate with their emerging identity as a more advanced early-career music teacher.
Therefore, participants’ responses would suggest that musicianship and conducting skill development are essential components in the undergraduate learning environment to ensure a smooth transition to an early-career music teacher. As participants grew in confidence, so did their ability to see themselves as having progressed from mentee to mentor.
6.4 Reflections
During the third recital, I saw my mentees take an important step towards self- mentoring. Our rehearsal on the afternoon of the performance ran late. My other role of producing the concert was also placing last-minute logistical demands on me, so I decided we would rehearse the final number, God Shall Wipe Away All Tears, later that day. We did not find that time, and I must admit that it totally slipped my mind. As such, I walked on stage, took a bow, and commenced my final recital, where I was in my professional element191 feeling the calm excitement of flow.192 All went well until I turned the last pages of the score and saw God Shall Wipe Away All Tears, with which Jenkins ends The Armed Man. It was then that I realised we had not rehearsed the climax of the whole work as a complete ensemble! I looked at the faces of participants I had closely mentored over the past two years; they were smiling. I took a deep breath and maintained composure. Looking calm, they followed my instructions to stand. I lifted my hands, and they sang beautifully. All anxiety left me, and I fought back joyful tears while conducting. In the green room afterwards, they proudly told me: “We knew you were busy, so we formed our own rehearsal without you. We trusted you to lead us, and we knew you trusted us to sing. We knew what you would expect,
191 See Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding your Passion Changes Everything (New York: Penguin, 2009). 192 See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990).
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so we were confident that we would be just fine when you lifted your hands.”193 I realised my mentees were now self-mentoring, and my work as conductor and musicianship mentor was done. The baton had indeed been handed on.
193 This anecdotal narrative is reconstructed from my self-reflective journal notes.
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Chapter 7: Conclusions
This thesis began with three research questions that explore the model of the conductor as musicianship mentor. The answers that emerged will be summarised below.
Limitations of the research and recommendations for further study will be considered before concluding comments.
7.1 What is the Role of the Conductor as a Musicianship Mentor?
The first research question investigated the role of the conductor as musicianship mentor to mentees in relation to recital one. It was shown that the conductor was able to assist the participant mentees in the capacity of a musicianship mentor throughout the rehearsal and performance process. The conductor and musicianship lecturer were the same person, which is significant in relation to the results of this study. The results suggest that mentees understood the musicianship mentoring role of the conductor as being particularly significant to their progress through the rehearsal and performance of the Bach cantata. The questionnaire and focus group discussion identified the fact that participants were in general agreement about five specific musicianship elements which they considered were of greatest significance (inner hearing, musical memory, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège) throughout the rehearsal and performance process. These elements, along with many others, were incorporated pedagogically by me as their musicianship mentor, as well as their conductor.
Secondly, of these musicianship elements, most participants perceived solfège as the element that was considered foundational to the development of the other four. Thirdly, there is reason to reflect on the ideal circumstances that enabled an authentic teaching and learning environment, where an intentional integration between the musicianship, conducting, solo performance, and ensemble performance program was able to occur. Such is the beauty of the synergy that occurs when academic music and music performance programs can be
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effectively integrated for the ultimate benefit of powerfully authentic teaching and learning experiences.
7.2 What is the Conductor’s Personal Self-Mentor Preparation?
The second research question explored the role of the conductor as a self-mentor in relation to the second recital. During this research stage, I consulted a broad range of conducting pedagogy literature to gain a deeper understanding of the personal self-mentoring preparation process of other conductors.194 The process of self-mentoring was recorded in a reflective journal, later divided into three parts according to the three aspects of the preparation process. Part A reflected upon the process of working with Neil McEwan to prepare the mass choir, while Part B reflected upon the musicianship self-mentoring process in relation to score preparation. Part C reflected upon the process of working with Eduardo
Diazmuñoz to prepare the symphony orchestra.
The Part A of the journal highlighted the development of the mentor-mentee relationship between myself and my conducting supervisor (McEwan) into an unofficial peer mentoring relationship throughout a two-year period between the first recital and the third recital. I particularly became increasingly aware of this shift in dynamic when I was self- mentoring during my preparation for the second recital. Mentoring is about a relationship at its core, as it requires investing in people. I experienced a transformation in my relationship with my mentor, which was built on mutual trust. I trusted him as a mentor to guide me as a mentee, and in return, he trusted me as a mentee to do my best to follow his guidance. At first, we consulted together on every detail, but as my competence developed, so did his trust. Over
194 Clive Brown, Classical & Romantic Performance Practice 1750-1900 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). Joan Catoni Conlon, ed., Wisdom, Wit and Will (Chicago Illinois: GIA publications, 2009). Shirlee Emmons and Constance Chase, Prescriptions for Choral Excellence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Imogen Holst, Conducting a Choir (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). Don V Moses, Robert W. Demaree Jnr., Allen F. Ohmes, Face to Face with Orchestra and Chorus 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004). Christopher Seaman, Inside Conducting (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013). Markand Thackar, On the Principles and Practice of Conducting (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2016).
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time he was increasingly generous with his suggestions that we do things more collaboratively, and eventually, he treated me more like a peer. In contrast, Part C of the journal indicated that the as mentor-mentee nature of my professional relationship with
Eduardo Diazmuñoz was established and maintained during a relatively short three-month period.
As discussed in Part B of the journal, score preparation required a rigorous approach to learning the full conductor score and vocal score to prepare thoroughly enough to rehearse and eventually conduct the choir and orchestra. As I began to undertake this score preparation process,195 I was immediately appreciative of the many years of rigorous training in musicianship skills that developed the personal and professional discipline required to be absolutely secure in my ability to be fully prepared to direct the choir and orchestra.
Undoubtedly, it was the musicianship foundations that were laid during my formative years in
Australia and Hungary that gave me the confidence to do so.
7.3 What Musicianship Skills have Former Mentees Retained?
The third research question examined how the conductor’s mentees from recital one became their own self-mentors in the context of their individual preparation for the third recital. The musicianship skills considered most important to self-mentoring participants in the third research stage were inner hearing, sight-singing, intervals, and solfège. When participants were asked to suggest which musicianship element(s) would be most beneficial overall for the future, solfège and sight-singing were unanimously cited. Significantly, participants commented on the fact that solfège was fundamental to their development of sight-singing skills. Secondly, another musicianship element emerged in these research results: ensemble singing with one voice per part. Thirdly, it was also apparent to the four participants that, just like my own realisation in the second research stage, they had acquired
195 See Appendix I.
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the necessary musicianship skills to enable self-mentoring in their own personal preparation process. Finally, three of the four participants were able to recognise and articulate that not only had they become their own self-mentors but that they had also emerged as mentors in their own right, as either final year music education students with significant teaching experience in the classroom, or as early-career music teachers who were well on their way to becoming mentors to their mentee students. The two years between the first and third recitals witnessed participants transition from mentee to mentor and self-mentor. This is a powerful testimony to the fact that a pedagogically sequential musicianship skill development program, closely integrated with a strong ensemble performance program, can lay the foundations for mentee musicians to develop healthy professional self-mentoring habits for a lifetime.
7.4 Limitations of the Study
This study was limited to a relatively small sample size (n=12) and took place at a small higher education institution in a regional location, focussing largely on one demographic. All participants were of a roughly similar age (20-26 years), and all except one had been through school in Australia, though a number had foreign-born parents: three
Croatian, one Serbian, and one Vietnamese. All participants had been students in my musicianship and conducting classes, small vocal ensembles, and large choirs at various times and stages of their musical development at Avondale. At the time of this study, eleven participants were music education students, and the twelfth participant later progressed to further undergraduate study in music education. A control group for comparison was not used, and the potential for false positives and data bias is acknowledged. A broader engagement with conducting, musicianship, and singing pedagogy should have been considered; however, word limits restricted their inclusion. The repertoire used was representative of the western art music canon, specifically the late Baroque, late Romantic, and contemporary periods. All three works were scored for orchestra and choral forces of
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various permutations and sizes. The Bach cantata was scored for vocal soloists with chamber choir and chamber orchestra, the Fauré Requiem was scored for soloists with mass choir and large symphony orchestra, and Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace was scored for vocal soloists, large choral forces, and a large wind orchestra.
7.5 Recommendations for Further Research
There is the opportunity for similar studies with different scopes to show the value of integrating musicianship, combining conducting, solo performance, and ensemble performance within the context of higher music education institutions, both in Australia and overseas.
To further explore the concept of the conductor as musicianship mentor with a similar method, similar research questions could be asked of a larger sample size, and projects could select participants from rural, suburban and urban higher music education institutions. It could also consider different demographics and further comparative contexts. The potential for false positives might benefit from comparison with broader institutional course evaluation policies.
More specifically, this research methodology could be expanded to include a broader engagement with conducting, musicianship, and singing pedagogy. It could also be adapted more broadly to mentoring in the context of music education and more specifically to explore how conductors can mentor students on aspects of conducting other than musicianship,
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including conducting technique,196 rehearsal technique,197 and conducting score preparation.198
7.6 Concluding Comments
The role of the conductor as musicianship mentor in the interaction between a musicianship program that utilises the Kodály concept of pedagogically sequential musicianship skill development with singing at its core and an ensemble performance program within the context of Australian higher music education formed the basis for this research study. Musicianship training in higher music education programs is often a discrete, stand-alone study and assumes that the skills developed will be automatically transferred to the performance context.199 However, this may not always be the case. This research study was conducted with students whose undergraduate program explicitly applied musicianship skills to the ensemble performance context since I had the opportunity to teach Foundation,
Intermediate, and Advanced musicianship levels in parallel to the Ensemble Performance program. This research study suggests that a musicianship program with strong connections to a performance program allows for seamless integration and contributes significantly to the breadth and depth of learning. Intentionally integrating a pedagogically sequential musicianship skill development program that emphasises singing into the rehearsal and
196 See James Jordan, Evoking Sound: Fundamentals of Choral Conducting, 2nd ed. (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2009). See also Elliott Galkin’s seminal work The History of Orchestral Conducting: Theory and Practice. (New York: Pendragon Press, 1988). See also Green, et al., The Modern Conductor. See also John Hart, “The Status of Music Education Conducting Curricula, Practices, and Values,” in Journal of Music Teacher Education (2018): 1-15, doi:10.1177/1057083718783464. 197 See James Jordan, Evoking Sound: The Choral Rehearsal Volume 1: Techniques and Procedures,(Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007). See also Don V. Moses, Robert W. Demaree, Jr, and Allen F. Ohmes, “Rehearsing the Orchestra,” in Face to Face with Orchestra and Chorus: A Handbook for Choral Conductors, 2nd ed, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 39-44. 198 See Ann Howard Jones, Sarah Deveau and Timothy Westerhaus, “Analysing the Choral-Orchestral Score”, in Joan Catoni Conlon (ed), Wisdom, Wit, and Will: Women Choral Conductors On Their Art (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2009), 13-39. See also Don V. Moses, Robert W. Demaree, Jr, and Allen F. Ohmes, “Studying the Scores,” in Face to Face with Orchestra and Chorus: A Handbook for Choral Conductors, 2nd ed, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 47-58. See also Christopher Seaman, Inside Conducting, (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2013), 155-200. See also James Jordan, Evoking Sound: The Choral Rehearsal Volume 2: Inward Bound, Philosophy and Score Preparation, (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2008). 199 See Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition, vii.
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performance process is richly rewarding and highly beneficial to the creation of an authentically synergistic learning environment for the conductor/mentor and the students. The most frequent comment I received when presenting this research project at conferences can be paraphrased as: “Aren’t you lucky that you can integrate all of these aspects so well?” Indeed, the ability to integrate the higher music education curriculum has made the learning environment more holistic for the students, who had the invaluable opportunity to combine study with experience through a practical performance of the work studied. It is an accepted fact that musicianship skill development is essential in a higher music education program. As this study discovered, when those musicianship skills are directly related to the performance of a studied work, they have the potential to become much more embedded and effective.
106
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Appendices
Appendix A: Human Ethics Approval
Research Integrity Human Research Ethics Committee
Friday, 27 May 2016
Dr Jennifer Rowley Music Education Unit; Sydney Conservatorium of Music Email: [email protected]
Dear Jennifer
I am pleased to inform you that the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music Ethics Review Committee has approved your project e i ed Conductor as musicianship mentor .
Details of the approval are as follows:
Project No.: 2016/415
Approval Date: 26 May 2016
First Annual Report Due: 26 May 2017
Authorised Personnel: Rowley Jennifer; King Aleta
Documents Approved:
Date Type Document 22/05/2016 Participant Info Statement Clean Copy V3 PIS 22/05/2016 Questionnaires/Surveys Clean Copy V3 Questionnaire 22/05/2016 Participant Consent Form Clean Copy V3 PCF 22/05/2016 Interview Questions Focus Group Discussion 22/05/2016 Interview Questions Clean Copy V2 Follow Up Interview Questions 29/04/2016 Advertisements/Flyer Cover Letter FOCUS GROUP
HREC approval is valid for four (4) years from the approval date stated in this letter and is granted pending the following conditions being met:
Condition/s of Approval
Continuing compliance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans.
Provision of an annual report on this research to the Human Research Ethics Committee from the approval date and at the completion of the study. Failure to submit reports will result in withdrawal of ethics approval for the project.
All serious and unexpected adverse events should be reported to the HREC within 72 hours.
Research Integrity T +61 2 8627 8111 ABN 15 211 513 464 Research Portfolio F +61 2 8627 8177 CRICOS 00026A Level 6, Jane Foss Russell E [email protected] The University of Sydney sydney.edu.au NSW 2006 Australia
118
All unforeseen events that might affect continued ethical acceptability of the project should be reported to the HREC as soon as possible.
Any changes to the project including changes to research personnel must be approved by the HREC before the research project can proceed.
Note that for student research projects, a copy of this letter must be included in the ca dida e he i .
Chief I e iga / S e i e ibili ie :
1. You must retain copies of all signed Consent Forms (if applicable) and provide these to the HREC on request.
2. It is your responsibility to provide a copy of this letter to any internal/external granting agencies if requested.
Please do not hesitate to contact Research Integrity (Human Ethics) should you require further information or clarification.
Yours sincerely
Dr Helen Mitchell Chair Conservatorium of Music Ethics Review Committee
This HREC is constituted and operates in accordance with the National Health and Medical Re ea ch C cil s (NHMRC) National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007), NHMRC and Universities Australia Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2007) and the CPMP/ICH Note for Guidance on Good Clinical Practice.
Page 2 of 2
119
Appendix B: Human Ethics Modification Approval
Research Integrity & Ethics Administration Human Research Ethics Committee
Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Assoc Prof Jennifer Rowley Music Education Unit; Sydney Conservatorium of Music Email: [email protected]
Dear Jennifer
Your request to modify this project, which was submitted on 01 December 2017, has been considered.
After consideration of your response to the comments raised the project has been approved to proceed with the proposed amendments.
