Preparation & Rehearsal - RobertShaw - Website
Preparation & Rehearsal - RobertShaw - Website
Preparation & Rehearsal - RobertShaw - Website
This section will be essential for the choral director who would like to put Shaw’s methods
into practice. It will include written copies of warm-ups and explanations of his unique
techniques and methods with video clips of choirs demonstrating examples. We will
endeavor to present a variety of choirs and age groups. Volunteer submissions are
welcome.
pelrod@smu.edu
“I am frightened to death not only by concerts – but by rehearsals – the fear that I will not
find the answers to what score study, my ears and my heart tell me should happen.”–
Robert Shaw –
San Diego Choral Art Workshop, San Diego State College, 1953
The above statement was written during a series of workshops conducted by Robert Shaw,
who was, at the time, only 37 years old. The insecurity evident in his words – insecurity
certainly shared by many of us – is surprising when one considers the towering musical
figure who wrote it. Thankfully, however, the same mind that produced those words also
very consciously and deliberately developed techniques to overcome that insecurity.
Throughout his career, Robert Shaw believed that choral ensembles should exist on the
same level of artistic competence as professional orchestras. This belief was manifested
through his rehearsal techniques – preparation of a work was a process of gradual
transference of accountability from the podium to the singers. Skills were layered one
element at a time. He believed that attempting to teach everything at once would only lead
to a confused and imprecise product where the music could not be revealed in a truly
honest fashion. What follows is a description of the process he developed and believed in
– a process to which he unfailingly adhered, regardless of the repertoire.
“What you know won’t hurt you”– Robert Shaw – San Diego Choral Art Workshop, San
Diego State College, 1955
1. Thorough score study and analysis. Edit the score with painstaking care.
Make as many musical decisions as you can prior to the first rehearsal.
2. Voice testing. Listen to every singer. At the beginning of each season or
workshop Shaw “ranked” them from highest to lowest voice in each
section, and assigned each person a number that corresponded to their
placement in that section. (For example, if there were fifteen altos in the
section, the highest alto voice would be A-15 and the lowest would be A-
1.)
:
3. Create a seating arrangement. For every rehearsal, create a seating
arrangement that seems best suited to the singers and/or the rehearsal
plan for the day. On various occasions, Shaw employed the following
seating arrangements:
The Warm-up
“Yes, I suppose like other people, I used to do ‘mee-ah, mee-ah…’ and I found that this was
not nearly as important as educating the mind to what a unison sounds like.”– Robert
Shaw, in response to the question, “Do you usually begin your rehearsals with a warm-up?”
Shaw spent about ten minutes at the beginning of every rehearsal addressing matters of
tuning, ensemble blend, and development of the dynamic palette. Singers were expected
to vocalize prior to rehearsal so that the warm-up could be used to “tune” the ears and the
brains. Establishing important musical disciplines in this portion of the rehearsal was
crucial to the ensemble’s maturation into a truly expressive musical instrument.
“Let the composer be the interpreter. Let him say what the music is about. We get clearer
if we handle technical problems; the spirit flows…. Build the rehearsal so they make as few
mistakes as possible.”– Robert Shaw
Count-singing is a procedure that teaches pitches and rhythms simultaneously and trains
the singers to share a common pulse. The premise is that all beats and subdivisions are
chanted on proper pitches, changing pitches as the rhythm dictates. Numbers are used as
follows, “one-and-two-and-tee-and-four-and,” substituting tee for three because the
consonant group in the latter takes too long to articulate. The example below illustrates
the notated music on the top staff and what is actually sung on the lower staff:
Care should be taken to give each syllable equal emphasis and duration, avoiding the
inherent strong/weak/strong/weak accents that naturally occur when singing subdivisions.
A somewhat poco staccato articulation is used to keep the underlying pulse steady and
rhythms clean. This holds true even for music that will eventually be legato. (Employing a
:
legato articulation while count-singing can produce too imprecise a result, impeding the
goal of singers’ sharing a clear-cut pulse, and it can ultimately result in legato phrases that
lack underlying forward motion and rhythmic accuracy.) During the initial stages of
learning, singers should never employ a dynamic louder than mezzo forte – to do
otherwise can tire voices and compromise rhythmic accuracy. Proper dynamics are not the
goal at this point.
