Evoking Sound: Fundamentals of Choral Conducting

ISBN 9781622773923.

  Without a spontaneous forward movement of sound by singers, inspired by breath, musical expression becomes stilted, fake, dishonest, and does little to touch us deeply in ways we cannot explain. — From the Introduction  James Jordan’s The Ensemble Movement Warm-Up explores how to organize and sequence movement activities in a choral setting to increase artistry and help raise the performance level of any ensemble, regardless of age. Building on the ideas of Rudolf von Laban and Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, James Jordan creates an exciting new rhythm/movement pedagogy.  This volume:  Introduces simple movements—stepping and clapping—to help the ensemble explore kinesthetic feeling connected to harmonic rhythm, not meter  Teaches fundamental principles of artistic phrasing  Revolutionizes ensemble teaching to focus on how sound moves forward, and not on rhythm notation  Demonstrates how to teach Laban Efforts in Combination through life experiences  Teaches the important distinction between rhythm and tempo, and harmonic rhythm  Builds legato and sense of line  Introduces the new concept of “projection” to teach and conceptualize phrase shape  The Ensemble Movement Warm-Up is the culmination of 40 years of experimentation, thought, and study using the wealth of ideas provided by Laban and is a major contribution to the choral art.  .