Details of the approval are as follows:
Project Title: Conductor as musicianship mentor
Project No.: 2016/415
Next Annual Report due: 26 May 2018
New Approved Documents:
Date Uploaded Type Document Name 20/03/2018 Version 4 Follow Up Interview Questions V4 Clean Copy 20/03/2018 Version 5 PCF V5 Clean Copy 20/03/2018 Version 5 PIS V5 Clean Copy
Please contact the Ethics Office should you require further information or clarification.
Sincerely
Associate Professor Stephen Fuller Chair Modification Review Committee (MRC 3)
The University of Sydney HRECs are constituted and operate in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) and the NHMRC’s Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2007).
Research Integrity & Ethics Administration T +61 2 9036 9161 ABN 15 211 513 464 Research Portfolio E [email protected] CRICOS 00026A Level 2, Margaret Telfer Building (K07) W sydney.edu.au/ethics The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
120
Appendix C: Email Invitation to Participate in the Study
May 18, 2016
Dear Potential Participant,
I would like to invite you to participate in my DMA research study, Conductor as Musicianship Mentor. This is an investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach cantata.
As a valued member of the small vocal ensemble for this Bach Cantata and a past or present musicianship student at Avondale Conservatorium, I would be delighted if you could participate in this study.
Your participation would involve a questionnaire (approx. 10-15 min) and a focus group discussion (approx. 20-30 min), giving a total time commitment of approximately 30-45 minutes. The focus group discussion will be recorded (audio/video) for the purpose of transcription and analysis. Please see attached Participant Information Statement (PIS) for further information.
Please do not hesitate to contact me by email: [email protected] or mobile: +61 434 979 126 if you have any questions or concerns or would like further clarification. I look forward to a reply at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely
Aleta King Doctor of Musical Arts Candidate Sydney Conservatorium University of Sydney
121
Appendix D: Participant Information Statement
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
ABN 15 211 513 464
DR JENNIFER ROWLEY Room 2082 Associate Professor Sydney Conservatorium of Music C41 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA Telephone: +61 2 9351 1328 Facsimile: +61 2 9351 1287 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.usyd.edu.au/
Conductor as Musicianship Mentor: An investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata.
PARTICIPANT INFORMATION STATEMENT
(1) What is this study about?
You are invited to take part in a research study investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata.
You have been invited to participate in this study because you are a past or present Avondale Conservatorium musicianship student who is currently involved in the small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata.
This Participant Information Statement tells you about the research study. Knowing what is involved will help you decide if you want to take part in the research. Please read this sheet carefully and ask questions about anything that you don’t understand or want to know more about.
Participation in this research study is voluntary.
By giving your consent to take part in this study you are telling us that you: ! Understand what you have read. ! Agree to take part in the research study as outlined below. ! Agree to the use of your personal information as described.
You will be given a copy of this Participant Information Statement to keep.
(2) Who is running the study?
The study is being carried out by the following researchers: • Dr Jennifer Rowley, Chief Investigator, Doctoral Research Supervisor • Ms Aleta King, Internal Investigator, Doctoral Research Student
STUDENT DECLARATION: Aleta King is conducting this study as the basis for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts at Sydney Conservatorium, University of Sydney. This will take place under the supervision of Dr Jennifer Rowley, Associate Professor of Music Education, Sydney Conservatorium.
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I do not anticipate any potential conflicts of interest for researchers, sponsors and/or institutions involved in this project.
I do not anticipate that individuals (researchers or participants) or institutions are likely to receive any financial benefits personally as a result of these outcomes.
(3) What will the study involve for me?
You are eligible to take part in this study because you have been, or are currently involved in, the musicianship education program at Avondale Conservatorium and are currently involved in the small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata.
Your involvement in this study will include the following:
a) Questionnaire (your individual response will be de-identified) – you will be invited to complete a questionnaire prior to the final performance at Sydney Conservatorium.
AND
b) Focus Group Discussion (face to face) – you will be invited to participate in a focus group discussion after the first performance at Sydney Conservatorium. This focus group will be audio and video recorded for the purpose of analysis.
c) Follow Up Interviews (face to face) – you will be invited to participate in a follow up interview. This interview will be audio and video recorded for the purpose of analysis.
(4) How much of my time will the study take?
Questionnaire – approximately 10-15 minutes Focus Group Discussion – approximately 20-30 minutes Follow Up Interview – approximately 15 – 30 minutes TOTAL TIME: approximately 45-60 minutes
(5) Who can take part in the study?
In order to qualify for involvement in this study you need to be:
a) a current member of the small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata. AND b) a past or present student in the musicianship program at Avondale Conservatorium.
(6) Do I have to be in the study? Can I withdraw from the study once I've started?
Being in this study is completely voluntary and you do not have to take part. Your decision whether to participate will not affect your current or future relationship with the researchers or anyone else at the University of Sydney or Avondale College of Higher Education.
If you decide to take part in the study and then change your mind later, you are free to withdraw at any time without consequence. You can do this by contacting Aleta King in writing via email [email protected]
QUESTIONNAIRE: Submitting your completed questionnaire is an indication of your consent to participate in the study. You can withdraw your responses if you change your mind about having them included in the study, up to the point that we have analysed and published the results.
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION: You are free to leave the focus group discussion at any time. Unless you say that you want us to keep them, any recorded or written information you have provided will not be included in the study results. You may also refuse to answer any questions that you do not wish to answer during the focus group discussion. You can
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withdraw your responses if you change your mind about having them included in the study, up to the point that we have analysed and published the results.
FOLLOW UP INTERVIEW: You are free to leave the follow up interview at any time. Unless you say that you want us to keep them, any recorded or written information you have provided will not be included in the study results. You may also refuse to answer any questions that you do not wish to answer during the follow up interview. You can withdraw your responses if you change your mind about having them included in the study, up to the point that we have analysed and published the results.
(7) Are there any risks or costs associated with being in the study?
Aside from giving up your time, we do not expect that there will be any risks or costs associated with taking part in this study.
(8) Are there any benefits associated with being in the study?
We cannot guarantee that you will receive any direct benefits from being in the study.
(9) What will happen to information about me that is collected during the study?
Information about you will be collected in the form of an online questionnaire and a focus group discussion. The information collected from the focus group discussion will be audio and video recorded for analysis purposes and some information may be used in publications in which case your personal details may be de- identified for purposes of confidentiality.
You will be given the opportunity to access personal information from the study once the study is completed.
Study results are likely to be published as part of a doctoral thesis and may also contribute to journal publications and / or conference proceedings.
At the conclusion of the study all hard copy data will be securely archived for a maximum of 5 years in Room 2082 at Sydney Conservatorium. Electronic copy data will be securely stored on 2 x password-protected external hard-drives for a maximum of 5 years in Room 2082 at Sydney Conservatorium and then destroyed.
Data collected is not intended for any further purpose other than that of this study.
By providing your consent, you are agreeing to us collecting personal information about you for the purposes of this research study. Your information will only be used for the purposes outlined in this Participant Information Statement, unless you consent otherwise.
Your information will be stored securely and your identity/information will be kept strictly confidential, except as required by law. Study findings may be published. Although every effort will be made to protect your identity, there is a risk that you might be identifiable in publications due to the nature of the study and/or the results.
We will keep the information we collect for this study, and we may use it in future projects. By providing your consent you are allowing us to use your information in future projects. We don’t know at this stage what these other projects will involve. We will seek ethical approval before using the information in these future projects.
(10) Can I tell other people about the study?
Yes, you are welcome to tell other people about the study.
(11) What if I would like further information about the study?
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When you have read this information Aleta King will be available to discuss it with you further and answer any questions you may have. If you would like to know more at any stage during the study, please feel free to contact Aleta King, Doctor of Musical Arts (Conducting) candidate E: [email protected] M: +61 434 979 126.
(12) Will I be told the results of the study?
You have a right to receive feedback about the overall results of this study. You can tell us that you wish to receive feedback by ticking the relevant box on the consent form. This feedback will be in the form of a one page lay summary. You will receive this feedback after the study is finished.
(13) What if I have a complaint or any concerns about the study?
Research involving humans in Australia is reviewed by an independent group of people called a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). The ethical aspects of this study have been approved by the HREC of the University of Sydney [INSERT protocol number once approval is obtained]. As part of this process, we have agreed to carry out the study according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007). This statement has been developed to protect people who agree to take part in research studies.
If you are concerned about the way this study is being conducted or you wish to make a complaint to someone independent from the study, please contact the university using the details outlined below. Please quote the study title and protocol number.
The Manager, Ethics Administration, University of Sydney: • Telephone: +61 2 8627 8176 • Email: [email protected] • Fax: +61 2 8627 8177 (Facsimile)
This information sheet is for you to keep
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Appendix E: Participant Consent Form
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
ABN 15 211 513 464
DR JENNIFER ROWLEY Room 2082 Associate Professor Sydney Conservatorium of Music C41 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 AUSTRALIA Telephone: +61 2 9351 1328 Facsimile: +61 2 9351 1287 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.usyd.edu.au/
Conductor as Musicianship Mentor: An investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of a J.S. Bach Cantata.
PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM
I, ...... [PRINT NAME], agree to take part in this research study.
In giving my consent I state that:
! I understand the purpose of the study, what I will be asked to do, and any risks/benefits involved.
! I have read the Participant Information Statement (PIS) and have been able to discuss my involvement in the study with the researchers if I wished to do so.
! The researchers have answered any questions that I had about the study and I am happy with the answers.
! I understand that being in this study is completely voluntary and I do not have to take part. My decision whether to be in the study will not affect my relationship with the researchers or anyone else at the University of Sydney or Avondale College of Higher Education now or in the future.
! I understand that I can withdraw from the study at any time.
! QUESTIONNAIRE: I understand that participants will be de-identified, however, there remains a risk of identification due to the nature of the project and small sample size. I also understand that I may withdrawn at anytime if I do not wish to continue and unless I indicate otherwise any questionnaire responses will not be included in the study.
! FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION: I understand that I may withdraw from the focus group discussion at any time if I do not wish to continue and unless I indicate otherwise any recordings of my participation as part of the focus group discussion will not be included in the study. I also understand that I may refuse to answer any questions I do not wish to answer.
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! I understand that personal information about me that is collected over the course of this study will be stored securely and will only be used for purposes that I have agreed to. I understand that information about me will only be used with my permission, except as required by law.
! I understand that the results of this study may be published. Although every effort will be made to protect my identity, I may be identifiable in these publications due to the nature of the study or results.
! I consent to: • Audio-recording YES " NO "
• Video-recording YES " NO "
• Receiving feedback about my personal results YES " NO "
Would you like to receive feedback about the overall results of this study?
YES " NO " If you answered YES, please indicate your preferred form of feedback and address:
" Postal: ______
______
" Email: ______
...... Signature
...... PRINT name
...... Date
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Appendix F: Questionnaire
Questionnaire Date: ______
1. Sex: M | F (circle one)
2. Date of Birth: (dd/mm/yyyy) ______
3. Principal Study Instrument | Voice: ______
4. Musicianship level(s) completed (indicate all levels completed)
Musicianship Level completed Please tick if Indicate Year of completed completion Foundation (1st year, semester 1, MUPF12000 or MUSC11100 Performance I) Foundation (1st year Semester 2, MUPF24000 | MUSC11110 Performance II) Intermediate (2nd year Semester 1, MUPF25000 | MUSC21100 Performance III) Year Intermediate (2nd year Semester 2, MUPF26000 | MUSC21110 Performance IV) Advanced (3rd year Semester 1, MUPF34000 | MUSC31100 Performance V) Advanced (3rd year Semester 1, MUPF35000 | MUSC31110 Performance VI)
5. Musicianship level currently enrolled in for semester 1 2016 (as applicable)
Please Tick Musicianship level currently enrolled in for semester 1 2016 Foundation (1st year Semester 1, MUPF12000 | MUSC11100 Performance I) Foundation (1st year Semester 2, MUPF24000 | MUSC11110 Performance II) Intermediate (2nd year Semester 1, MUPF25000 | MUSC21100 Performance III) Intermediate (2nd year Semester 2, MUPF26000 | MUSC21110 Performance IV) Advanced (3rd year Semester 1, MUPF34000 | MUSC31100 Performance V) Advanced (3rd year Semester 1, MUPF35000 | MUSC31110 Performance VI) Not currently enrolled in a musicianship level
6. With regard to your involvement in Avondale Chamber Singers through the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach Cantata BWV182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen please indicate your vocal part below:
Avondale Chamber Singers (Voice): Soprano Alto Tenor Bass (circle one)
7. If you are involved with Avondale Chamber Singers and also Avondale Chamber Orchestra for some or all of the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach Cantata please indicate your instrument below:
Avondale Chamber Orchestra (Instrument): ______
8. Please indicate which movement(s) you are involved with through the rehearsal and performance stages together with the voice part (and/or instrument) for that particular movement.
Bach Cantata BWV182 movement: Rehearsal Stage Performance Stage Voice Instrument Voice Instrument #1 Sonata #2 Chorus ‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’ #3 Bass Recitative #4 Bass Aria #5 Alto Aria #6 Tenor Aria #7 Chorale ‘Jesu, deine Passion’ #8 Chorus ‘So lasset uns gehen’
9. The elements of musicianship class are listed below. On a scale of 1 - 5 rank each element according to it’s relevance to you through the rehearsal and performance stages of Bach Cantata BWV182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen. (1 = not applicable, 2 = not relevant, 3 = somewhat relevant, 3 = very relevant, 5 = extremely relevant).
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Musicianship Element Relevance to your preparation for Bach Cantata BWV182 1 2 3 4 5 (not not somewhat very extremely applicable) relevant relevant relevant relevant Musicianship Toolbox: French rhythm names (ta, titi, tikatika etc) Solfa (Solfége) English Handsigns German Letternames Conducting Patterns Rhythm: simple time compound time irregular metre mixed metre Scales: pentatony diatony modality Jazz blues acoustic whole tone chromatic Octatonic Harmony: Intervals: eg. m2, M2, m3, M3, P4, P5, m6, M6, m7, M7, P8, Aug 4, dim5 etc Triads (M m dim Aug) Chord chart (major, h.minor) Chord progressions 7th Chords Visual & Aural Analysis: Transposition (relative keys) Formal analysis eg. Binary, Ternary etc. Transformation (parallel keys) Musical Memory Inner Hearing (thinking in sound) Sight Singing C Clefs Stick notation (rhythm and solfa only) Rhythmic dictation Melodic dictation 2-part dictation 3 or 4 part dictation (SATB) Triad identification / dictation 7th chord identification / dictation Creativity: Improvisation (eg. melodic, harmonic, bass line) Arranging Composing Polyphonic Repertoire: Canons (2 part, 3 part, 4 part etc) Homophonic Repertoire: 2 part, 3 part, 4 part Chorale Melody #194 ‘Jesu, deine passion’ J.S. Bach harmonisation, Eflat M Chorale Melody #193 ‘Jesu, deine passion’ J.S. Bach harmonisation, A M Chorale Melody #192 ‘Jesu, deine passion’ J.S. Bach harmonisation, A M Ensemble Performance: Ensemble size eg. 3 or 4 voices One Voice Per Part
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10. This semester aspects of the Bach Cantata BWV182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen have been incorporated into musicianship class. On a scale of 1 - 5 rank each movement according to it’s relevance to the you through the rehearsal and performance stages of the Bach Cantata. (1 = not applicable, 2 = not relevant, 3 = somewhat relevant, 3 = very relevant, 5 = extremely relevant).
