Common Curriculum
The Common Curriculum is made up of those classes taken by the students of both the choral and orchestral conducting programs. Additional classes unique to choral conducting are listed below.
Music History
This four-semester sequence concentrates on major works from the 18th and 19th centuries in the first semester and the 20th and 21st centuries in the second semester, with a focus each week on a particular composer within the larger musical, historical, biographical, and cultural context.
The third semester is devoted to the history of opera, from Monteverdi to the present. The fourth-semester course, built around American Symphony Orchestra programs in New York City and at Bard, illuminates the relationship of music history to the sociology of music, particularly that of listening. The course examines shifting attitudes toward public performance; the different contexts of performance: spaces, politics, economics, and social status of musicians; the history of the orchestra; and economics of concert life.
Ear Training and Score Reading
The Ear Training and Score Reading course combines work on solfège and harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic dictation with practice in transposition and the reading of open score.
Foreign Language Study
Two semesters of German or Italian are required. The course includes a study of the grammar of the studied language, with a special focus on developing the text translation and reading skills needed by conductors.
Career Workshops
A series of workshops with distinguished guest speakers addresses the practical aspects of working as a conductor and/or music director. Topics include creating an ensemble, applying for grants, and developing a board of directors.
Composition
This two-semester class gives young conductors first hand experience in the compositional process. It deepens their knowledge of the means of musical expression and increases their awareness of the many notatonal challenges inherent in any printed score.
Topics in the first semester include melodic organization and materials; basic counterpoint; motivic development in small forms; composing for strings, winds, brass, chorus, piano, and percussion; examination of nonstandard pitch materials; and analysis of selected repertory, including 20th-century works. Assignments include melodic composition and melodic expansion, a short invention or study using two-part instrumental texture, a piece in free texture for solo instrument (usually piano), and the development of a work for string ensemble or chorus, to be read under the composer’s baton at the conclusion of the first semester.
In the second semester students compose a theme and variations, score for larger ensembles of mixed winds and strings, compose with nontonal pitch materials (either restricted to three- or four-pitch classes, working with a nontonal motive, or using a tone row), and compose a woodwind quintet or choral work with small ensemble, to be read under the composer’s baton. During the second part of the semester, each student starts sketching and drafting ideas for a work of about four minutes’ duration, to be completed and performed as part of the student’s conducting program for the thesis concert.
Choral Curriculum
Choral Seminar
Throughout the four semesters, instruction in choral conducting is based on class work and practical work—including significant podium time with a variety of ensembles and choral repertoire. Students work regularly with the Bard Chamber Singers and the Bard Symphonic Chorus. In addition, they have the opportunity to conduct the Concert Chorale of New York, a professional chorus based in New York City.
All choral conducting students, first- and second-year alike, enroll in the same choral conducting seminar. In the first semester, using Josquin’s Missa Pange Lingua, Victoria’s Requiem, and selected Masses of Byrd and Palestrina as anchor works, students examine 15th- and 16th-century vocal music. Topics of discussion include analysis of counterpoint and text setting, performance practice, and liturgical function. At the end of the seminar, students prepare a practical performing edition of a motet or madrigal based on primary source material, and re-create an appropriate liturgical setting using motets and Mass settings from the period. The work of the second semester focuses on Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Britten’s War Requiem, and choruses from Adams’s Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. The works are examined in context with those of other composers and with special emphasis on text analysis, preparing a rehearsal schedule, and issues in concert programming.
The seminar of the third semester concentrates in detail, first, on Bach’s St. John Passion, with a special emphasis on musical structure and Baroque performance practices. The work is also studied in cultural, historical, and liturgical context. In the second half of the semester, each student prepares a detailed analysis of one of Haydn’s late Masses. The work of the fourth semester analyzes three major 19th-century requiem settings, by Berlioz, Brahms, and Verdi. Specific topics include performance practice, string bowings, and rehearsal plans. Works are studied in the context of the rise of amateur choral singing during this period, with a focus on the cultural and political implications of this development.
Voice Lessons and Vocal Pedagogy
The basic understanding of vocal technique is crucial for any choral conductor. In order to develop deeper understanding of the use of breath and a healthy vocal production all choral conducting students take a class in vocal pedagogy and weekly private voice lessons.
Diction
This two-semester course, offered for students in the choral conducting track together with students in the Graduate Vocal Arts Program, is an introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), including its symbols and practical use in preparing and performing Italian, French, German, and English vocal literature. The fall semester is devoted to Italian and French, the spring to German, English, and Latin. Through study of songs, arias, and choral literature, students gain a basic understanding of pronunciation rules and the rhythm of each language.
Choral Repertoire Class
This course is a broad survey of the choral repertory beginning with works from the sixteenth century through the most recent masterworks for chorus. Repertoire studied includes small and medium size works for a capella chorus, as well as larger compositions for chorus with orchestra.
Graduation Requirements
60 credits (A minimum of 54 credits, all taken at Bard)
Core Seminar - four semesters (4 credits each)
Voice Lessons - two semesters (2 credits each)
Music History - four semesters (4 credits each)
Ear Training – four semester (1 credit each)
Score Reading – four semesters (1 credit each)
Composition - two semesters (2 credits each)
Foreign Language (German or Italian) - two semesters (2 credits each)
Diction - two semesters (1 credit each)
Vocal Pedagogy – one semester (1 credit)
Vocal Literature – one semester (1 credit)
Final Recital and Thesis (4 credits)
