infusing conducting courses with meaning

Conducting Texts – IMTE 1

Running Head: CONDUCTING TEXTS – IMTE

Infusing Conducting Courses with Meaning: A Review of Conducting Textbooks and Implications for Enhanced Teaching

A session for the Second Biennial Colloquium by the Instrumental Music Teacher Educators

Nathan B. Kruse, Ph.D. Division of Music Education

College of Music University of North Texas

P.O. Box 311367 Denton, TX 76209-1367

[email protected]


Infusing Conducting Courses with Meaning: A Review of Conducting Textbooks and Implications for Enhanced Teaching

Introduction

Several trends in design and content emerge when conducting textbooks that have

historically been used for undergraduate conducting students are examined. Nearly all of

the books begin with meter and the conducting patterns associated with simple meter.

Baton technique usually follows, and then mixed meter, upbeats, style changes, cueing,

dynamics, tempo, phrasing, and score study. Other chapters of interest include speaking

to the ensemble, how to conduct individual instrument/vocal sections, how to conduct

various choirs (church, boys chorus, community choir, etc.), the art of program making,

and, finally, personality traits. While many of these conducting textbooks provide similar

information, however, the format, presentation, and arrangement of the content, as well

as any contemporary applications or philosophies of modern conducting, may vary from

text to text. Consequently, student acquisition of universal conducting proficiencies and

musicianship may also be inconsistent. In order to improve instruction as it relates to

undergraduate conducting curricula, the purpose of this research is 1) to present a review

of conducting textbooks commonly used with student conductors, 2) to provide

supplemental materials for classroom activities, and 3) to supply alternative guidelines

for acquiring gestural vocabulary. Additionally, this interactive presentation will explore

conducting movements, non-verbal communication, and holistic ways in which to

approach conducting stance.

While it is unrealistic to assume that any one conducting method will be complete

in and of itself, it is ultimately up to the instructor to add nuance and guidance to the


curriculum, to provide supplemental conducting materials and perspectives, to design

effective evaluative tools of student conductors, to supply a variety of musical excerpts

and activities that build conducting skill, confidence, and musicianship, and to effectively

model and demonstrate conducting techniques. Because the conducting textbook of

choice must reflect, in large degree, the instructor’s philosophy of conducting, it will be

important for conducting instructors to engage in periodic reviews of conducting

textbooks.

Overview of Texts

Through an initial review of the conducting textbooks listed below, four were

chosen for in-depth discussion in this paper: The Modern Conductor by Elizabeth Green,

The Art of Conducting by Donald Hunsberger and Roy Ernst, Basic Conducting

Techniques by Joseph Labuta, and Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians by Jerry and

Henry Nowak. Criteria for final selection included clarity of format, usefulness of

musical excerpts, practical conducting applications, evaluative components, and overall

accessibility. While no one text may have the potency to stand alone in a conducting

curriculum, these four manuals display strengths in several of the aforementioned areas

and also have the flexibility to be combined with other methods. Below are several of the

texts used in the initial review:

Farberman, Harold (1997) The Art of Conducting Techinque Green, Elizabeth (1997) The Modern Conductor Hunsberger, Donald & Ernst, Roy (1992) The Art of Conducting Labuta, Joseph (2004) Basic Conducting Techniques Linton, Stanley (1982) Conducting Fundamentals Malko, Nicholai (1961) The Conductor and His Baton

McElheran, Brock (2004) Conducting Technique Nowak, Jerry and Henry (2002) Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians Rudolph, Max (1994) The Grammar of Conducting


The preliminary review resulted in some unique characteristics regarding basic

conducting posture. While baton grip, left/right arm movement, and basic posture are

addressed in most of the texts, overall body placement is marginalized. Farberman (1997)

actually devotes two chapters to body technique and addresses wrist flexibility, torso

movement, and waist and feet movement. However, these chapters are actually used to

highlight bodily movements that may impede baton clarity, which bring to the foreground

issues of rigid posture. Farberman states that if conductors have “an inclination to move

about when conducting, use two blocks of wood [at the feet] as a corrective tool” (pg. 6).

The author also cites other negative conducting components, such as a bobbing head, hair

that is not “treated like a garden” (pg. 6), glasses that have colored lenses or frames,

puckering the mouth, and avoiding emitting “a frightening sonority” through the nose by

breathing loudly on dramatic upbeats. While Farberman’s observations are duly noted,

many of his prescriptions for correcting these errors are dated and absurdly inappropriate.