Bach Cantata BWV182 movement: Relevance to your preparation for Bach Cantata BWV182 1 2 3 4 5 (not not somewhat very extremely applicable) relevant relevant relevant relevant #1 Sonata #2 Chorus ‘Himmelskönig, sei willkommen’ #3 Bass Recitative #4 Bass Aria #5 Alto Aria #6 Tenor Aria #7 Chorale ‘Jesu, deine Passion’ #8 Chorus ‘So lasset uns gehen’
11. With reference to your responses above please feel free to expand your thoughts about what aspects of musicianship class you think have been the most helpful (and why) with regard to your own personal preparation through the rehearsal and performances stages of this Bach Cantata? (please use the back page if you need more space to write)
12. Would you be open to further contact by a follow up interview in relation to your responses to the above questions. Y / N (circle one)
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Appendix G: Focus Group Discussion
Semi-structured Focus Group Discussion Questions:
This focus group discussion is about how you feel post-performance.
1. How do you feel now that the final performance is done?
2. What do you think the ensemble did really well?
3. What do you think the ensemble could have done better?
4. Now thinking about your own personal musicianship, what aspects have made a significant contribution towards preparing you for this performance?
5. What aspects of your own personal musicianship do you think would benefit from further improvement in order to enhance your own preparation for this performance and future performances opportunities similar to this?
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Appendix H: Self Reflective Journal Part A (Excerpts)
Understudy and assistant to Associate Professor Neil McEwan, and guest conductor for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Choir and Chamber Choir
Conservatorium Chamber Choir Week 4 Rehearsal, 2-5 pm, Tuesday 16/08/2016 Recital Hall West
What a pleasure it was, and is, to work with the Chamber Choir. Today I was asked to take warm-ups for chamber choir again … I tried out a few of my favourite vocal warm-ups off the top of my head … and they loved them … oh, to have the permanent luxury of working with singers who can sight-sing easily, quickly and accurately. A choir with generally high-level sight-singing skills would enable swift learning of the notes, which would afford the luxury of more time perfecting the musical interpretation. Today chamber choir achieved in one rehearsal sight-reading session what it sometimes takes me a few sessions to achieve with Avondale choirs. It’s an unfair comparison, I suppose. Avondale choirs rehearse 1.5 hours per week, which is half the time that the Chamber choir rehearse per week. And, at Avondale, I have to make do with a very small pool of music students from which to draw, including some who are brand new to the discipline of choral singing. My musicianship students are generally the foundation of the choir and, as such, are progressively solid sight-readers by the end of their time with me as their musicianship mentor. However, because the music student cohort is generally small, this necessitates non-music students and community members to make up the critical mass … at face value; I could be discouraged about this. Still, when I consider the facts more carefully, I choose to be immensely proud of what Avondale choirs achieve with a random mix of music students, non-music students and community members. I may have to work much harder over a more extended period of time to get Avondale choirs up to a comparable standard. Still, they achieve admirably well, and I am convinced that the work I do in musicianship with the music students, in particular, underpins the strong foundation of choral singing and the remarkable results Avondale choirs are able to achieve.
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Conservatorium Choir Week 4 Rehearsal, 2-5 pm Thursday 18/08/16 Recital Hall West
I am attending rehearsals with Conservatorium Choir for the following reasons. Firstly, to prepare for my second recital performance in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the DMA. Secondly, to broaden and deepen my knowledge and experience of the standard choral repertoire to which the Fauré Requiem is integral. Thirdly, to expand my understanding of the composer Fauré’s musical and expressive intentions through an in-depth, practical study of the vocal scoring in the context of rehearsals. Fourthly, to get to know and build a genuine relationship with the choristers. The better I know them, the more comfortable and confident I will feel to lead them as their conductor. Conversely, the better they know me, the more comfortable and confident they will feel to trust me to lead them as their conductor. Fifthly, to better understand Neil McEwan’s interpretation of the score. He is the Director of the Conservatorium Choir and is therefore responsible for conducting the first performance. I am Neil’s assistant and understudy and consequently responsible for conducting the second performance. We have to be largely on the same page artistically. Hence, a lot of my job as an understudy is to find the delicate balance between Neil’s interpretation without being a carbon copy of him and the desire to freely express my own interpretation without making my own interpretive ideas a significant point of departure which could create possible confusion for the choir and the orchestra. Sixthly, to assist with sectional rehearsals. It is enormously satisfying to take sectional rehearsals and certainly the place I feel I am most effective as Neil’s assistant and understudy. As an experienced choral vocalist and with solid musicianship skills, I enjoy the challenges of leading the section during tutti rehearsals. However, sectionals allow me the freedom to be more in my leadership sweet spot as an experienced conductor and musicianship educator. Indeed, it would seem that the majority are very good at sight-singing in the tutti rehearsal. But I am also becoming increasingly aware that some are far less confident at sight-singing, and sectionals have a habit of exposing these weaknesses. This is the actual value of the sectional in that it enables the choristers to overcome those weaknesses in a supportive environment.
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Conservatorium Choir Week 5 Rehearsal, 2-5 pm, Thursday 25/08/2016 Recital Hall West
I felt a lot more confident and comfortable today in front of the Conservatorium Choir and less bothered about the mentor-mentee role … I need to be more prepared ahead of time to do choral warm-ups as it appears that Neil likes to throw his doctoral students into the deep end which requires them to think on their feet. Good reminder for the reality of professional life. Vocal warm-ups are my opportunity to be strategically trying out a few musicianship- focused vocal exercises for choirs. Therefore, this could be somewhat beneficial to my doctoral research, even if it’s only through my journal reflection experiences. Conservatorium Choir is not quite as tight as Chamber Choir when it comes to vocal technique and particularly intonation. So, we worked on technique and intonation mostly… my new resolution is to come prepared to give vocal warm-up routines that have a musicianship focus in them. This can only help by ultimately contributing towards the choral sound Neil, and I would like to hear when we stand in front of them as conductors at the first and second performances. Oh, what I would and could do to develop the choral sound of this choir even further if I had the opportunity to teach musicianship to these choristers! Even though I never imagined myself as a concert pianist, I have no regrets about being a principal study pianist for my undergraduate music degree; I could not do what I do now as a conductor without executive piano skills … I’m also glad that I divided my undergraduate practice time between principal study piano and second study violin … my executive violin skills are certainly not wasted as they ensure that I’m … comfortable in front of string players which is a considerable advantage when as a conductor I stand in front of a symphony orchestra where at least two-thirds of the orchestra are inevitably string players. This is a particularly good thing when it comes to conducting the Fauré Requiem.
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Conservatorium Chamber Choir Week 8 Rehearsal, 2-5 pm, Tuesday 13/09/2016 Recital Hall West
At the conclusion of this rehearsal, I wrote my self-reflective journal thoughts in an email to my two doctoral supervisors, Neil McEwan and Jennifer Rowley, as follows: During chamber choir rehearsal today, I was placed strategically between two vocalists in the Soprano 2 section, both of whom exhibited weak musicianship skills; particularly a lack of confidence with sight-singing. After working with undergraduate music students for over a decade now, I still really enjoy the rewards and challenges of mentoring in this context. On the evening train home after rehearsals, I usually write my self-reflective journal entries as potential material to draw upon for my thesis. And as I was reflecting on the best ways to encourage these two students, in particular, I had an epiphany that I just have to share with you both, and I think you will understand why. You will both know that the other issue I've been giving a lot of thought to is strengthening the links between my performance and my research in the DMA. Whilst reflecting on these students, I started to think about my own musicianship skills and those of the students I teach. Then, it occurred to me that there is a parallel universe that I must take advantage of in the writing of my self-reflective journal. My first recital – a Bach cantata - was all about my conductor as musicianship mentor role in the context of Avondale. My second recital – the Fauré Requiem - poses quite a challenge because this time it’s not primarily about me as the conductor who is also musicianship mentor in the context of Avondale, instead in this situation, I am singing soprano in the choir where I also function as the assistant to Neil and understudy conductor. Therefore I had decided, after discussion with both of you, that I would focus on my own self-reflective journal detailing my preparation of Fauré Requiem for the 'conductor as musicianship mentor' process…and now the epiphany that I could also use the added parallel dimension of me as a chorister in the Fauré Requiem choir (which parallels the experience of my students in the Bach cantata choir) and analyse my own experience by asking myself the same questions I asked my students about what musicianship skills I require to prepare the Fauré both as chorister and as conductor. So, Neil, I want to thank you for placing me between the two choristers today. Thank you also to both of you for your insight and guidance through this journey so far. Aleta.
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Appendix I: Self Reflective Journal Part B (Excerpts)
The Conductor as Musicianship self-mentor through the rehearsal and performance process.
This is a comprehensive overview of the musicianship self-mentoring process I followed to prepare for my first performance of the Fauré Requiem as conductor of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and Choirs. Listening to Recordings: Due to the absence of any available quality live performances of this work at the time of my recital rehearsal process, as a first step, I consulted the Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music1 , which is generally considered to be the most authoritative source for critical reviews and recommendations for quality recordings of classical music. Based on these reviews and recommendations, I then began listening to various recordings to become familiar with this new work and gather interpretative ideas. For the sake of ‘compare and contrast’, I investigated and listened to at least sixteen different recommended recordings currently available. Two standard performance versions were published - the 1893 chamber orchestra edition and the 1900 full orchestra edition. Therefore of the sixteen, I could immediately narrow down to just ten relevant recordings of the 1900 full orchestra edition that is the version I will be performing. Of these ten, it was almost impossible to narrow down further to one or two preferred recordings as there were aspects of each recording that I quite liked and some aspects that I also quite disliked. Perfect recordings do not exist; they are never the definitive performance of a work but rather the preservation of one musical interpretation in a given time context. The value of listening to so many contrasting recordings lies in my quest to develop my own unique tapestry of sound interpretation ideas from which to draw upon and experiment with in the rehearsal process. This is particularly true when considering historically informed performance practices, as elaborated further below. Eventually, I reached the stage where I dispensed with listening to recordings and began to trust my own intuitive musical interpretation that was slowly but surely taking shape inside my head and which I was experimenting practically with the choir and orchestra through the rehearsal process. Historically Informed Performance Practice: Throughout my time as a doctoral student at Sydney Conservatorium, I have become increasingly aware of the importance of
1 Ivan March, et al., eds., The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2010, rev. ed. (London: Penguin, 2009).
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thorough research into historically informed performance practices and incorporating these into my interpretation of the score. I see this essential preparation as twofold in that there is a theoretical and a practical aspect to historically informed performance research and practice. To aid the theoretical aspect of the study, I invested a considerable amount of time investigating in specialist music libraries and historical music collections in person and online to ensure my historical context of the composer, the period, the genre, the style, the instrumental and vocal forces are all well understood. To aid the practical aspect of the research, I listening to numerous recommended recordings (as outlined in detail above), and I was also able to draw upon my many years of past, and present experience as a participant in live performances of similar works by the composer Fauré and his contemporaries from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. I also consulted extensively with Neil McEwan, and to a lesser extent with Eduard Diazmuñoz and other historically informed performance experts, to discuss interpretative performance ideas. Tempi Indications on the Score: In the process of comparing and contrasting recordings, and in discussion with other conductors who had prepared and conducted this work before, I decided upon ideal tempi ranges for the beginning of each movement and during important transition sections within the first, second, fifth, and sixth movements. During the rehearsal process, these tempo ranges were eventually narrowed down to more precise tempo markings for each movement. One of the most important jobs as a conductor is developing a reliably intuitive feeling for the right overarching tempo for each movement and the correct tempo fluctuations within each movement. Equally important are subtle, and not so subtle but necessary, tempo fluctuations within each movement in relation to accelerandos, rallentandos, rubatos, ritenutos, ritardandos, and also a sensitivity to ever so slight tempo fluctuations necessary to facilitate musical phrasing. This is a somewhat fluid process that continues to evolve over the entire rehearsal process. By the time of the performance, I had developed a reasonably reliable memory of the right tempo for each movement, the transitions between sections of each movement and the subtle tempo fluctuations in individual phrases. Conducting Beat Patterns and Gestures in Relation to Tempo and Metre Indications on the Score: There is a myriad of ways that a time signature can be interpreted and transformed into a practical conducting beat pattern. After the tempo and metre have been decided upon for each movement and transitions and other musical phrasing within each movement, it is essential to determine which conducting beat patterns, and associated gestures will work best in relation to tempo and metre indications. This is a somewhat fluid exercise that can and does evolve over the entire rehearsal process. Conducting beat patterns that fell
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into the predictable two-, three-, or four-beat patterns were reasonably easy to decide upon for all movements apart from the second movement (Offertoire). The metre indication assigned to this second movement is in common time, which is generally understood as four crotchet beats per bar in this context. The tempo indication above is adagio molto which literally translates to very slow. The Bärenreiter conductor score also includes a tempo marking of crotchet = 48 in brackets. This time signature with this tempo usually forces the conductor to decide to use either a very slow and well-controlled four-beat pattern or adjust the beat pattern ever so slightly to show the quaver subdivisions as part of the four-beat pattern. Upon close examination of the intricate dotted quaver rhythms of vocal and instrumental scoring together with self-reflective conducting practice and experimental feedback from the rehearsal experience, it was evident that conducting a basic slow four-beat pattern may not suffice but rather, a slow four-beat pattern with a quaver subdivision was necessary. A slow four- crotchet-beat pattern with an eight-semiquaver subdivision feel was the conducting gesture eventually decided upon. Marking up the Score(s) in Consultation with Neil McEwan: Bärenreiter was the chosen published score edition. As I was singing in the choir, rehearsing both the choir and the orchestra, and conducting the second performance, I needed to mark-up both the full conductor/orchestral score and the vocal/piano reduction score. Because Neil McEwan was to conduct the first performance and I was to conduct the second performance, I was therefore highly vigilant during choral rehearsals, particularly when Neil was rehearsing, ensuring that every vocal articulation and nuance he suggested was accurately marked into my vocal score. And these vocal score markings were then carefully transferred across to my conductor score in due course. Neil and I regularly consulted each other to discuss matters of interpretation through the rehearsal process to ensure consistency and minimal confusion for the choir and orchestra, who were going to perform this twice; the first time with Neil conducting, the second time with me conducting.
