Teaching and Performing Renaissance Choral Music

At a time when critical thinking and problem solving are needed to make choral classes a bona fide curriculum offering, this workbook on teaching and performing Renaissance choral music is designed to give students in choral ensembles a representative sampling of Renaissance choral music and information about its style and structure, and to give choral conductors instructional materials that can help them teach students about the music as it is being rehearsed and prepared for performance. The use of this material will enable the conductor to explain more about the music itself in the time allotted for the choral class. The small choral ensemble, considered the best medium for performing Renaissance choral music, offers an ideal situtation for teaching musical style and structure through the mode of performance. The book includes a conductor's manual and a performer's programmed insturction workbook. The author suggests that students first experience the music by either singing the selections of listening to recordings, if they are available. The conductor should then refer to the study guides and opint our various aspects of the music that will enhance the students' knowledge of Renaissance style. Organized by genre, the workbook covers the French Chanson; the Italian Madrigal and Balletto; the English Madrigal and Ballett; the German Lied; the Renaissance Motet; the Mass; the English Anthem; and the Chorale Motet. Each genre contains musical examples, the history of the form, and performance practices. Bibliography.

Frances R. Poe (MM, Ph.D., Indiana) is Associate Professor of Music Education and former department head, Westminster Choir College. She consults for Educational Testing Services and has been Director of Music in churches in Georgia, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and Conductor of the University Madrigal Singers at URI and at Westminster's Collegium Musicum.