16. “The use of movement
activities in choral rehearsals
enhances and improves
singers’ vocal techniques,
music reading, performance
skills, and other behaviors
conductive to good singing
and performance”.
Editor's Notes
The book that I chose to review is The Choral Director's Cookbook: Insights and Inspired Recipes for Beginners and Experts. This book is unique in the sense that it is a collection of stories written by 57 authors who are experts in different fields of music. They provide their favorite "recipes" that range from overviews of their own successful programs to very specific coral conducting topics.
The Choral Director's Cookbook was published by Meredith Music Publications in 2006 and was edited by Alan J. Gumm. It is a fairly recent publication and is still relevant to the coral conducting world today. The deeply insightful stories found within this book are quick to read - the whole book being only approximately 120 pages in total made up of 57 different stories from the 57 different authors.
Besides giving extremely helpful insights into the world of coral conducting, this book gives a good description of who’s who of coral music education in the United States, providing a brief biography of each of the authors. The editors notes say that “these recipes are from the heart with the unselfish purpose of supporting and continuing the success of other coral conductors”.
I really like the fact that each and every author is given their own short biography. This lets the reader know who the writer is and what their credentials are. It provides the reader with a sense of confidence that they can trust and believe what they are reading. It also provides the reader with the opportunity to become intrigued and do additional research or reach out to a particular writer if the reader has an interest in their particular field.
Alan Gumm is the main editor and a contributor of his own “recipes” in this book. He is a professor of music education at Central Michigan University where he does research on learning and teaching styles, motivation in the music classroom and perception. He is a graduate from McPherson College and holds a doctor of philosophy in music from the University of Utah.
The many topics found throughout the book include everything from including movement into your performances, teacher support, starting a choir, the changing male voice and every and any topic found in-between in the choral world. It really gives a great quick fix for almost any question, problem or situation imaginable!
Each of the individually hand picked authors were asked to write about a topic that they were personally passionate about in their career. This is both a strength and weakens for the collection. It works well because all of the stories are written with care, extensive knowledge and detail because it is from the point of view of an expert in the field.
However, this is also a weakness for the collection. The reason being is that since the authors were allowed to pick their own topics, many of the topics were written about multiple times (such as repertoire selection, programming and sight singing) and many important topics were left out (such as articulation and word shaping).
This book is part of a “cook book” collection focusing on different aspects of music. Thus, if a sequel were to be made for this book, I think that a simple way to improve its overall quality would be to select authors with more diverse qualifications and specialities to ensure that every topic is covered and that the same topic is not repeated multiple times throughout.
Another aspect of this collection of stories is how each story was laid out like a recipe - sticking with the theme of a cookbook. Each article starts with an introduction giving a brief description of what their story will be about. It then lists the ingredients needed (high school singers for example) and who will be served with this recipe (vocal educators for example).
This “recipe” layout makes The choral director's cookbook similar to an actual cook book in the sense that it is easily skimmed through so that the chef, or coral conductor, can look for what they need biased on the ingredients they have on hand and the audience that they with to serve. They are very quick and to the point and all the recipes are all laid out in a table of condense for facility.
All of the authors are well known professionals in there fields. Although it is impossible to list all 57 authors and their individual topics, here are some of the stories that stood out to me: Simon Carrington and “Tasting the Text”, Robert Ward and “Do not be deflected form your course”, and Rebecca Reams with “Singers in Motion or Stirring up your Rehearsals”.
Simon Carrington’s “Tasting the Text” talks about how as members or a choir, we have “the privilege of singing words”. He stresses the importance of studying sentence structure, the weight required on every syllable, singing a text as it would be spoken and most of all using the power of imagination to color the text. He ends with stating “remember from blend to bland – its just a short walk downhill!”
Robert Ward writes about “Do not be deflected form your course”. In this recipe Robert ward writes about the feelings of failure and stress every new music teacher faces due to a fear of not being able to reach each and every students individual needs. He stresses the importance of teacher mentoring and compares teachers to medical students.
Ward states that medical students learn to accept the fact that not every patient is curable. Thus, why do teachers feel such a stress and need to reach and make an impact on each and every student that they meet? He explores why teachers feel the need to accept such a great burden. By using teacher-teacher mentoring, experienced teachers can help new teachers to realize that such a belief is not realistic or healthy and could even drive promising teachers form the classroom.
Rebecca Reams writes about “Singers in Motion or Stirring up your Rehearsals”. She states that “ the use of movement activities in choral rehearsals enhances and improves singers’ vocal techniques, music reading, performance skills, and other behaviors conductive to good singing and performance”. She reinforces the idea that movement can enhance our choral performances in all aspects.
The text throughout this book reminds me of the popular collection “Chicken Soup for the Soul” in the sense that it is a collection of personal stories that do not necessary directly relate from chapter to chapter as it may if it were written by a single author. Admittedly, it is a helpful text, but I believe that it could serve as a more if an entertainment oriented read.
The idea of having insight from some of America's leading choral conductors is great! However, this just so happens to be where the book falls short. Each entry is only about 2 pages in length so it there is not really not enough space to provide a complete comprehensive description of any topic. Thus, the product is a somewhat generic collection that does not get past an introduction to any topic.
Therefore, I think that The Choral Director's Cookbook may be a disappointment for some readers who are looking for a more comprehensive or specific text. However, if you are a coral conductor or music educator who is just starting out, this could serve as a helpful overview or choral techniques and provides a good place to start when thinking about your personal pedagogy.
Although many seasoned professionals may not learn anything new from this book, it is presented in an intruding and easy to read format, perfect for any student, choral conductor or music educator who is looking for a reminder, quick fix or tips relating to any of the principle issues found in choral music today.