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Overview of My Full Conductor Score and Vocal Score Mark-Up Process:
• Vocal scoring: The Bärenreiter vocal score edition was used as a reference tool during choral rehearsals, and in this score, the voice part entries are marked up in pencil. This vocal score was used for the first performance, during which I sang in the choir's soprano section. Solo and choral voicing is as follows: solo soprano, solo baritone, a mixed choir consisting of soprano, alto, tenor (divisi), bass (divisi). • Instrumental scoring: The full conductor score is the one that I invested the most time and energy into marking up, as I used this score as the conductor for the second performance. Full instrumental orchestration is as follows: 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, harp, organ and strings. Notably, the string scoring is slightly irregular. Fauré scored for just one violin part (unison and divisi), violas are divided into viola 1 and viola 2, and cellos are divided into cello 1 cello 2, and just one double bass part. Fauré deliberately scored the strings like this to achieve a thicker, richer, deeper, middle and lower string textural sound overall for the first, second and fourth movements so that when the violins first appear in the third movement (Sanctus), they contrast the viola and cello centric sound of the previous movements with a light, bright, almost angelic sound floating on top of the violas, cellos and double basses.2 The violins also join the fifth, sixth, and seventh movements with similar effects. • Add in tempo markings to conductor score and vocal score. • Add in conducting beat gesture markings to the conductor score and vocal score. • Conductor score voice and instrument shorthand identification symbols added to conductor score to enable easy identification at a glance. Instrumental markings are written in red. Vocal markings are written in green. • All dynamic and expression markings are highlighted in fluorescent yellow in the conductor score. • A literal English translation is written above and below corresponding Latin text in both the conductor score and the vocal score in pencil.
2 In October 1900 Fauré writes the following to the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe when preparing for the Brussels premiere: “You’ll see how angelic the violins are in the Sanctus after all those violas!!!” Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life, trans. Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 119-120.
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• Formal analysis of each movement with pencil in the conductor score. Formal analysis helps with understanding the structure of each movement and the work as a whole. This is particularly useful for the sake of time efficiency during rehearsal and aids in the eventual memorisation of the overall structure of the work. • Where two or more systems appear on the one page and are separated by a caesura(s) in the conductor score, I usually draw a horizontal blue line through the caesura and across the page, so it is visually easy to see where one system ends, and the other begins. A conductor gets very used to reading vertically up and down one whole page for one whole bar, and so when there is more than one system on one page, I do this marking as a visual reminder and safeguard to keep my eyes in the right place at the right time. • Key Signature/Tonal Centre analysis of each movement with the addition of a more detailed harmonic analysis in pencil underneath specific passages of particular or unique harmonic interest in the conductor score. • Add fragments of solfége as aural signpost reminders where necessary to the conductor score. • Decide on vocal phrasing and add in breath marks and any other vocal articulations or accents concerning the Latin language in both the conductor score and vocal score.
These are the practical self-mentoring musicianship activities I pursued in my own personal practice time that helped with learning and marking up the score:
• Sight-read through orchestra score organ part (on piano) and vocal score piano part (orchestral reduction) to get an aural/visual/kinaesthetic feel for the musical language of Fauré. • Sight-sing all soprano, alto, tenor, bass choral parts individually for each movement and also singing these parts whilst simultaneously playing the organ part (on piano) from the orchestral score. This enabled me to gain a better feel for musical breathing to support musical phrasing in the choir. It also allows me to anticipate any rhythmic, melodic, intervallic or harmonic challenges in each vocal part and the choir as a whole may encounter. I consider myself to be a confident, experienced sight-singer, so if it is a challenge for me at first sight-sing through this may well present a similar challenge
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for some in the choir also. I added in solfége signposts as needed to help me anticipate what to listen for whilst rehearsing and conducting the choir. • Sight-sing and play through instrumental parts (on piano) from the full conductor score with particular attention to identifying instrumental solo excerpts. I added solfége signposts to help me anticipate what to listen for whilst rehearsing and conducting the orchestra. • Score reading challenges encountered and conquered in the full conductor score: C clef reading. The most common C clefs being the alto clef for the two viola parts and the tenor clef for the trombone 1 part, and at times, the tenor clef in the bassoon and violoncello parts. Transposition, e.g. Clarinet in B flat. Open key signatures, e.g. Horn in F, Trumpet in F.
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Appendix J: Self Reflective Journal Part C (Excerpts)
Understudy to Maestro Eduardo Diaz-Muñoz and guest conductor for the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra Week 10 Sectional Rehearsal (violins/violas), 11:40am – 1pm Thursday 6/10/2016 Choral Assembly Hall (Joseph Post Auditorium)
First sectional rehearsal with the orchestra this morning. Sectional rehearsal with violins and violas only. As a violinist, this is a very good thing because I am immediately at home with the orchestra's string section. I get to work exclusively with the strings and, in particular, the concertmaster. It can be really challenging stepping in to guest conduct an orchestra that is not your own on a weekly basis. In this situation, the guest conductor has to build a rapport as quickly as possible that will enable them to get the best out of the orchestra. Begin with the concertmaster! If they are open and respond well to working with you, the rest of the orchestra will take their cue from the concertmaster and be open to working with you. And the first rehearsal with just the violins and violas enabled me to quickly do precisely that – work almost exclusively with the concertmaster. What a blessing that opportunity was!
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Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra Week 10 Tutti Rehearsal, 2:30 – 3:30 pm Thursday 6/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
I am an experienced conductor of orchestras and had carefully planned my first scheduled rehearsal with the full orchestra. Still, nobody had informed me that I was supposed to submit my rehearsal schedule to the orchestra manager ahead of time (the day before at the latest) to be published for the orchestra members to know exactly when they were required for my rehearsal. It’s a logical expectation that would have been useful to know beforehand. It’s a steep learning curve for the guest conductor navigating the unspoken cultural expectations of an unfamiliar orchestra. First rehearsal with tutti orchestra. Neither Neil nor Eduardo present. First rehearsals are always like driving blind, and you must always expect the unexpected. Glorious to hear the raw, live orchestral sound in front of me for the first time. Intense and fast pace absolutely necessary to keep them on their toes and ensure we get through all seven movements in one hour. They were sight-reading, but they were good readers, and the potential for a great sound is already evident. Violins and violas were ever so slightly ahead in the sight-reading game because of the sectional rehearsal beforehand. This orchestra means business, particularly the concertmaster who I think was trying to exert his influence on behalf of the violin section by coming up to me afterwards and asking politely but decisively that the violins, in particular, be required in future calls only when they are needed to be there. Faure’s scoring places more emphasis on the viola, cello and double bass sections, while the violin section has comparatively much less to do. This is a rare thing for violin players not to have to be at most calls for a majority of the time, and therefore the concertmaster was going to make the most of this slight reprieve.
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Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra Week 10 Tutti Rehearsal, 10:30 – 11:30 pm Friday 7/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
I submitted my rehearsal plan the day before, and now everyone is happy! In discussion with Eduardo and Neil, we have decided to seat the violas on my right side – the outside front of the orchestra. There are probably too many violins in this orchestra when compared to Faurés’ scoring. Still, we can’t remove any of them because they are doing orchestra for academic credit, and so seating arrangements are crucial in this situation. Fauré scored for two separate viola parts and two separate cello parts, and therefore the violas and cellos should be more of a feature. However, at the first rehearsal, the viola section’s collective sound was hidden in the middle of the orchestra between violins and cellos. It was decided in consultation with Eduardo and Neil that the viola section would perhaps be better seated on the conductor’s right-hand side at the outside stage left of the orchestra. The viola section reacted to the new seating arrangement with what I perceived to be a mix of apprehension about being exposed rather than hidden on stage and excitement that they might actually be the stars of the show for once! I told the leader of the violas that I am thinking of him as my second concertmaster. His broad smile said it all; he liked that idea! The second tutti rehearsal today was much smoother. I had more of an idea of what to expect from the sound and where some of the pitfalls would be, so feeling much more confident! Neil observed this rehearsal and gave some constructive feedback, mostly to do with tempi, the balance between organ, choir and orchestra, and how to consolidate the horn section in the sixth movement Libera Me: It’s partly me, and partly the horns, and we need to work together when setting the tempo. We will prioritise this next rehearsal.
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Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra Week 11 Tutti Rehearsal, 2:20 – 3:20 pm Tuesday 11/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
Eduardo observed this rehearsal. His feedback: don’t allow the left hand to mirror the right hand too much … right-hand and left-hand independence required. He also gave me some suggestions for placing the beat on the very first beat of the very first bar! At times it feels like I’m being told quite different things between two conducting mentors. Now, rather than feeling confused or overwhelmed, I suppose I just have to find what authentically works for me … perhaps the middle road somewhere in between. The horn entries are still giving me grief. Eduardo correctly identified again that it’s mostly about providing the horns with enough notice about setting the new tempo into the next section. We worked on this a bit in this rehearsal, and it is getting much better. Sometimes it really is about familiarity with the orchestra, and this is one of those times. The more the horns and I get to know and trust each other, the better it gets. Patience. I found a publishing error in the Bärenreiter score – there should be a G sharp in the viola part, bar 41 of the Offertoire. I wonder if I could get my name published as the assistant editor of the viola part for future editions?! J
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Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium Choirs Week 11 Tutti Rehearsal, 3:30 – 4:30 pm Thursday 13/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
First rehearsal with choir and orchestra together. What a difference it makes to have the choir singing in front of me with the orchestra. I feel so relaxed when the choir is there! A little bit of a bumpy ride again is expected for a first tutti rehearsal. Neil was present at this rehearsal.
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium Choirs Week 12 Tutti Rehearsal, 2:00 – 2:45 pm Tuesday 18/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
This rehearsal was all about setting and consolidating suitable tempi at openings of each movement and transition sections. I had to work extremely efficiently with time as I only had 35 min once set up and tuning was done. It went really well, though! Neil present at this rehearsal.
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and Conservatorium Choirs – Tutti Rehearsal Week 12 Tutti Rehearsal, 2:00 – 2:45 pm Thursday 20/10/2016 Verbrugghen Hall
Now just a few minor details like choral articulation, balance, tempo to consolidate here and there. I can see this all coming together, like an aeroplane finally gaining enough momentum on the ground to achieve lift-off. This is it, the last rehearsal. We are ready to fly! Neil and Eduardo present at this rehearsal.
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Appendix K: Follow-Up Interview
CONDUCTOR AS MUSICIANSHIP MENTOR
Follow Up Interview
Sex (please click box applicable to you) Male Female Other
Year of Birth 1989
Principal Instrument | Voice:
Additional Instrument(s) | Voice:
Please expand upon your response(s) to the initial questionnaire and focus group discussion by elaborating on the following discussion questions:
Question 1 is about J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! a) Two years ago you participated in the rehearsal and performance of a Bach Cantata. Think back to that time and where your musicianship skills were at. With reference to the following - solfege, letternames, intervals, intonation, inner hearing, establishing the tonic, transposition, ensemble, one-voice-per-part, conducting, clef reading, sight reading - what particular musicianship skills have been the most beneficial to your personal musicianship development in relation to performance over the past two years, and why?
b) Thinking forward, what particular musicianship skills would be most beneficial to your ongoing personal musicianship development in relation to performance in the future, and why?
c) Reflect on the synergy between musicianship class and the Bach Cantata rehearsal and performance process. How meaningful was it to study the Bach Cantata repertoire in musicianship class during the rehearse and performance process, and why?
d) Reflect on the synergy between conducting class and the Bach Cantata rehearsal and performance process. How meaningful was it to study the Bach Cantata repertoire in conducting class during the rehearsal and performance process, and why?
Question 2 is about K. Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace You have been a participant in the rehearsal and performance process of Karl Jenkins ‘The Armed Man: Mass for Peace’ but you are no longer a musicianship and/or conducting student at Avondale. Therefore, you were not required to simultaneously do an intense, guided study of this work in musicianship and/or conducting class during the rehearsal and performance process. With this in mind, are there any acquired musicianship and/or conducting skills that you found particularly helpful in your individual, independent, personal preparation for this performance?
Question 3 (answer this if you are a final year undergraduate music education student who is about to become a beginning career music teacher):
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Reflect on your overall involvement in the musicianship and/or conducting program in relation to performance here at Avondale. In your experience as a final year undergraduate music education student and pre-service teacher can you please comment on how you anticipate your involvement in the musicianship and/or conducting program in relation to performance has prepared you for a beginning career as a music teacher.
Question 4 (answer this if you are a recent music education graduate who is an early career music teacher): Reflect on your progression from an undergraduate mentee student in musicianship and conducting in relation to performance at Avondale to an early career teacher who has now become a mentor to your own students. Can you please comment on how you believe you have grown from mentee to mentor over the past two years, particularly in the area of musicianship and/or conducting in relation to performance.
Conductor as Musicianship Mentor Version 4 | 18.03.2018 | 6:00pm
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Appendix L: J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Critical Notes
Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! Critical Notes Aleta King 3/06/16
Historical Notes: As newly appointed Konzertmeister to the Duke of Weimar1, and with a commission to compose a cantata for a premiere performance at the Duke’s Schlosskirche at Weimar on palm Sunday 25th May 1714, Johann Sebastian Bach must have aimed to impress his royal patron with Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! Likewise, the Duke must have been flattered when his new Konzertmeister began with a stately overture in the French style fit for the processional of a king! Bach, the consummate musician, was also Bach, the serious theologian who publicly acknowledged his musical gifts by signing his compositions, Soli Deo Gloria. Therefore the text for this cantata combines the scriptural readings of the Lutheran liturgical calendar for palm Sunday with the spiritually thematic poetry of Salomon Franck to compliment the dual purpose of the cantata story: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and welcoming Him into the Christian heart.2 Palm Sunday was a joyous occasion in the passion story that called for much celebration. To sing and to dance3 for earthly royalty and heavenly glory appears to have been the overarching aim of Bach’s premiere performance of this cantata.
1 See Nikolaus Harnoncourt, J. S. Bach Das Kantatenwerk. vol. 42, Concentus Musicus Wien, cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Teldec, 1998, compact disc booklet, 16. See also Ton Koopman, J. S. Bach Complete Cantatas. vol. 2. Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, cond. Ton Koopman, Challenge Records, 2003, compact disc booklet, 14. 2 Andreas Bombas states: “What the priest expressed in words, Bach expressed in music.” See Andreas Bombas, J.S.Bach Cantata BWV 182, vol. 55, Collegium Stuttgart, Gächinger Kantorei, cond. Helmut Rilling, Hänssler Verlag, 2000, compact disc booklet, 29. 3 John Eliot Gardiner, J. S. Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), 3.
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Conductor as Musicianship Mentor: An investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of J.S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen!
