Conducting I

Brief history of conducting. Posture, stance, movement, breath and primary gestures. Practical choral conducting techniques. Beating patterns of basic meters, with the hand and neutral, legato and light staccato variants. The preparatory beat. The hold and fermata. Starts and cues on all beats and off-beats. Tempo. Continuity. Conducting a chorale. Complex beating patterns, variants, starts, holds, cues. Advanced conducting techniques. Balance and expression. Expressive conducting. Basic analysis. Dealing with voices. Basic vocal techniques. Basic rehearsal techniques. Conducting a madrigal. Conducting plainchant. Soloists. Stage performance. Selected repertoire to be conducted and sight played at the piano.