In the small sample of books, the one that most directly addresses the body’s

holistic connection to conducting is the Malko text. In The Conductor and His Baton,

Malko (1961) dedicates a chapter to arm movements and exercises, including relaxing the

muscles, whole arm movements, and breathing while moving. He also provides a list of

eleven exercises and stretches at the end of the chapter: Movements of the Whole Arms,

Forearms, Hands, Head, and the Body. This is the only text that provides any kind of

preparatory warm-up or stretching for the body at the beginning of the textbook. A

majority of the textbooks include stretching exercises at the back of the book, which may

be overlooked and which may not possess the strength of Malko’s assertions. For the

most part, there is a tendency for conducting texts to address only those bodily


movements that get in the way of effective musical communication rather than addressing

how the body can move naturally through a myriad of musical movements. I suspect

there are undisclosed books that may speak to the issue of healthy conducting with a

more holistic approach, such as the Laban technique, and this is perhaps one of the many

areas in music education that warrants further investigation

The Modern Conductor

Grounding her method of conducting in the teachings of Russian conductor

Nicolai Malko and upon modern brain research, Elizabeth Green states that conducting is

an activity dependent on time and space and that it is “impossible to change the size of a

gesture without first changing the speed of the physical motion between beats” (xv). To

Green, students’ hands will learn whatever the brain teaches them, and through exercise

and practice, neural pathways that are established and strengthened will become part of

the conductor’s non-verbal vocabulary. It is this component of conducting that Green

asserts has been “neglected” (xv) in other textbooks.

The sixth edition of The Modern Conductor contains 286 pages with sixteen

chapters and six appendices (A through F). While there have been subsequent editions of

the text since 1997, the older versions may prove to be closer to Green’s vision, as her

death in 1995 preceded the publication of the sixth edition. The book is divided into two

chief parts: Technique and Score Study.

Within the first section are chapters that discuss expressive gestures, baton use,

subdivided beats, right and left hand movements, 20th-century innovations in music,

psychological conducting, and virtuoso techniques. While much of the information is

presented in the logical order that one expects from a conducting textbook, Green adds


the provocative notions of psychological conducting, active and passive gestures,

independence of hands, and melding, the concept of connecting or blending together

beats of sustained duration. The second part of the text, Score Study, addresses practical

applications such as transposition, examples of orchestral and band scores, choral

conducting, orchestral bowing principles, and score memorization.

While Green provides musical examples and exercises within each chapter, the

book is not designed to include full musical excerpts for classroom playing or signing. It

is at this point that conducting instructors will need to provide supplemental materials for

student conductors in order for the tenets of Green’s approach to be put into a musical

context. Many of the exercises Green suggests for strengthening the independence of

hands are often difficult to simulate if one is tied to the written word found in the

textbook. Visual modeling from the instructor is paramount in this instance and can

greatly add to the development of technique. It will also behoove instructors to make a

distinction between musical and non-musical gestures found within the book, as many

skill-building gestures are just that – skill building movements that are not necessarily

musical. It is after these skills are learned that the gestures may be refined and put into a

context of musical application.

Furthermore, the author lists several technical features in her book that make it

unique and set it apart from other conducting manuals. The first distinction, Green notes,

is that of placing beat one of a 12/8 measure down and to the right instead of down and to

the left, as other texts have recommended. In this fashion, beat one moves away from

beat two, making the anticipated arrival of beat two clearer to the players. Other

differences include the use of the “dead gesture” in telegraphing syncopations, stopping


the baton on staccato passages, using gestures of syncopations on legato prep-beats, and

beating a two pattern in 5/8 music with the proper ratio, which is an original Malko

technique (3+2 or 2+3 – the higher rebound always follows the three).

The Modern Conductor is an informative textbook that provides its readers with

innovative concepts and theories regarding beginning conducting. While it is written in

easy-to-understand language, it will be necessary for instructors to impart to their

students additional explanations and modelings of Green’s assumptions, as the printed

word does not always fully illustrate her theories. Exercises in full score reading and

opportunities for students to experience podium time will also be a responsibility of the

conducting instructor.