Conductor Performance Notes: Investigating the cantata from the perspective of a conductor and performer. The chamber choir for this performance consists of twelve voices (three voices per part). This informed choice was settled upon after extensive research into the historical performance practices of the time revealed the intense debate over what exactly constitutes the optimum number of voices in Bach’s choirs. It appears that early twentieth century Bach scholars began to question the logic of the mass choir performance model in existence during the latter part of the nineteenth century in favour of a more traditional model of 12-16 voices (3-4 voices per part).4 The intensity of this debate rose to new levels in 1981 with Joshua Rifkin’s controversial essay ‘Bach’s Choirs’.5 Rifkin suggests that Bach’s ideal choral sound was more likely four voices, i.e. one voice per part (OVPP). Fast forward thirty years, and according to Thomas Braatz, this debate still shows no signs of abating; therefore, the conductor of a Bach cantata needs to make an informed choice between the more traditional 12-16 voices (3-4 voices per part) and what is interpreted as the more radical approach with just one voice per part (OVPP).6 In preparation for this performance, the chamber choir experimented with several standing positions as suggested by the historical performance practices of the time, with particular reference to what Bach himself referred to as the role of vocal concertists and ripienists.7 The first of these experimental standing positions required two rows. The front row consisted of a vocal quartet (concertists) with one voice from each voice part. In the back row, two corresponding voice parts (ripienists) stood on either side of their front row (concertist) voice part. This effectively created a triangle for each voice part, with the concertist at the front point of the triangle and the ripienists at the back two points of the
4 See Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, trans. Ernest Newman, vol. 2 (Dover: New York, 1966, 214. See also Arnold Schering, Johann Sebastian Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik, (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1936), 30. 5 See Joshua Rifkin’s controversial essay “Bach’s Chorus,” first presented to the American Musicological Society in 1981 and published in Andrew Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000), 189-208. 6 Thomas Braatz, The OVPP (One Vocalist Per Part) Controversy: An Assessment of the Argument Employed in a Recent Exchange Between Opposing Factions, 2010, accessed May 15, 2016, https://www.bach- cantatas.com/Articles/OVPPControversy.pdf. 7 See Parrott, The Essential Bach Choir, 29-41.
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triangle. The front row of singers (concertists) enjoyed this standing position as they could hear their parts behind them and the other voice parts beside them. However, the back row (ripienists) was not convinced because they suddenly had to work much harder to stay connected with the front row and each other. This standing position was thus abandoned. The second of these standing positions dispensed with the idea of separate concertists and ripienists in favour of three separate SATB quartets, each positioned separately but in close proximity to the other quartets in the performance space. This standing position was accepted more readily; however, for very practical reasons, it was still not the preferred choice because the chance of an absence of just one voice part from a quartet would de- stabilise the sound and render that quartet weaker and therefore unable to perform with the strength and confidence of the other quartets. The final preferred standing position, with the chamber choir standing in one row from left to right (three sopranos, three altos, three tenors, three basses), was the one chosen for the performance. This standing position was considered the most pleasing from a purely vocal ensemble perspective. This standing position was also considered the most logical concerning the formation of the instrumental ensemble. Bach’s orchestrations often feature instrumental parts doubling voice parts and vice versa, which necessitated vocalists standing in close proximity to the instrument that doubles their voice part. The chamber orchestra for this performance is a hybrid of period and modern instruments. Period instruments include the harpsichord and string bass. The solo violinist and string Bass player are both using a baroque bow. The flautist is playing a “wooden Boehm (modern system) flute [that] will have some of the sonic attributes of the baroque flute but enough projection to be heard with an ensemble of modern string players.”8 The two violins, viola and violoncello, are all modern instruments. This performance is at modern pitch A=440hz. The orchestral and vocal scores in use are the Breitkopf & Härtel edition in G major. The original scoring of this edition is for flute, violin (concertante), violin (ripieno), viola I, viola II, and a continuo section consisting of harpsichord, violoncello, violone. Bach’s scoring for two violas appears to have been in line with French traditions of the early 18th
8 Sally Walker, e-mail message to author, June 2, 2016.
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century.9 The instrumental forces available for this performance necessitated a transcription of the viola I part for violin II.10 The alto aria (5th movement) performance features the flute solo as per the Weimar structure for the first performance in 1714.11 According to the baroque performance practice notes inégales12 will also be applied to this performance of the alto aria. Notes inégales is most audible in the solo flute part. 13 Notes inégales considerations were also applied to the opening Sonata movement (see figure 1 below). The violin solo melodic idea begins with inégale in the first beat of bar 1. This practice is maintained consistently with each successive repartee entry between the solo violin and solo flute throughout the entire movement.
Figure 1: First Movement Sonata Opening Excerpt
A wide variety of historical recordings of Bach Cantata performances were consulted regarding stylistic interpretation. These include four pre-eminent historical performance scholars and conductors and their associated ensembles: a) Helmut Rilling, Bach Collegium and Gächinger Kantorei, Stuttgart (recorded 1975 and released 2000), b) Nicholas Harnoncourt, Concentus Musicus Wien and Tölzer Knabenchor (recorded 1988), c) Ton Koopman, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir (recorded c. 1995) and d) Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists (recorded 2000).14
9 Bomba, J.S.Bach Cantata BWV 182, 25. 10 Accordingly, the following edits were necessary to the violin II transcription to accommodate the absence of the lower C string notes on a viola: a) No. 4. Bass Aria: b. 24, beat 3 edited to C4. b) No. 8. Chorus: b. 126, beat 3 edited to F#4. c) No. 8. Chorus, b. 134, beat 1 edited to A#3. 11 Due to time constraints, this performance will feature only the first half of this aria and ending on b. 29, beat one. 12 Fuller defines notes inégales as “a rhythmic convention according to which certain divisions of the beat move in alternately long and short values, even if they are written equal.” Grove Music Online, s.v. “Notes Inégales” by David Fuller, accessed June 2, 2016, https://doi- org.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20126 13 See footnote on p. 14 of the conductor score and footnote on p. 3 of the flute score, Breitkopf & Härtel edition. 14 A fifth live recording by conductor Neil McEwan, a former conducting student of Helmut Rilling, and the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir and Orchestra deserves a special mention also for its attention to detail with regard to baroque stylistic performance practice.
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As to be expected, performance recordings varied considerably in stylistic interpretation. The earlier to later recordings show a gradual progression towards a more authentically baroque style of performance in keeping with the growth of historically informed performance practice in the last half of the 20th century. For example, the earliest recordings feature large choirs and prominent ‘romantic’ vibrato from the strings contributing to a heavy, dense sound overall. Comparative later recordings feature the much smaller 12 voice choir and increasing attention to baroque performance practice detail, which results in a lighter, agile sound. There appears to be a general trend from slower to faster tempos when comparing the earliest to most recent recordings concerning tempo. The tempos chosen for this performance reflect a middle-ground approach to tempo and, where appropriate, an understanding of each individual movement and its corresponding relationship to other movements. For example, the first movement, ‘Sonata’ (crotchet = 40 with a subdivision of quaver = 80), functions as a quasi stately royal overture or processional that leads directly into the second movement, a dance-like chorus (crotchet = 80). The third movement, ‘bass recitative’ (crotchet = 56), connects directly to the ‘bass aria’ no. 4 (crotchet = 56). The fifth movement, ‘alto aria’ (crotchet = 40), is contrasted well with the ‘tenor aria’ that follows in the sixth movement (crotchet = 80). The seventh movement (Chorale) functions as the dramatic centrepiece of the cantata with a stately tempo (crotchet = 76). And finally, another dance-like chorus (crotchet = 80) that acts as a processional concludes the cantata.
Musicianship Mentor Notes: Investigating the cantata from the perspective of a musicianship mentor. In my dual role as conductor and musicianship mentor, I have purposefully integrated elements of this cantata into the repertoire for study in all of my musicianship classes this semester. All musicianship students at the foundation, intermediate and advanced levels have studied J. S. Bach’s E flat major harmonisation of the chorale melody Jesu, deine passion (verse 33)15. This melody appears in the cantata in the soprano part as the foundation upon which the entire chorale movement (no. 7) of the cantata is built. All musicianship students were introduced to this chorale first as a sight-singing exercise. Foundation students made a basic aural and visual analysis of the tonal centres of each phrase. In addition to this, intermediate students
15 J.S. Bach’s harmonization of Paul Stockmann’s 1636 Chorale melody appears as No. 194 in E flat major in Johann Sebastian Bach 389 Chorale Gesänge, trans. Bernhard F. Richter, (Weisbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, n.d.), 129.
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were also asked to analyse the cadence points of each phrase, and advanced students completed a full aural and visual analysis of the harmonic progression of each phrase. Advanced musicianship students also studied this chorale harmonisation by singing each of the voice parts against the bass line, singing one voice per part in SATB quartets, and conducting their peers in a performance of this chorale utilising recently acquired beginner conducting techniques. Advanced musicianship students have also studied and performed the opening sonata movement (no. 1) from the perspective of formal and harmonic analysis, figured bass, and tenor and alto C Clef reading. Advanced musicianship students also studied the bass recitative (no. 3) first, by singing the melody whilst playing the continuo bass line and took turns conducting their peers as bass recitative soloists and continuo players. Accordingly, musicianship students, past and present, have been invited to sing in the small vocal ensemble Avondale Chamber Singers for chorus no. 2, chorale no. 7, and chorus no. 8 during the rehearsal and performance stages of this cantata. Eleven musicianship students have agreed to sing in the small vocal ensemble during the rehearsal and performance stages. Of the eleven musicianship students, nine are singing in the small vocal ensemble only; one student will play violin in the orchestra for the first movement before returning to sing with the small vocal ensemble for the remainder of the cantata, and one student did sing with the small vocal ensemble during the rehearsal stages and will play violin in the orchestra for the entire cantata performance. Musicianship students who are also members of the small vocal ensemble have been invited to participate in a pre- performance questionnaire and a post-performance focus group discussion. Both of these pre- performance and post-performance activities are designed to tease out each student’s perception about the intrinsic value of musicianship to the rehearsal and performance stages of this cantata. This Bach cantata journey has strengthened my understanding of the intrinsic relationship between my two professional roles as conductor and musicianship mentor. As the journey continues, I look forward to gaining deeper insights into the significance of this relationship and a heightened awareness of best practice as a professional conductor and musicianship mentor.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Bach, Johann Sebastian. 389 Chorale Gesänge. translated by Bernhard F. Richter. Weisbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, n.d.
Bach, Johann Sebastian. Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei wilkommen!. Leipzig: Breitkopft & Härtel, n.d.
Bomba, Andreas. J.S.Bach Cantata BWV 182. Bach Collegium and Gächinger Kantorei. Conducted by Helmut Rilling. Holzgerlingen: Hänssler Verlag, 2000, compact disc.
Fuller, David. “Notes Inégales.” In Grove Music Online, 2016. Accessed June 2, 2016. https://doi- org.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20126
Gardiner, John Eliot. J. S. Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
Parrot, Andrew. The Essential Bach Choir. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000.
Schering, Arnold. Johann Sebastian Bachs Leipziger Kirchenmusik. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1936.
Schweitzer, Albert. J. S. Bach. Vol. 2. Translated by Ernest Newman. New York: Dover, 1966.
Spitta, Phillip. Johann Sebastian Bach. Vols. 1-3, Translated by Clara Bell & J.A. Fuller-Maitland. New York: Dover, 2015.
SOUND RECORDINGS: J. S. Bach Cantatas BWV 182. Vol. 55, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart. Conducted by Helmut Rilling. Hänssler Verlag, 2000, compact disc.
J. S. Bach Das Kantatenwerk. Vol. 42, Concentus Musicus Wien. Conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Teldec, 1988. compact disc.
J. S. Bach Complete Cantatas. Vol. 2, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir. Conducted by Ton Koopman. Challenge Records, 1995, compact disc.
Bach Cantatas. Vol. 21, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. Conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. Soli Deo Gloria, 2000, compact disc.
Bach Cantata BWV 182. Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra, Conducted by Neil McEwan. 2004, live recording.
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Appendix M: Master of Ceremonies Notes
J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Friday, June 3, 2016
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Aleta King, and on behalf of Avondale Chamber Singers and Avondale Chamber Orchestra, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! My area of doctoral research centres around the relationship between my dual role as professional conductor and musicianship mentor, particularly from the perspective of my musicianship students who are also performing in the Bach Cantata you are about to hear.
Past M’ship students/Recent Graduates John Duncan (violin) Emily Thomas (Teacher, Voice) Ben Milis (Teacher, Conductor)
Advanced M’ship students (3rd/4th Yr) Larisa Miler (violin) Dat Nguyen (Voice, Bass understudy) Anna Davidson (Voice, Alto soloist) James Jellyman (Trumpet) Declan Ackland (Percussion) Eleanor Beecham (Voice) Emily D (Piano) Miljana Kurtivoc (Voice)
Intermediate M’ship students (2nd Yr) Emma McEwan (Voice)
MUSICIANSHIP: In my role as musicianship mentor, I have purposely integrated elements of this cantata into the musicianship program this semester. Students have developed their musicianship skills through the study of excerpts from this cantata.
For Example:
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#7 Chorale: Foundation (1st yr), Intermediate (2nd yr), Advanced (3rd yr) students all studied J. S. Bach’s E flat major harmonisation of the original chorale melody, which appears in the soprano part of this movement. Foundation – sight-singing SATB and aurally analysing tonal centres of each phrase. Intermediate – sight-singing SATB (one voice per part), aurally analysing each phrase's tonal centres and cadence points. Advanced – sight singing SATB, aurally analysing tonal centres and cadence points of each phrase, and an aural harmonic analysis of the chord progressions of each phrase. The advanced level also performed this chorale in SATB quartets (one voice per part) and as conductors. #1 Sonata: Advanced level students improved their clef reading skills by singing the tenor and alto clef parts whilst playing the continuo bass line. #3 Bass Recitative: Advanced level students performed the bass recitative from the perspective of vocal soloist, continuo bassline player and conductor.
CONDUCTOR: Chamber Choir 12 voices (3VPP) VS 4 voices (OVPP) Standing Positions – Triangles, SATB Quartets, 12-in-a-Row Bach was in the business of music education and a church musician Orchestra Hybrid Orchestra - Period and Modern instruments Adaptation of the Viola I part = Violin II G Major Version with the Weimar flute solo. Modern Pitch A=440hz
I’ve fallen in love with Johann Sebastian Bach once again. There is always something new to discover in Bach’s music. This time, it is the essence of this cantata, which is all about singing and dancing in the music, which is essentially what I do as a conductor and musicianship mentor.
We hope you enjoy this performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen!
Aleta King
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Appendix N: J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Program Notes
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS LECTURE RECITAL
J S Bach Cantata BWV182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen!
CONDUCTOR AND MUSICAL DIRECTOR ALETA KING
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016 | 1 PM RECITAL HALL WEST SYDNEY CONSERVATORIUM THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
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LYRICS
Libretto: Salomon Franck
II. CHORUS Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! King of Heaven, welcome! Laß auch uns dein Zion sein! Let also us thy Zion be! Komm herein, Come in, Du hast uns das hertz genommen. Thou hast our heart captured.
III. BASS RECITATIVE Siehe, ich komme, Behold I come, Im buch ist von mir geschrieben; In the book it is of me written; Deinen willen, mein Gott, tu ich gerne. Thy will, my God, do I gladly.
IV. BASS ARIA Starkes lieben, What strong loving, Das dich, großer Gottessohn, Which drove thee, great Son of God, Von dem thron From the throne Deiner Herrlichkeit getrieben, Of Thy glory drove, Daß du dich zum heil der welt That thou thyself for the salvation of the world Als ein opfer fürgestellt, As a sacrifice didst offer, Daß du dich mit Blut verschrieben. That thou thyself with blood didst pledge.
