Music for Beginning Conductors

Music for Beginning Conductors is an anthology of music designed to include all repertoire necessary for beginning choral conducting classes. Organized from simple to complex, the 103 pieces in the anthology address all the basic techniques, including entrances on and off beats, phrasings and articulations, fixed and changing dynamic levels, varied tempos and meters, fermatas, extended beat patterns, and mixed meters. In addition, each of these categories is explained at the beginning of the anthology. The pieces are scored so students gain experience with unison, canonic, independent two-part, homophonic four-part, independent four-part, a cappella, and simple keyboard-accompanied textures. Much of the music consists of folk songs and other familiar melodies that have been arranged with a simple harmonic bass part that can be played, if desired, on a keyboard instrument. All of the music is accessible in terms of melody, rhythm, and harmony, thus allowing it to be read with relative ease and to be adaptable to classes of varying sizes and resources.