The Graduate Conducting Program's two tracks—orchestral conducting and choral conducting—have significant overlap. All conducting students participate in a core curriculum of music history, language study, ear training and score reading, career workshops, and composition. In addition, all conducting students participate in biweekly sessions with the Orchestral Conducting Ensemble and in the preparation of the Bard Conductors Chorale in New York City.
Common Curriculum
Music History This is a four-semester sequence that concentrates on major works from the 18th to 21st centuries with a focus each week on a particular composer within the larger musical, historical, biographical, and cultural context. This course, taken in conjunction with members of The Orchestra Now, has frequent guest lecturers focusing on the relationship of music history to the sociology of music. The course also examines shifting attitudes toward public performance and the different contexts of performance: spaces, politics, economics, and social status of musicians. Other topics include the history of the orchestra and chorus, as well as the impact of economics on concert life.
Ear Training and Score Reading Four Semesters of Ear Training and Score Reading are required. The Ear Training and Score Reading course combines work on solfege and harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic dictation with practice in transposition and the reading of open score.
Career Workshops This is a series of special event workshops held at different times throughout the duration of the program. Distinguished guest speakers address the practical aspects of working as a conductor and or music director. Topics can include creating an ensemble, applying for grants, and developing a board of directors.
Foreign Language Study Students must study two foreign languages during their time in the Graduate Conducting Program. Semester-long courses are offered in Italian, German, and French. These courses have a special focus on developing the reading and text translation skills needed by conductors.
Composition This two-semester class gives young conductors first hand experience in the compositional process. It deepens knowledge of the means of musical expression and increases awareness of the many notational 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 non-standard pitch materials; and analysis of selected repertory, including 20th-century works. In the second semester students compose a theme and variations and either a woodwind quintet or choral work with small ensemble, to be read under the composer’s baton.
Recitals and Thesis Concerts Orchestral and choral conducting students prepare and conduct a recital during their final year in residence at Bard.
Choral Curriculum
Throughout the four semesters, instruction in choral conducting is based on class work and practical work, including course work specifically for choral conductors. This includes:
Choral Seminar
Diction and Phonetics
Choral Repertoire
Voice Lessons and Pedagogy
Choral Curriculum
Choral Seminar 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 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.
Orchestral Curriculum
In addition to the common curriculum shared with the choral conducting students, orchestral conductors have their own seminar devoted to the particular technique of working with an orchestra. Throughout their four semesters of study, orchestral conductors will study the physical movement of the baton from Mozart to Ives. Orchestral conductors are also given weekly private studio instruction.
Orchestral Curriculum
Core Seminars The four-semester Core Seminar sequence develops the physical and musical skills necessary for effective conducting in the music that forms the core of the orchestral repertoire. Regular podium time with string quintet (plus piano), and with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, is used to test and refine classroom solutions.
The first semester in orchestral conducting is devoted to the physical movement of the baton. Symphonies of Haydn and Beethoven are the primary tool for analyzing problems and formulating technical solutions to meet the needs of the music.
The second semester is devoted to a closer examination of the composer’s intent, along with further development of baton technique. Harmonic and melodic analysis and consideration of phrase structure, orchestration, and tone color are brought to bear on works such as the string serenades of Dvorák, Elgar, and Tchaikovsky.
The third semester moves to works of the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the study of new baton movements to serve new compositional concepts. Works of Bartók, Boulez, Britten, Debussy, Elgar, Messiaen, Prokofiev, Ravel, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Varèse are studied.
The fourth semester emphasizes the musical heritage of the United States, with attention to works of the early American school (Paine, Gottschalk, Chadwick, and Parker), and icons of later American music, including Ives, Ornstein, Cage, Feldman, Carter, Copland, Schuman, Barber, Joplin, Ellington, Gershwin, and Bernstein.
Studio Instruction An intimate understanding of the technical and musical challenges of playing an instrument is a central skill for conductors. All students on the orchestral conducting program take weekly private lessons in piano or in an orchestral instrument.
Summary of Requirements
Summary of Requirements
58 or 60 credits (A minimum of 54 credits, all taken at Bard)
Choral Conducting Requirements 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)
Orchestral Conducting Requirements Core Seminar – four semesters (4 credits each) Instrument instruction – two semesters (2 credits each) Music History – four semesters (4 credits each) Ear Training – four semesters (1 credit each) Score Reading – four semesters (1 credits each) Composition – two semesters (2 credits each) Foreign Language (German or Italian) – two semesters (2 credits each)