V. ALTO ARIA Leget euch dem Heiland unter, Lay yourselves down before the Saviour, Herzen, die ihr christlich seid! Hearts, that Christians are! Tragt ein unbeflecktes kleid Bring the unspotted garment Eures glaubens Ihm entgegen, Of your faith to meet Him, Leib und leben und vermögen Let body and life and possessions Sei dem König itzt geweiht. Be to the King now consecrated.
VI. TENOR ARIA Jesu, laß durch wohl und weh Jesus, let through weal and woe Mich auch mit dir ziehen! Me also with Thee go! Schreit die welt nur ‘Kreuzige!’ Cries the world nought but ‘Crucify!’ So lass mich nicht fliehen Then let me not flee, Herr, vor deinem kreuzpanier; O Lord from Thy cross-banner; Kron und Palmen find ich hier. Crown and palm find I here.
VII. CHORALE Jesu, deine Passion ist mir lauter freude, Jesus, Thy passion is for me pure joy, Deine wunden, kron und hohn Thy wounds, crown, and scorn Meines herzens weide; My heart’s pasture; Meine seel auf rosen geht, My soul upon roses walks, Wenn ich dran gedenke, When I this remember, In dem himmel eine stätt In heaven an abode Uns deswegen schenke. To us by these is given.
VIII. CHORUS So lasset uns gehen in Salem der freuden, So let us go into that Salem of joy, Begleitet den König in lieben und leiden. Accompanying the King in love and sorrow. Er gehet voran und öffnet die bahn. He goes before us and opens the way.
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PROGRAM
J S Bach Cantata BWV182 Avondale Singers Himmelskönig sei willkommen! Avondale Chamber Orchestra Aleta King, Director and Conductor I. Sonata Anna Davidson, alto Blake Parham, tenor II. Chorus Javier Vilarino, bass
III. Bass Recitative
IV. Bass Aria
V. Alto Aria
VI. Tenor Aria
VII. Chorale
VIII. Chorus
This lecture recital is presented as partial fulfilment of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
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PERFORMERS
J S BACH CANTATA BWV182 HIMMELSKÖNIG, SEI WILLKOMMEN! Conductor: Aleta King Musical Director: Aleta King
SOLOISTS Alto: Anna Davidson Tenor: Blake Parham Bass: Javier Vilarino
AVONDALE CHAMBER SINGERS Soprano: Miljana Kurtovic; Emma McEwan; and Emily Thomas Alto: Anna Davidson; Emily Dorrough; Jane Krauss; and Eleanor Beecham Tenor: John Duncan; Krisztian Gyebroszky; and Eleanor Beecham Bass: Dat Nguyen; Declan Ackland; and James Jellyman
AVONDALE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Violin: Dr Sohyun Eastham Flute: Sally Walker Violin: Larisa Miler; and John Duncan Viola: Paul Groh Violoncello Continuo: Gavin Clark String Bass Continuo: Theo Small Harpsichord Continuo: Claire Howard Race
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Appendix O: Fauré Requiem Critical Notes
Fauré Requiem, Opus 48. Critical Commentary Aleta King 22/10/16
Historical Notes As maître de chapelle of the fashionable Parisian church, La Madeleine Gabriel Fauré gave the premiere performance of his newly composed Requiem on 16th January 1888 for the funeral of a well-known architect Joseph-Michel Le Soufaché.1 On this first occasion, the requiem consisted of just five movements (minus the Offertoire and Libera me) and was scored for strings, harp, timpani and organ. In this first performance version, the composer deliberately exploits the orchestral texture to extract the rich melancholic depths of sonority from the viola, cello and double bass in contrast to the sparse solo violin for an ‘angelic’ effect. Ironically the parish priest appears to have been less than impressed after the first performance stating to the composer: ‘we do not need novelties of that kind; the repertoire of the Madeleine is rich enough, so be content with it.’2 Parisian society appeared to have had an instantly more favourable opinion of the Requiem, which quickly led to further performances. Eventually, it prompted Fauré to expand this work to seven movements, including the Offertoire and Libera me. He also revised his chamber orchestra scoring to include wind instruments for the second performance version of 1893. This edition appears to be most closely aligned with the composer’s original intention for a requiem ideally suited to a performance in the liturgical context.3 Towards the latter half of the twentieth century, the historically informed performance practice movement showed renewed interest in this second liturgical edition which culminated in published score editions and performance recordings,
1 Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 116. 2 Ibid. 3 Jean-Michel Nectoux, Fauré Requiem. The Chapelle Royale/Ensemble Musique Oblique, Philippe Herreweghe, Harmonia Mundi, 1988, compact disc booklet, 8.
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first by English performance scholar John Rutter (1984)4 and later by French performance scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux (1988).5 A third and final performance version for full symphonic orchestra was encouraged into existence by Fauré’s publisher Julien Hamelle who recognised the potential for broader audience appeal.6 This edition of the Requiem was subsequently premiered at the Paris World Fair in 1900. According to musicologist and Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux, this ‘symphonic version published by Hamelle is still to be recommended for performances in large concert halls. Even if it does not reflect the composer’s original idea, it was approved and signed by him’.7 This full symphonic version quickly found broad audience appeal both nationally and internationally. One of Faure’s former students, the French luminary composer, teacher and pianist Nadia Boulenger, gave the international premiere performance of this version of the Requiem in London, England (1936).8 It is this final full symphonic version that is to be performed in concert today. For thousands of years, Christianity has commemorated the sacred rite of passage from life to death into the promise of life eternal through the requiem.9 Fauré’s unconventional choice of requiem text has led some scholars to debate the degree to which this particular requiem reflects a Christian worldview, even to the extreme suggestion that this work displays elements of paganism.10 Whilst it is true that Fauré’s Requiem text setting is not exactly according to the standard catholic liturgical text traditions, it also must be said that Fauré’s choice of text still reflects his convictions about the sacred rite of passage from life to death and life eternal, a belief common to all Christians even if the details of such do not strictly adhere to orthodox catholic traditions. The composer himself describes his Requiem ‘altogether as gentle as himself...sentimental, plaintive and delicate…it charms. It is a requiem for people of the world who – cultured and a little sceptical – have understood how to live
4 See published score: Gabriel Fauré Requiem, ed. John Rutter, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984). See recording: Gabriel Fauré Requiem, Cambridge Singers, City of London Sinfonia, John Rutter, Conifer Records, 1984, compact disc. 5 See recording: Fauré Requiem, The Chapelle Royale/Ensemble Musique Oblique, Philippe Herreweghe, Harmonia Mundi, 1988, compact disc. 6 See Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: His Life Through his Letters, (London: Marion Boyars, 1984), 144. See also Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré, 236. 7 Nectoux, Fauré Requiem, 8. 8 Felix Aprahamian, Fauré Requiem, Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble, Nadia Boulanger, EMI, 1948, compact disc booklet, 6. 9 Robert Chase, Dies Irae: A Guide to Requiem Music (Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2003), xiii. 10 Fauré scholar Robert Orledge suggests that the concept of paganism is first suggested by Benoît and hotly contested by Fauré’s own son, Philippe Faure-Fremiet. Robert Orledge, Gabriel Fauré (London: Eulenburg, 1979), 112-113.
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their life, just as they now know how to die’.11 As you experience this final performance version for soloists, choir, and full orchestra, may you also be charmed by the timeless elegance of this particular requiem that has become arguably one of the most beloved of all requiems.
Conductor as Musicianship Mentor For the first doctoral recital (Friday, June 3, 2016), the research focus was an investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of J.S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen! My musicianship students, who were also members of the small vocal ensemble for this performance, were invited to participate in a pre-performance questionnaire and a post-performance focus group discussion. Both of these pre and post-performance activities were designed to tease out each student’s individual perception about the intrinsic value of musicianship to the rehearsal and performance stages of this cantata. For the second doctoral recital (Saturday, October 22, 2016), the research focus was an investigation into the ‘conductor as musicianship mentor’ paradigm from a slightly different angle. Through a self-reflective journal, the objective was to examine the role of musicianship and its influence on my own preparation for the role of a conductor through the rehearsal and performance stages of Gabriel Fauré Requiem. I was able to analyse my own experience by asking myself the same parallel question I asked my students who participated in the first recital performance mentioned above. I.e. What musicianship skills I required to prepare for my role as a conductor through the rehearsal and performance stages of Gabriel Fauré Requiem.
The following is a summary of the musicianship journey I have undertaken through the rehearsal and performance stages of the Fauré Requiem: • Listening to various recordings (approximately 20 different recordings spanning almost fifty years) to compare and contrast each performance to gain a broad overview of historical and current performance practice internationally. Ideally, I would have like to have heard a live performance of this work; however, I was regretfully unable to do so in the time frame.
11 See Christina M. Stahl and Michael Stegemann, Fauré Requiem, trans. Steve Taylor (Kassel: Bärenereiter, 2011), x.
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• The first consideration of tempos for each movement – particularly the opening tempo and during transition sections for each movement. I have become increasingly aware that a conductor needs to have a consistent feel for the appropriate tempo that is extremely important in the rehearsal and performance process. • First conductor score mark-up: - Shorthand identification of voice and instruments - Dynamics - Expression - Literal English translation of Latin text written into the score • Sight-read/sight-sing through conductor score at the piano to get a feel for the choral orchestration. Fauré’s choral scores show a mastery of vocal polyphonic and homophonic compositional techniques. The melodic lines and intuitively vocalistic, e.g. Careful attention is given to breath marks, particularly when the placement of consonants like ‘t’ and ‘s’ is necessary. • Fauré’s harmonic understanding is both traditional and exotically experimental for its time but always elegantly tasteful. • Sight read / sight-sing through the conductor score at the piano to get a feel for the instrumental orchestration. It becomes increasingly apparent that the organ part is the foundation upon which the rest of the orchestration is derived. • Formal Analysis to establish the overarching forms within each movement. • Tonal centre (key) analysis for each movement, particularly with transition passages that are of particular interest to the orchestral timbre, e.g. in Agnus Dei (mvt V), the orchestral texture is thinned to a unison sustained C in the soprano part where they sing “Lux” (Light) which clears the way for effect as Fauré quickly transitions from F major straight to A flat major, thus ironically evoking a darker tonal sound quality initially that oscillates between dark and light tone colour in the following passage (bar 47-60) before transitioning to a recapitulation of the opening D minor chord from the Introit. • Harmonic Analysis of specific passages in each movement that are of particular interest to the orchestral timbre, e.g. in Libera me (mvt VI), the lower strings begin with two bars of the D minor tonic before paralleling the vocal line by moving step- by-step higher from the tonic chord in bar 3 to build tension to the dominant chord in bar 8 that resolves to the tonic again with the viola entry in bar 9.
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• Musicianship Inner Hearing: Add to the conductor score small reminders for what I am listening for whilst conducting during rehearsal and performance. - Solfége - Intervals - Rhythm - Harmony - Tonality - Stylistic knowledge - Musical Memory
During my research, I was fascinated to read that Gabriel Fauré was a student at the Niedermeyer School. The primary purpose of this school during Fauré’s time was to train organists and chorusmasters for service to church music to rebuild the liturgical, cultural and musical traditions of France post French Revolution. Students were given a rigorous study program consisting of solfége, harmony, and counterpoint, which included singing and were also expected to achieve the highest vocal and instrumental performance standards on piano and organ.12 Perhaps the strongest evidence for the effectiveness of Fauré’s music education is to be found in the legacy of Nadia Boulanger, who was undoubtedly one of Fauré’s most famous students. She, in turn, had an illustrious career as a performer and mentor to many of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Having received the majority of my musicianship training from Hungarian master teachers (some of whom were students of Zoltán Kodály) in Europe and Australia according to the Hungarian model of music education (referred to in Australia as the Kodály Philosophy of music education), I can see obvious parallels between the two European countries in the context of what a quality music education program looks like. I well relate to Fauré’s rigorous study program of solfége, harmony and counterpoint combined with performance studies in singing and on a keyboard instrument/s. This is the musicianship model that I now pass on to my musicianship students. This is the musicianship model that I am researching in the context of my research topic, ‘Conductor as Musicianship Mentor.’
12 Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré, 6.
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Latin Text English Translation
I. Introït et Kyrie
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: Grant eternal rest to them, Lord: Et lux perpetua luceat eis. And let perpetual light shine on them. Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion, A hymn befits you, God in Zion, Et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem: And a vow to you shall be fulfilled in Jerusalem: Exaudi orationem meam, Hear my prayer, Ad te omnis caro veniet. For unto you all flesh shall come. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison.
II. Offertoire
O Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, O Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, Libera animas defunctorum Free the souls of the dead De poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu: From infernal punishment, and from the deep abyss: De ore leonis, From the mouth of the lion, Ne absorbeat tartarus, Do not let Hell swallow them up, Ne cadant in obscurum. Do not let them fall into the darkness. Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, Sacrifices and prayers of praise Laudis offerimus We offer to you, O Lord. Tu suscipe pro animabus illis, Receive them for the souls of those Quarum hodie memoriam facimus: Whom we commemorate today. Fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam. Lord, make them pass from death to life, Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini ejus. As you once promised to Abraham, and to his seed.
III. Sanctus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Lord God of Hosts, Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. The heavens and earth are filled with your glory. Hosanna in excelsis Hosanna in the highest.
IV. Pie Jesu
Pie Jesu Domine, Merciful Lord Jesus, Dona eis requiem, Grant them rest, Requiem sempiternam. Eternal rest.
V. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who removes the sins of the world, Dona eis requiem. Grant them rest. Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who removes the sins of the world, Dona eis requiem sempiternam. Grant them eternal rest. Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, May eternal light shine on them, Lord, Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, With your saints, for eternity, Quia pius es. For you are merciful. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: Grant eternal rest to them, Lord: Et lux perpetua luceat eis. And let perpetual light shine on them.
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VI. Libera Me
Libera me, Domine, Free me, Lord, De morte aeterna, From eternal death, In die illa tremenda, On that day of dread, Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra: When the heavens and earth shall move: Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. When you shall come to judge the world by fire. Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, I am made to tremble, and to fear, Dum discussio venerit, When destruction shall come, Atque ventura ira. And also your coming wrath. Dies illa, dies irae, O that day, that day of wrath, Calamitatis et miseriae, Of calamity and misery, Dies illa, dies magna et amara valde. The great and exceedingly bitter day. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: Grant eternal rest to them, Lord: Et lux perpetua luceat eis. And let perpetual light shine on them.
VII. In Paradisum
In Paradisum deducant te Angeli: May angels lead you into Paradise: In tuo adventu At your coming Suscipiant te martyres, May martyrs receive you, Et perducant te And may they lead you In civitatem sanctam Jerusalem, Into the Holy City, Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, May the chorus of angels receive you, Et cum Lazaro quondam paupere, And with Lazarus, who once was a pauper, Aeternam habeas requiem. May you have eternal rest.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Chase, Robert. ‘Introduction,’ in Dies Irae: A Guide to Requiem Music. Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 2003.