Ex. 2
boyclerte
---...
One important final note regarding the count-singing process: Shaw often stated that the
technique was not appropriate for all types of music and in some instances could be
completely counter-productive. For instance, music that is highly complex rhythmically
and/or set in rapidly changing or asymmetrical meters might just as effectively be taught
on nonsense syllables. The important thing is to establish accurate pitches and rhythms,
so take the simplest and easiest route to that goal.
Dynamics
Dynamic shading can and should be added during the count-singing phase. As stated
above, however, extremely loud dynamic levels should be avoided; rather, the singers
:
should apply a suggestion of the dynamic shaping in forte passages.
Once pitches and rhythms are in place, the choir can move from count-singing to
nonsense syllables and begin to add more true dynamics. The rhythmic “pacing” of
dynamic shading has already been established somewhat – now the full range of dynamic
shading can be built into the voices.
Text
“The theory of successful Choral Enunciation is that each of the multitude of vocal sounds
which in proper sequence combines with others to make up the human language
(however unconscious, unnecessary or undisciplined it may become in everyday speech)
in the formal ‘fabric’ of music, is to be clearly identified, positioned precisely as to time and
pitch, and uttered with distinction, enjoyment and ardor.”– Robert Shaw
Handout entitled “Drills for Choral Musicians, Enunciation #1”, date unknown
Just as the chorus has agreed upon the production of pitch, rhythm, and dynamics in a
piece of music, so must it agree on matters regarding the production of text. Shaw
emphasized the following axioms:
Every syllable in every language has a beginning, middle, and end. Each
of these must be pronounced clearly and correctly.
Text is joined with rhythm before it is joined with proper pitches.
Initiating vowels must occur on their respective beats or sub-beats.
Consonants that precede these vowels must occur in advance.
For additional clarity of consonants, add a neutral syllable (the “schwa”),
and assign it a rhythmic value, much like one would do in expressive solo
singing.
Text can be added to the texture of the music in several ways, none of which include
speaking,and all of which require that singers maintain accurate tuning as they progress
through the series of vowels and consonants.
Shaw’s methods:
Ex. 3
Again, keyboard support at this stage is helpful. The accompanist should play the assigned
pitches according to the rhythms of the voice parts, rather than simply repeating all of the
pitches on a continuous basis.
Note: To keep things interesting, Shaw would sometimes call for a modulation every
couple of minutes, ascending by a semi-tone each time in all voice parts.
If the singers are not unified in their pronunciation of a text, assign one
beat to each syllable and chant on a unison pitch or a whole-tone cluster.
This will enable you (and the singers) to hear more clearly where the
inconsistencies are occurring.
Ask half the choir to sing text with proper pitches and half to count-sing.
(Counters should be the predominating texture.) Switch periodically.
A variation of the above is to have half the choir sing on a nonsense
syllable and half sing text.
Perfect music without inspiration is soulless. Truly inspired performances cannot happen
without adequate preparation. Robert Shaw realized the necessity of a strong partnership
between the practical and the emotional when it came to great choral artistry, so he would
lay the groundwork for the music in the same way that the composer did. Then, once the
choir became fully accountable for the structure of the piece, the true magic of emotion
and interpretation could emerge.
:
And magical it was . . .
“Exercises, disciplines, rehearsals are necessary. One does not become an artist simply
by declaring that his aesthetic taste-buds are as open as the next fellow’s. It’s damned
hard work from here on in; but at least one knows what problems he’s trying to lick. His
whole study is now geared practically and specifically. One now has a purpose – and it is
not ‘faster, higher, louder.’ Rather it is, ‘This has got to sound thus and so – how in hell
can I do it?’ That attitude can get results.”– Robert Shaw
(Author’s note: The quotes included in this article came from documents housed in The
Robert Shaw Papers at Yale University, New Haven, CT (the collection being open to the
public by appointment). Many of these documents are simply hand-written or typed notes
loosely compiled in folders – so specifics of dates and places are not always available. An
additional resource for learning about Shaw’s techniques is the series of DVDs
entitled Robert Shaw – Preparing a Masterpiece, available for purchase from Carnegie
Hall. Finally, the author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of W. John Proft in creating
the musical examples included in the article.)
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