This addition to the successful Choral Warm-Up series provides one of the most important tools in teaching elements of choral intonation: canons. By singing canons, the ensemble can develop listening skills that revolve around “listening to everyone but themselves.” These modal canons by Roger Ames extend that listening skill even further by adding harmonically supportive and enriching accompaniments.

The Conductor’s Edition provides teaching objectives and simple piano accompaniments for the eleven exercises. The introduction by James Jordan includes valuable information on how to use this material to begin musicianship training.

The included companion CD contains the piano accompaniments only, providing great flexibility in using these exercises in both group rehearsal and individual study.

Choir directors who want to improve the musicianship, vocal skills, and tuning of their singers will find these modal canons to be an outstanding addition to their library of warm-ups.

Roger Ames is music director of the Composer Librettist Studio at New Dramatists (New York City); director of composition, theory, and vocal music at Great Neck North High School (New York); and music director of Pantomonium, Inc. (also in New York City).

James Jordan, conductor of the Westminster Williamson Voices and Schola Cantorum, as well as the Westminster Chapel Choir for more than a decade, at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, is recognized as one of the nation's preeminent conductors, writers, and innovators in choral teaching.