Fauré, Gabriel. Requiem. Edited by John Rutter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Nectoux, Jean-Michel. Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Nectoux, Jean-Michel. Gabriel Fauré: His Life Through His Letters. London: Marion Boyars, 1984.
Orledge, Robert. Gabriel Fauré. London: Eulenburg, 1979.
Stahl, C. M., and Stegemann, M. Fauré Requiem. Translated by Steve Taylor. Kassel: Bärenereiter, 2011.
SELECTED SOUND RECORDINGS Fauré, Gabriel. Fauré Requiem. The Chapelle Royale/Ensemble Musique Oblique. Conducted by Philippe
Herreweghe. Harmonia Mundi, 1988, compact disc.
Fauré, Gabriel. Fauré Requiem. Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble. Conducted by Nadia Boulanger. EMI, 1948,
compact disc.
Fauré, Gabriel. Gabriel Fauré Requiem. Cambridge Singers, City of London Sinfonia. Conducted by John
Rutter. Conifer Records, 1984, compact disc.
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Appendix P: Fauré Requiem Program Notes
As maître de chapelle of the fashionable Parisian church, La Madeleine Gabriel Fauré gave the premiere performance of his newly composed Requiem on 16th January 1888 for the funeral of architect Joseph Le Soufaché. On this first occasion, the Requiem consisted of just five movements (minus the Offertoire and Libera me) and was scored for strings, harp, timpani and organ. In this first performance version, the composer deliberately exploits the orchestral texture to extract the rich melancholic depths of sonority from the viola, cello and double bass in contrast to the sparse solo violin for ‘angelic’ effect. Ironically the parish priest appears to have been less than impressed after the first performance stating to the composer: ‘we do not need novelties of that kind; the repertoire of the Madeleine is rich enough, so be content with it’. Parisian society appeared to have had an instantly more favourable opinion of the Requiem which quickly led to further performances and eventually prompted Fauré to expand this work to seven movements, including the Offertoire and Libera me. He also revised his chamber orchestra scoring to include wind instruments for the second performance version of 1893. This edition appears to be most closely aligned with the composer’s original intention for a requiem ideally suited to a performance in the liturgical context. A third and final performance version for full symphonic orchestra was encouraged into existence by Fauré’s publisher Julien Hamelle who recognised the potential for broader audience appeal. This edition of the Requiem was subsequently premiered at the Paris World Fair in 1900. According to musicologist and Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectaux, this ‘symphonic version published by Hamelle is still to be recommended for performances in large concert halls. Even if it does not reflect the composer’s original idea, it was approved and signed by him’. It is this final version that is to be performed in concert today. For thousands of years, Christianity has commemorated the sacred rite of passage from life to death into the promise of life eternal with the requiem. Fauré describes his Requiem ‘altogether as gentle as himself...sentimental, plaintive and delicate…it charms. It is a requiem for people of the world who – cultured and a little sceptical – have understood how to live their life, just as they now know how to die’. As you experience this final performance version for soloists, choir, and full orchestra, may you also be charmed by the timeless elegance of this particular requiem that has become one of the most beloved of all requiems.
Aleta King,10/10/16
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Appendix Q: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace Critical Notes
"As a composer, he recognises no boundaries - musical, commercial, geographical or cultural. His is a way of thinking and composing that is perfectly in tune with the spirit of the times..." — Classic FM citation1
Historical Notes Karl Jenkins was commissioned to compose The Armed Man: Mass for Peace for chorus and orchestra by the Royal Armouries Museum, England. The original orchestral version received its premiere performance in the year 2000, and Martin Ellerby later arranged this score for concert band in 2010. This magnificent work for full orchestra and chorus is highly eclectic in its compositional style, a distinctive feature for much of Jenkins’ music that often defies categorisation into a particular genre or style. It thus ensures a broad and enduring audience appeal.
Analytical Notes As the title of this work suggests, the fifteenth-century traditional French song L’Homme armé is the dominant thematic feature of this work. This famous melody is the foundation of the opening movement, the Christe Eleison middle section of the Kyrie movement (notably, Jenkins’ use of Christe Eleison is a direct quote from the original Christe Eleison in Palestrina’s L’Homme Armé mass) and makes a brief appearance again in the final movement; Better is Peace. Jenkins draws inspiration from Christian liturgical texts with his settings of the Kyrie (3rd mvt), Sanctus (5th mvt), Agnus Dei (10th mvt), and Benedictus (12th mvt). Christianity’s view of war is expertly juxtaposed alongside that of vastly contrasting world religions and cultures. From the mysterious Islamic Call to Prayers (2nd mvt) to Psalm texts of a desperate Jewish King David in Save Me from Bloody Men (4th mvt). From disturbing Japanese poetry by Toge Sankichi in Angry Flames (8th mvt) to poignant quotes from the Indian 6th century Mahàbhàrata in Torches (9th mvt). As one would expect of a work commissioned for a distinctly British audience, Jenkins also draws on famous English literary figures. Hymn Before Action (6th mvt) features the first two verses of a poem written as a prayer for the eve of battle by Rudyard Kipling (1896). Charge! (7th mvt), the dramatic centrepiece of the work, uses text derived from English poet John Dryden (1687) and English / Irish poet Jonathan Swift (c.1716). Now the
1 See www.karljenkins.com/biog.
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Guns Have Stopped is a poignant reflection on the text by Guy Wilson (2000), expressing the sentiments of the returned soldiers who have lost colleagues and friends from war. The final 13th movement begins with Lancelot and Guinevere, Thomas Malory’s King Arthur characters, singing Better is peace than always war before a brief reprise of L’Homme armé followed by excerpts of the poem Ring out, wild bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850). The final 13th movement concludes with God Shall Wipe Away All Tears, from the book of Revelation 21:4 in the Holy Bible.
Performance Considerations Apart from its apparent musical beauty and clear audience appeal, I chose to perform this magnificent work for my final doctoral recital for the following reasons: a) It offered a wealth of opportunity to explore a vast range of conducting techniques and associated musical challenges within the required length of approximately 60 minutes for a final doctoral recital. b) When I mentioned the idea of performing this work to my colleague Dr Ian Cook, he happened to know about Martin Ellerby’s 2010 Concert Band arrangement, which had not yet been performed in Australia and suggested the idea of an Australian premiere performance. Ian directs the Newcastle Youth Orchestra, and I direct the Avondale choral program. We were both enamoured with the idea of a collaboration between our two ensembles for a premiere Australian performance, and so began the creative journey. Ian Cook conducted the Australian premiere for our first collaborative performance of this work on Saturday evening, 26th May 2018, at Newcastle Conservatorium. c) The year 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1. In Australia, on ANZAC day (25th April), we commemorate those who have served, or are currently serving, in the armed forces. The Australian ANZACS from the Australian Imperial Forces of WW1 are an integral part of our Australian cultural history. This work presented an opportunity to examine the concept of war through the musical lens of major world religions and cultures within the Australian context.
Other considerations that highlight the originality of the creative process, particularly with the staging of this work for performance: a) Narrator: Professor Daniel Reynaud is a colleague of mine in the school of arts and humanities at Avondale and a noted ANZAC historian. Earlier this year,
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Daniel published a book titled 'ANZAC Spirituality: The First AIF Soldiers Speak.' I asked Daniel to select relevant excerpts from soldier’s diaries featured in his book. These excerpts were thematically woven between each movement of The Armed Man: Mass for Peace with Daniel as narrator. The effect was stunning in its poignancy. b) Choral and Instrumental Forces: Jenkins’ original orchestral version represents the traditional symphonic orchestration with a large string section dominating the soundscape and augmented wind, brass and percussion sections. Without the strings, the sheer weight of a pure wind, brass, and percussion orchestra was astoundingly new and exciting to work with as an orchestral force. This also highlighted a significant issue of sound balance between choral and instrumental forces, for the original orchestral version was in complete contrast to the concert band version. In hindsight, had I better anticipated the sheer power of the sound from the wind orchestra (50 instruments), I would have doubled my expectations for the choir from the 50 voices we used for the performance to at least 100 voices which would have been more ideal up against a 50-piece wind orchestra. c) Cello Solo: The Benedictus (12th mvt) features a glorious cello solo in the original orchestral version. Ellerby's arrangement instead distributes the cello solo across various instruments in the woodwind section, effectively making it more of a collective woodwind player solo. However, after hearing the first rehearsal of this movement, even though I could appreciate Ellerby’s arrangement, I was still so enamoured with the sonority of the original cello solo I made the artistic decision to retain the cello for my recital performance with the wind orchestra; a creative decision to which I remain faithful. d) Creative Movement and Dance: I felt that the dramatic elements of this work opened up a natural progression to collaborate with dancers for a new and exciting dimension to the performance. Creative movement and dance, choreographed by professional dancer, choreographer, and dance coach Fiona Donaldson enhanced the dramatic impact of the performance for Angry Flames (8th mvt), in which Japanese poet Toge Sankichi recalls his memory of the bombing of Hiroshima. He miraculously survived the bombing but later died from Leukemia as a result of the atomic bomb. The dancers engaged in celebratory medieval dance on stage and throughout the audience for the final (13th mvt) Better is Peace.
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Conductor as Musicianship Mentor (connecting performance to research) The working title of my thesis is Conductor as Musicianship Mentor: an investigation into the conductor’s role as musicianship mentor for a small vocal ensemble through the rehearsal and performance stages of two major works for choir and orchestra. The first doctoral recital was a performance of J. S. Bach Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkomen! This cantata was the first major work for choir and orchestra. The first stage of data collection was associated with this first recital performance. Twelve students who were members of musicianship and conducting classes and the small vocal ensemble for the Cantata agreed to be participants. They were asked to indicate what elements of the musicianship program they found most useful in their preparation for the Cantata through the rehearsal and performance process. This first recital took place on Friday, June 3, 2016, at Sydney Conservatorium. The second doctoral recital was a performance of Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. For this recital, I completed a self-reflective journal documenting and analysing my own musicianship process concerning my preparation as a conductor for this performance with the Sydney Conservatorium choir and orchestra. This second recital took place on Saturday, October 22, 2016, at Sydney Conservatorium. For the third and final doctoral recital, I chose Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace as the second major work for choir and orchestra. The last stage of data collection was associated with this last recital performance. Of the original twelve participants, two are now pre-service teachers in their final year of undergraduate music education, and ten have now graduated and are early-career music teachers. Seven of the original twelve participants (two undergraduate, pre-service teachers, and five graduate early career teachers) agreed to take part in the third and final recital performance on Saturday, June 3, 2018, at Avondale College Church. The seven participants were all a part of the small vocal ensemble placed at the core of the large choir for the chorus numbers (Movements 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13). Two of the seven participants were also soloists for the Kyrie (3rd mvt), Angry Flames (8th mvt), and Better is Peace (13th mvt). The seven participants also performed as part of the small vocal ensemble for Save Me From Bloody Men (4th mvt), Torches (9th mvt), and the final a cappella God Shall Wipe Away All Tears (13th mvt) to close the entire work. In the week after the final doctoral recital performance, the seven participants were invited to complete a written follow-up interview. Of the four who responded in writing, one participant was an undergraduate music education pre-service teacher, and three participants
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were graduate early-career music teachers. Since the remaining four participants were no longer actively being mentored by me in musicianship and conducting, this follow-up interview aimed to examine, from the perspective of the participants, the connection between musicianship and performance without the conductor as the conduit musicianship mentor. In effect, handing on the baton: when mentee becomes a mentor.
Aleta King Faculty of Music Library Oxford University 27/06/18
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Appendix R: Karl Jenkins The Armed Man: Mass for Peace Program Notes
The Armed Man (L’Homme armé) 15th-century French folk song The armed man should be feared. Everywhere it has been proclaimed That each man shall arm himself With a coat of iron mail. The armed man should be feared.
Kyrie Liturgical hymn text from the early Christian era. Kyrie eleison Lord have mercy Christe eleison Christ have mercy Kyrie eleison Lord have mercy
Save Me from Bloody Men Psalm 56:1-2 and Psalm 59:1-2 of King David in the Hebrew Bible. Be merciful unto me, O God: For man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth me. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up. For they be many that fight against me. O thou most high. Defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from bloody men.
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Sanctus Liturgical hymn text from the early Christian era Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Hymn Before Action The first two verses of a poem written as a prayer for the eve of battle by Rudyard Kipling (1896). The earth is full of anger, the seas are dark with wrath, The nations in their harness go up against our path. Ere yet we loose the legions, ere yet we draw the blade, Jehovah of the thunders, Lord God of Battles, aid!
High lust and forward bearing, proud heart rebellious brow, Deaf ear and soul uncaring, we seek Thy mercy now. The sinner that forswore Thee, the fool that passed Thee by, Our times are known before Thee, Lord grant us strength to die.
Charge! Text derived from English poet John Dryden (1687) and English / Irish poet Jonathan Swift (c.1716). The trumpet’s loud clangour excites us to arms, With shrill notes of anger, and mortal alarms. How blessed is he who for his country dies. The double, double beat of the thundering drum, Charge ‘tis too late to retreat, Charge!
Angry Flames Japanese poet Tōge Sankichi was a survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb when it was dropped on his hometown of Hiroshima.
Pushing up through smoke from a world half darkened by overhanging cloud, the shroud that mushroomed out and struck the dome of the sky. Black, red, blue, dance in
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the air. Merge, scatter glittering sparks, already tower over the whole city. Quivering like seaweed the mass of flames spurts forward. Popping up in the dense smoke, crawling out wreathed in fire, countless human beings on all fours in a heap of embers that erupt and subside, hair rent, rigid in death, there smoulders a curse.
Torches Excerpts from The Mahàbhàrata, one of the two sacred Indian texts (c. sixth century BC).
The animals scattered in all directions, screaming terrible screams. Many were burning others were burnt. All were shattered and scattered mindlessly, their eyes bulging. Some hugged their sons, others their fathers and mothers, unable to let them go, and so they died. Others leapt up in their thousands, faces disfigured and were consumed by the fire, everywhere were bodies squirming on the ground, wings, eyes and paws all burning. They breathed their last as living torches.
Agnus Dei Liturgical hymn text from the early Christian era.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
Now the Guns have Stopped Text by Guy Wilson (2000) expressing the sentiments of the returned soldiers who have lost colleagues and friends from war.
Silent, so silent, now the guns have stopped. I have survived all, I who knew I would not. But now you are not here. I shall go home, alone; and must try to live life as before and hide my grief. For you my dearest friend, who should be with me now, not cold, too soon, and in your grave, alone.
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Benedictus Liturgical hymn text from the early Christian era.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Better is Peace Thomas Malory’s King Arthur characters, Lancelot and Guinevere, sing Better is Peace Than Always War from before a reprise of L’Homme armé followed by excerpts of the poem Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850).
Ring out the thousand wars of old. Ring out the thousand years of peace. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring happy bells, across the snow. The year is going, let him go, Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the old shapes of foul disease. Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wards of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger the heart, the kindlier hand. Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.
