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 represent and address standard and 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 have experience with unison, canonic, independent two-part, homophonic four-part, independent four-part, a cappella, and simple keyboard-accompanied textures, and 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 the music to be read with relative ease and to be adaptable to classes of varying sizes and resources.

Dennis Shrock has been called one of the very top choral scholars in the United States. He is also author of Choral Repertoire and Choral Scores (Oxford University Press), as well as the forthcoming Performance Practices in the Classical Era (GIA). In addition, he is editor of The Choral Scholar (the journal of the National Collegiate Choral Organization) and a frequent lecturer, guest conductor, and clinician, serving as artist-in-residence and member of the Conducting Institute at Westminster Choir College (2010), guest lecturer and conductor at Yale University (2009-–10), guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Chorus (2010), and lecturer at American Choral Directors National Conferences (2009, 2011).

View Table of Contents