The Art of Conducting

Donald Hunsberger and Roy Ernst introduced the second edition of The Art of

Conducting in 1992. This edition contains fourteen chapters and is divided into three

separate sections: Basic Principles and Techniques, Special Topics and Techniques, and

Anthology of Musical Excerpts for Class Performance. Also included are nine appendices

that include daily exercises, examples of seating charts, concert preparation checklists, a

conductor evaluation form used by professional orchestras, a bibliography, and references.

There have been several changes made in this 424-page conducting textbook, including a

reorganization of the content materials, new repertoire, a full anthology in the back of the

book, additional assignments, an aural analysis section, an optional Instructor’s Guide,

and an entirely new score reading and rehearsal techniques segment.

In Section One, students are lead through basic principles of posture, preparatory

gestures and downbeats, various patterns, styles of articulation, dynamics, ambidextrous


conducting, using the baton, cueing, and conducting supermetric patterns. While many of

these fundamental topics have been presented in other conducting textbooks, unique

features in the first section include programming considerations, audience rapport, and

administrative responsibilities. The latter examples contribute a practical application to

the principles set forth in these introductory chapters. Additionally, evaluation forms are

included in the first three chapters. While the forms do serve as a guideline for student

expectations and benchmarks, they are constructed in a checklist design (“+” or “-”) and

may not give students an adequate, diagnostic view of their strengths and weaknesses.

Section Two focuses on special considerations conductors may face, including

preparing accompanimental scores with a soloist, the issues involved with interpreting a

score with contemporary or iconic notation, musical theater scores, and conducting a jazz

ensemble. The authors provide musical examples for each of these themes and supply

numerous bulleted items for students to consider when preparing for such engagements.

Finally, Section Three contains several musical excerpts that pertain to each

chapter in the textbook. In the original publication of The Art of Conducting, many of

these examples were embedded within their corresponding chapters, but in the second

edition, these excerpts are housed within a full anthology in the back of the textbook. The

excerpts selected for Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are to be played or sung in unison with piano

accompaniment, and in the remaining chapters, instrumental parts are transposed for the

performers in the keys of Bb, Eb, and F. Because Chapter 10 outlines administrative

responsibilities of being a conductor, it is the only section without a set of corresponding

excerpts in the anthology.


The principles espoused and the information contained in The Art of Conducting

not only provide students with a foundation for conducting but also serve as a future

resource and reference guide. While any conducting course cannot possibly educate

novice conductors in everything they will need to know for school teaching, the

Hunsberger and Ernst is a textbook that strives to provide students with a working,

functional knowledge of conducting fundamentals.

Basic Conducting Techniques

Basic Conducting Techniques, by Joseph A. Labuta from Wayne State University,

contains 391 pages and includes three distinct sections: Conducting Technique, Score

Preparation and Rehearsal Technique, and Musical Excerpts. While Part One outlines the

traditional basic conducting fundamentals such as baton grip, basic patterns, preparations

and releases, divided meters, cueing, conducting styles, changing meters, and tempo

changes, Part Two primarily consists of score analysis and preparation, and information

for both instrumental and choral rehearsal settings. Part Three includes musical excerpts

that include transpositions for Bb, F, and Eb instruments. The transpositions allow

students to focus on each lesson instead of the performance issues often associated with

transposition difficulties. Each musical except is intended to be used in conjunction with

those skills learned in Parts One and Two, and are meant to be used as supplemental

materials throughout the course. Additionally, the fifth edition (2004) contains new

features that facilitate and encourage learning throughout the course, including examples

of score analysis, additional photographs, detailed instructions that introduce each

musical excerpt, a “Mastery” section with evaluative components, and, as previously

mentioned, transposed musical excerpts.


Labuta provides five unique features to his conducting textbook. First, the author

discusses the use of musical excerpts, stating that they may be used in any context and

with any number of players. While many musical examples contain more than four parts,

some are limited to an SATB format. The author also recommends that, because many

excerpts are rather short, students may wish to locate the full band, orchestra, or choral

score that each excerpt represents.

Second, the author discusses the inclusion of student competencies in the textbook

that “define precisely what a beginning conductor must demonstrate to complete the

course” (pg. 2). Several appendices (A through G) augment the book with skill-building

information, such as competencies for beginning conductors, student evaluations,

transposition and clef charts, full score instrumentation and foreign equivalents, counting

drills for uneven meters, musical styles chart, and a glossary.