God Shall Wipe Away All Tears From the Book of Revelation 21:4 in the Holy Bible.
God shall wipe away all tears and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. Praise the Lord.
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Appendix S: Recital Recordings
Recital 1: J. S. Bach, Cantata BWV 182 Himmelskönig, sei willkommen!
Date: Friday, June 3, 2016
Venue: Recital Hall West, Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney
Recording Link: https://youtu.be/gGemspiyyxY
Conductor and Musical Director: Aleta King
Vocal Soloists: Anna Davidson (Alto), Blake Parham (Tenor), Javier Vilarino (Bass)
Avondale Conservatorium Chamber Choir: Soprano: Miljana Kurtovic, Emma McEwan, Emily Thomas. Alto: Eleanor Beecham, Anna Davidson, Emily Dorrough, Jane Krauss. Tenor: Eleanor Beecham, John Duncan, Krisztian Gyebroszky, Ben Milis. Bass: Declan Ackland, James Jellyman, Dat Nguyen.
Avondale Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra: Flute Solo: Sally Walker Violin Solo (concertante): Sohyun Eastham Violin I (ripieno): Larisa Miler Violin II: John Duncan Viola: Paul Groh Cello (continuo): Gavin Clark Basso (continuo): Theo Small Keyboard (continuo): Claire Howard Race
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Recital 2: Gabriel Fauré, Requiem Date: Saturday, October 22, 2016 Venue: Verbrugghen Hall, Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
Recording links: https://youtu.be/FaeIZ7RKnnc (StageCam) https://youtu.be/DKEREBeUGWQ (HouseCam)
Conductor: Aleta King
Vocal Soloists: Amber Johnson (Soprano), Hayden Barrington (Baritone)
Sydney Conservatorium Choir
Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir
Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
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Recital 3: Karl Jenkins, The Armed Man: Mass for Peace arr. Martin Ellerby
Recording Links: https://youtu.be/muE1U-RMDvg (StageCam) https://youtu.be/xnOka16J5rY (HouseCam)
Date: Saturday, June 2, 2018 Venue: Avondale College Church
Conductor, Musical Director, Artistic Director: Aleta King
Narrator: Daniel Reynaud
Dance Choreographer: Fiona Donaldson
Soloists: Kathryn Dries (Mezzo Soprano), Gavin Clark (Cello), Oliver Doyle (Trumpet)
Ensembles: Avondale Singers (Director: Aleta King) Port Harmony Inc. (Director: Kathryn Dries) Newcastle Wind Orchestra (Director: Ian Cook) FS Dance Company (Director: Fiona Donaldson)
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Appendix T: Musicianship Program Overview (Semester 1, 2016)
MUSC11100 Performance I Musicianship overview (1st year, Semester 1, 2016)
MUSC11100 Performance I Musicianship Semester 1 2016
CONTENTS
Musicianship Overview 3 Assessment Overview 3 Continuous Assessment Tasks 5 Criteria for Assessment 4 Music Literacy Tools 6 Keyboard 7
TECHNICAL Simple Time Overview 8 Simple Duple Metre 9 Simple Triple Metre 12 Simple Quadruple Metre 15 Syncopation 18 Anacrusis or Upbeat 19 Tone Set Analysis 22 Pentatony 23 Diatonic Major Chord Chart 24 Diatonic Major Chord Chart Sequence 25
REPERTOIRE Polyphonic Canons (see 150 rounds for singing and teaching) Alleluia 18th C All Things Shall Perish Coffee Canon Ding Dong Canon For Thy Gracious Blessings Haste Thee Nymph O How Lovely is the Evening Rise Up O Flame There is No Sorrow Vine and Fig Tree With Laughter and Singing
Homophonic 2-part Anon: Follow On 26 Schubert: Mailied I 27 Schubert: Mailied II 28
3-part Haydn: Psalm 50 29
4-part Traditional: Nkosi Sikelel’ i-Afrika 31
Piano Accompaniment Mozart: Come Lovely May 32 Sound of Music: Do Re Mi 33
Manuscript 34
1832
Musicianship Overview
Lecturer: Aleta King Telephone: (02) 4980 2207 Email: [email protected]
Lecture: TBA Location: Music Hall Consultation: by appointment
UNIT OVERVIEW: Good musicianship skills are fundamental to becoming a good musician. This unit is designed to continue the development of musicianship skills at the foundation level.
MATERIALS: Students are required to provide own manuscript paper, A440hz tuning fork, pencil and eraser.
REQUIRED TEXT: Bolkovac, E. & Johnson, J. 150 Rounds for singing and teaching, London: Boosey & Hawkes, 2000.
Assessment Overview
Viva Voce Weekly Tasks (Technical & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be required to present a total of 8 viva voce weekly tasks. A demonstration of each task will be given during class and sign up sheet displayed on Moodle and/or noticeboard outside M05. Please check regularly for updates. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Sign up for individual times to complete 8 tasks, one task per week, during Week 2-9.
Written Exam (Dictation & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be given a written exam that will cover material studied in class. A review of exam material will be given during class in week 11. See criteria for assessment (Aural & Visual Analysis)
Dictation (PART A): Students will be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through aural analysis, identification and dictation. Students are likely to hear some or all of the following: Rhythm, Melody, Intervals, 2-Part, Chords.
Repertoire (PART B): Students will be required to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge of the repertoire covered in class. Students may be asked to identify and/or notate memorised repertoire on staff notation, in stick notation, or as solfa or rhythm only. Students may also be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through visual analysis of scores.
DUE: Students will be assessed in class during week 12.
Ensemble Performance: (10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 5 min.) demonstrating the development aural musicianship through a 3-4 voice ensemble performance, one person per part. Students will need to present at least three pieces from material that has been covered in class. NB: Students may choose to perform 3 polyphonic canons OR 2 polyphonic canons + 1 homophonic 3 or 4 part piece studied in class. See criteria for assessment (Performance). A review of all ensemble repertoire will be given during week 12.
DUE: Students will be assessed during Exam Period.
Viva Voce Final Performance (Technical & Repertoire):(10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 10 min) demonstrating the development of aural musicianship skills through a solo performance of technical and repertoire material studied in class. Accurate and fluent two-part work is sufficient for a Pass or Credit and a convincing three-part work is required for a Distinction or High Distinction. A performance by memory is encouraged at all times and will be looked favourably upon particularly when eligible for the highest grade. A review of all viva voce technical and repertoire material studied in class will be given during week 12. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Students will be assessed during Exam Period.
Please Note: evidence of original creativity (composition, arrangement, improvisation) must be demonstrated in at least one area of assessment. 3
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MUSC21100 Performance III Musicianship overview (2nd year, Semester 1, 2016)
MUSC21100 Performance III Musicianship Semester 1 2016
CONTENTS Musicianship Overview 3 Assessment Overview 3 Criteria for Assessment 4 Viva Voce Weekly Tasks 5 Music Literacy Tools 6 Keyboard 7
TECHNICAL Rhythm Composite Metres 5/8 8 Composite Metres: 7/8 11 Division of Compound Metres into Irregular Patterns 14 Additional Composite Metres 16 Modality 20 Diatonic Intervals (Major) 2nds, 7ths 21 3rds, 6ths 22 4ths, 5ths 23 Diatonic Chord Chart (harmonic minor) 24 Diatonic Chord Chart Sequence (harmonic minor) 25 Diatonic Triad Sequence (harmonic minor) 26
REPERTOIRE
Modal Melodies 27
Rhythm Musicianship Class Canon 28 Stoyan’s Wife 29 Dance of Zalongou 30
Polyphonic Canons (see Classical Canons) #33 Caldara #75 Telemann #85 Martini #97 Mozart #106 Haydn #108 Haydn #129 Hayes #210 Schubert #211 Schubert
Homophonic 2 Part Bertalotti I (Soprano Clef) 31 Purcell: Dido’s Aria - When I am Laid in Earth 32 3 Part Byrd: Non Nobis Domine 33 Haydn: Psalm 61 34 4 Part Homilius: Chorale 36 Savile: The Waits 37 Susato: Signum 38
Piano Accompaniment Bartók Dialogue 39 Bartók: In Yugoslav Style 40 Purcell: I Attempt from Love’s Sickness 41
Manuscript 42
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Musicianship Overview
Lecturer: Aleta King Mobile: +61 (0)434 979 126 Email: [email protected]
Lecture: TBA Location: Music Hall Consultation: by appointment
UNIT OVERVIEW: Good musicianship skills are fundamental to becoming a good musician. This unit is designed to continue the development of musicianship skills at the intermediate level.
MATERIALS: Students are required to provide own manuscript paper, A440hz tuning fork, pencil and eraser.
REQUIRED TEXT: Molnár, Antal. Ed., Classical Canons, Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1955.
Assessment Overview
Viva Voce Weekly Tasks (Technical & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be required to present a total of 8 viva voce weekly tasks. A demonstration of each task will be given during class and displayed on Moodle and/or noticeboard outside M05. Please check regularly for updates. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Sign up for individual times to complete 8 tasks, one task per week, during Week 2-9.
Written Exam (Dictation & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be given a written exam that will cover material studied in class. A review of exam material will be given during class in week 10. See criteria for assessment (Aural & Visual Analysis)
Dictation (PART A): Students will be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through aural analysis, identification and dictation. Students are likely to hear some or all of the following: Rhythm, Melody, Intervals, 2-Part, Chords.
Repertoire (PART B): Students will be required to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge of the repertoire covered in class. Students may be asked to identify and/or notate memorised repertoire on staff notation, in stick notation, or as solfa or rhythm only. Students may also be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through visual analysis of scores.
DUE: Students will be assessed in class during week 12.
Ensemble Performance: (10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 5 min.) demonstrating the development aural musicianship through a 3-4 voice ensemble performance, one person per part. Students will need to present at least three pieces from material that has been covered in class. NB: Students may choose to perform 3 polyphonic canons OR 2 polyphonic canons + 1 homophonic 3 or 4 part piece studied in class. All ensemble performance material will be reviewed during week 13. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Students will be assessed during exam period.
Viva Voce Final Performance (Technical & Repertoire):(10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 10 min) demonstrating the development of aural musicianship skills through a solo performance of technical and repertoire material studied in class. Accurate and fluent two-part work is sufficient for a Pass or Credit but a convincing three-part work is required for a Distinction or High Distinction. A performance by memory is encouraged at all times and will be looked favourably upon particularly when eligible for the highest grade. A review of all technical and repertoire material studied in class will be given during week 13. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Students will be assessed during exam period.
Please Note: evidence of original creativity (composition, arrangement, improvisation) must be demonstrated in at least one area of assessment. 3
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MUSC31100 Performance V Musicianship overview (3rd / 4th year, Semester 1, 2016)
Name:
MUSC31100 Performance V Semester 1 2016 MUSC31110 Performance VI Semester 2 2016 Musicianship
CONTENTS
Musicianship Overview | Assessment Overview 2 Criteria for Assessment 3 Viva Voce Assessment Overview 4 Musical Literacy Skills 5 Keyboard 6
TECHNICAL Summary of Scale Forms 7 Modus Novus Intervals: m2 M2 P4 P5 tritone m3 M3 m6 M6 m7 M7 8 Modus Novus Melodies 12 Modus Novus Whole Steps 15 Bartok Axis System 16 Guido’s Hand 17
REPERTOIRE Melody Ut Queant Laxis 18 Bach Cantata Recitative and Aria Examples 1-10 19 Canon Brahms: Canon 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229 (see Antal Molnár Classical Canon)
Bach Musical Offering 22 Bartók Canon 24 Haydn Multiplication Canon 25
2 Part Bach Mein Jesu, dem die Seraphinen 26 Bertalotti 1 (soprano clef) 27 4 (soprano & alto clef) 28 7 (alto clef) 29
3 Part Haydn Psalm 69 30 Kodály Tricinia #14 (treble clef) 32 Kodály Tricinia #14 (soprano, mezzo soprano, alto clef) 33 4 Part In Dulci Jubilo German 16th C arr. Gesius | arr. J.S. Bach 34 Puer Natus German 16th C | arr. J.S.Bach 37 Gasparini | Mozart Adoramus Te 38 Tavener The Lamb 40
Accompaniment Bach Bist Du Bei Mir 43 Marcello: Adagio from Oboe Concerto 46 Autumn Leaves 47 Messiaen Première communion de la vierge 48
Orchestral Bartók Concerto for Orchestra 4th mvt 49 Debussy Prelude to the afternoon of a fawn 50
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Musicianship Overview
Lecturer: Aleta King Mobile: +61 (0)434 979 126 Email: [email protected]
Lecture: TBA Location: Music Hall Consultation: by appointment
UNIT OVERVIEW: Good musicianship skills are fundamental to becoming a good musician. This unit is designed to continue the development of musicianship skills at the advanced level.
MATERIALS: Students are required to provide own manuscript paper, A440hz tuning fork, pencil and eraser.
REQUIRED TEXT: Molnár, Antal. Ed., Classical Canons, Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1955.
Assessment Overview
Viva Voce Weekly Tasks (Technical & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be required to present a total of 8 viva voce weekly tasks. A demonstration of each task will be given during class and displayed on Moodle and/or noticeboard outside M05. Please check regularly for updates. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Sign up for individual times to complete 8 tasks, one task per week, during Week 2-9.
Written Exam (Dictation & Repertoire): (10%)
Students will be given a written exam that will cover material studied in class. A review of exam material will be given during class in week 10. See criteria for assessment (Aural & Visual Analysis)
Dictation (PART A): Students will be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through aural analysis, identification and dictation. Students are likely to hear some or all of the following: Rhythm, Melody, Intervals, 2-Part, Chords.
Repertoire (PART B): Students will be required to demonstrate the depth of their knowledge of the repertoire covered in class. Students may be asked to identify and/or notate memorised repertoire on staff notation, in stick notation, or as solfa or rhythm only. Students may also be required to demonstrate their ability to think in sound through visual analysis of scores.
DUE: Students will be assessed in class during week 12.
Ensemble Performance: (10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 10 min) demonstrating the development aural musicianship through a 3-4 voice ensemble performance, one person per part. Students will need to present at least three pieces from material that has been covered in class. NB: Students may choose to perform 3 polyphonic canons OR 2 polyphonic canons + 1 homophonic 3 or 4 part piece studied in class. All ensemble performance material will be reviewed during week 13. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Students will be assessed during exam period.
Viva Voce Final Performance (Technical & Repertoire):(10%)
Students are required to present a practical performance (approx. 10 min) demonstrating the development of aural musicianship skills through a solo performance of technical and repertoire material studied in class. Accurate and fluent two-part work is sufficient for a Pass or Credit but a convincing three-part work is required for a Distinction or High Distinction. A performance by memory is encouraged at all times and will be looked favourably upon particularly when eligible for the highest grade. A review of all technical and repertoire material studied in class will be given during week 13. See criteria for assessment (Performance).
DUE: Students will be assessed during exam period.
2
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