This important volume brings together the latest knowledge of voice science, voice pedagogy, conducting, and accompanying into a single volume. It is a valuable resource for choral conductors, no matter the age ore experience of their ensembles. The Anatomy of Tone explores essential aspects of anatomy, physiology, and acoustics, and describes their impact on choral teaching and rehearsal. In addition, this book reviews groundbreaking scientific information on spacing of singers and its effect upon intonation and vocal health. This volume contains pedagogical information pertaining to: Breathing - Resonance - Formants in the choral rehearsal - Structuring the choral warm-up - The use of breath as a foundation of expressive choral singing - The use of legato as a primary tool in the choral rehearsal - Choral spacing for balanced resonance - Teaching of specific vowels and their internal architectures - Use of harmonically based warm-ups - Piano accompanying to support good vocalism and building listening skills. - Publisher's description

Walter Lamble offers guidance and expert advice to beginning choral educators. He covers many areas which are widely discussed among experienced professionals, but are not covered in a music education class.

A complete sourcebook for choral directors of all levels, as well as choral methods classes. Contains 211 warm-ups with information on usage, photos illustrating correct posture and vowel formation, and a well organized index to make finding the right warm-up a snap. Belongs in every choral director's library.

It is a truism in teaching choral conducting that the director should look like s/he wishes the choir to sound. The conductor's physical demeanour has a direct effect on how the choir sings, at a level that is largely unconscious and involuntary. It is also a matter of simple observation that different choral traditions exhibit not only different styles of vocal production and delivery, but also different gestural vocabularies which are shared not only between conductors within that tradition, but also with the singers. It is as possible to distinguish a gospel choir from a barbershop chorus or a cathedral choir by visual cues alone as it is simply by listening. But how can these forms of physical communication be explained? Do they belong to a pre-cultural realm of primate social bonding, or do they rely on the context and conventions of a particular choral culture? Is body language an inherent part of musical performance styles, or does it come afterwards, in response to music? At a practical level, to what extent can a practitioner from one tradition mandate an approach as 'good practice', and to what extent can another refuse it on the grounds that 'we don't do it that way'? This book explores these questions at both theoretical and practical levels. It examines textual and ethnographic sources, and draws on theories from critical musicology and nonverbal communication studies to analyse them. By comparing a variety of choral traditions, it investigates the extent to which the connections between conductor demeanour and choral sound operate at a general level, and in what ways they are constructed within a specific idiom. Its findings will be of interest both to those engaged in the study of music as a cultural practice, and to practitioners involved in a choral conducting context that increasingly demands fluency in a variety of styles.

Choral Pedagogy, Third Edition, is the ideal text for voice teachers, choral conductors, church musicians, and professional and amateur singers who wish to develop strategies for lifelong singing. It concisely and clearly presents the principles of voice pedagogy from the perspective of both conducting and voice science in a user-friendly fashion, including helpful charts and simple anatomic diagrams. In addition, it offers teaching methods from history and philosophy, medical and voice science, and pedagogical concepts from active musical experts. Special attention is given to the needs of amateur singers and conductors. Topics covered include choral diction, posture and seating, rehearsal practices, and matters of vocal health. For the third edition, the authors have completely revised the text, updating the medical information and expanding the exercises. They have also added three new chapters: A chapter entitled "Singing in the 21st Century" that considers the vocal/choral demands of the choral repertoire being written in this century.A chapter on teaching young boys to sing written by Vic Oakes, the conductor of the Chattanooga Boys Choir.A chapter entitled "The Value of Lifelong Singing." With its updates and additions, Choral Pedagogy, Third Edition, is a valuable resource for students of choral conducting, music education, church music, and choral singing.