Third, Labuta promotes continued student evaluation through mastery checklists,

video taping, self-checks, and the “Conducting Competence Rating Scale” found in

Appendix B. While not a true rating scale by definition, this sheet tracks the performance

levels of such competencies as preparatory position, use of the right and left hands,

phrasing, interpretation, style, eye contact, knowledge of score, rehearsal techniques, and

overall effectiveness. In its present form, the rating scale includes multiple dimensions in

nearly half of the categories and has raters simultaneously judging behaviors that are not

necessarily related to one another. For example, the category labeled Preparatory Beats,

Anticipatory Gestures, and Attacks is written in such a way that only one number will be

assigned to the three parts of a preparatory gesture – the beginning, middle, and end.

Additionally, the five criteria (superior performance-above average performance-


average performance-below average performance-unacceptable performance) are

presently denoted by the letters A through E, and would benefit from revision. Using a

numerical system (1 through 5) associated with each behavior and using constructive

language in the criteria would decrease subjectivity and increase reliability of the rating

scale. This evaluation form could be –and should be – revised to reflect the true nature of

each conducting movement and its resultant function within composite gestures.

Fourth, each chapter is in a “modular format” (pg. 2), whereby students can move

in a sequential manner through activities while the instructor has unlimited flexibility in

roving between the three chapters in order to accommodate individual needs or assign

remedial work. It is in this way that students experience learning objectives, instruction,

practice activities, and testing procedures in a logical and predictable format.

Fifth, Labuta discusses the problem-solving features of the textbook, whereby

students come to grips with score reading and the conducting and rehearsal issues

encountered in music rehearsal rooms. According to Labuta, “the score presents the

problems the conductor must solve to become competent…The complex skills acquired

by a master conductor are certainly more than the sum of their parts” (pg. 2). Finally, the

author reveals the two types of conducting issues at battle within any conductor:

problems of conception (the conductor’s inner hearing of the score) and problems of

execution (the conductor’s ability to convey readable conducting gestures).

Labuta’s Basic Conducting Techniques is a thorough, informative conducting

textbook that one might consider using for an undergraduate conducting class. While

some of the measurement components are unorthodox, they could easily be revised and


adapted for each particular module. The diagrams, photographs, and formatting are all

attractive and the progression is logical

Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians

Jerry and Henry Nowaks’ 459-page Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians is

designed for individual or group study and focuses on “the expressive aspects of

performing, which has long been largely ignored in most conducting, instrumental and

vocal pedagogical texts” (xiii). The textbook is divided into three sections. The first

segment, Phrase Conducting and Application Chorales and Etudes, centers entirely on

musical phrasing and is further divided into four parts: 1) legato style cueing and

phrasing within the beat pattern, 2) dynamics, articulation, pauses, hesitations, and

variations in tempo, 3) basic craft for the left hand, and 4) variations in groupings within

the pattern, changing meter, and special situations.

The second section, Study Materials, is to be used concurrently with the first

section of the text and focuses on concepts of aesthetic perception, imagery, phrasing,

and rehearsal techniques/application materials. In essence, Sections 1 and 2 will be used

simultaneously throughout the course and will complement the third section, Ensemble

Application Materials. This section consists of two-page chorales and incorporates legato,

rubato, animated, and varied styles. The authors recommend that this section is to be used

with students in their second or third semester of conducting, as the entire text is geared

toward those universities who have adopted a three-semester conducting curriculum. For

students in a two-semester conducting program, the additional information serves as

individual resource material for future use.


The concept of “tapering” the baton with regard to musical phrasing is introduced

immediately and carried throughout the rest of the text. Similar to Green’s concepts of

dragging the tip of the baton and melding, the Nowaks’ notion of tapering the baton’s

movements adds an element of musical nuance to notes of longer duration. In the

textbook, dotted lines indicate both direction and length of phrases. Although the musical

excerpts have transposed voice parts labeled for players, many of the excerpts are no

more than a few measures in length. It is not until the third section of the book that the

full-ensemble excerpts lengthen to nearly sixteen measures.

Additionally, the book contains ensemble application chorales with chorale

summary prompts and conducting evaluation forms. These forms, although once again

subjective, assess posture, right arm movement, preparation, communication, and

mechanics of the right and left hands. The authors also provide a space for summarizing

both general and specific goals for student improvement. While the phrase conducting

modules and the chorale excerpts remain an excellent tool for beginning conductors,

there tends to be a slight disconnect between the chorales and the evaluative tool. As it is

difficult to quantitatively evaluate the expressive and individualistic qualities of musical

fluency, the self-evaluation form, like the Hunsberger and Ernst, is in a checklist (“+” and

“-”) format and may not address the specific needs of the students. Subsequently, the

Nowaks’ attempt to place theory and application concurrently in their text is somewhat

disjointed, as the link between the music and the evaluative components are not always

clear. This need for clarity, again, lay in the hands of conducting instructors.

The emphasis on musicality and phrase conducting throughout the text is

admirable and refreshing. It is not often that a text begins with a brief, four-page


reduction of conducting pattern diagrams followed by several notated phrases that require

an immediate application of musicianship. Another positive aspect of the first section is

the emphasis on singing, which helps students establish phrase direction, pitch centers,

and nuance. The authors’ presentations of imagery and aesthetic perception in later

segments are thought-provoking, but may be lost in cases where only one semester of

conducting is required at a particular institution. Overall, the issues of musicality and

aestheticism in the Nowak are compelling, but finding the time in the conducting

curriculum to address all of the aforementioned concepts and creating appropriate

evaluation tools remain a challenge in using this textbook exclusively.

Conclusions and Implications

The results of the survey of conducting textbooks revealed that no one method is

complete and that instructors must add nuance, flexibility, and creativity to classroom

activities and instruction. Using various methods in tandem may benefit students by

providing additional means for acquiring the skills needed for such a broad – and

relatively short – course of instruction.

A second concern revealed as a result of this review was that of evaluation.

Historically, evaluation is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges in any conducting

course. Often, student evaluation forms are not wholly bridged with theory or practice

and tend to be extremely subjective with little diagnostic value. In their present form,

many of the textbook rating scales include multiple dimensions in nearly half of the

categories, requiring raters to simultaneously judge behaviors that are not necessarily

related to one another. Contrived, pre-manufactured evaluation forms could be revised


and enhanced to reflect the true nature of each conducting movement within a composite

gesture. Again, it will be in the instructor’s best interest – and the students’ – to develop

appropriate evaluative measures and to add both subjective and objective components in

assessing student progress.

A third issue becomes one of visual clarity. It is often difficult for students to

interpret the written word and then replicate the conducting gestures set forth in the texts.

In such cases, it is imperative for the conducting instructor to thoroughly understand the

philosophy and the directives of the author and to be able to impart and model the

information, along with complementary or opposing perspectives, to the students.

A final element is the matter of full score analysis and reading. While many of the

textbooks include musical examples from renowned repertoire, full band and orchestral

scores, as Labuta (2004) points out, are necessary supplements to the teaching and

learning process. Band and orchestra students would especially profit from deciphering

multiple lines of music through score study and podium time, as this will be their domain

in teaching school music.

Instructors of conducting courses may not be aware of the drawbacks and the

benefits of a textbook until such time as the book has been used with a group of students.

It is thus by engaging in periodic reviews of conducting textbooks that instructors

become informed consumers who are then able to select the method that most effectively

reveals the philosophical canons of the profession and prepares students for well-

grounded futures as conductors and teachers.


References Farberman, H. (1997). The Art of Conducting Technique: A New Perspective. Belwin-

Mills. Green, E. A. H. (1997) The Modern Conductor. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey: Upper

Saddle River. Hunsberger, D., & Ernst, R. (1992). The Art of Conducting. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New

York. Kohut, D. L., & Grant, J. W. (1990). Learning to Conduct and Rehearse. Prentice Hall.

New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs. Labuta, J. A. (2004). Basic Conducting Techniques. Pearson Education, Inc. New Jersey:

Upper Saddle River. Linton, S. (1982). Conducting Fundamentals. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey: Englewood

Cliffs. McElheran, B. (2004). Conducting Techniques for Beginners and Professionals. Oxford

University Press. New York: New York. Nowak, J., & Nowak, H. (2002). Conducting the Music, Not the Musicians. Carl

Fischer, New York: New York. Rudolph, M., & Stern, M. (1994). The Grammar of Conducting. Schirmer Books. New

York.

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