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The history of Beethoven’s late quartets has usually been told by separating (and redeeming) the composer’s aesthetic priorities from the difficulties encountered by the works’ early performers, publishers, and listeners. This article weaves together Beethoven’s interests with those of his publisher Maurice Schlesinger and the violinist Pierre Baillot, whose ensemble first performed the late quartets in Paris between 1827 and 1829. I navigate the traffic among these parties to reassess what was difficult about this music and, on this basis, test new routes to explore early nineteenth-century string quartet culture. One issue these different agents faced—whether in presenting the quartets to the Viennese public (Beethoven), selling them in Paris (Schlesinger), or performing them (Baillot)—was that the late quartets seemed to call for a new kind of ensemble rehearsal. The genre’s proverbial sociability, historically supporting an almost immediate and shared grasp of the performers’ interplay, was compromised in Beethoven’s late quartets by a loss in topicality. The erosion of topical references and familiar textures in these quartets made it harder for performers to predict how to coordinate their moves. Musical topics, I argue, functioned as a means of communication not only with listeners but also among performers within an ensemble. In contrast, the sociability of Beethoven’s late quartets had to be patiently engineered through dedicated rehearsals, a step that distanced this music from past quartet cultures and shaped a new notion of making music together.

iRooted in the experience of a professional choral conductor, this book provides a guide to practical issues facing conductors of choral ensembles at all levels, from youth choruses to university ensembles, church and community choirs, and professional vocal groups. Paired with the discussion of practical challenges is a discussion of over fifty key works from the choral literature, with performance suggestions to aid the choral conductor in directing each piece. Dealing with often-overlooked yet vital considerations such as how to work with composers, recording, concert halls, and choral tours, A Practical Guide to Choral Conducting offers a valuable resource for both emerging choral conductors and students of choral conducting at the undergraduate and graduate levels.ii iii

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teacher approvals and disapprovals of music performed in a rehearsal setting on the music preferences of middle school students. Students (N = 440) from eight middle school bands participated in the study and were assigned one of four different rehearsal conditions. Teachers rehearsed either one or two assigned pieces of music, while implementing one of the following treatment conditions: (a) rehearsal of one piece with teacher approval and rehearsal of the other piece without comment; (b) rehearsal of one piece with teacher disapproval and rehearsal of the other without comment; (c) rehearsal of only one of the pieces, with teacher approval; and (d) rehearsal of only one of the pieces, with teacher disapproval. After five rehearsals of the music, students were given a listening survey on which to rate their preferences for the two compositions. Results indicated that the treatment conditions had a significant effect on preferences. Ratings from the approval treatment condition were significantly higher than those from the disapproval treatment condition.

Previous studies have shown that collegiate level music students are exposed to potentially hazardous sound levels. Compared to professional musicians, collegiate level music students typically do not perform as frequently, but they are exposed to intense sounds during practice and rehearsal sessions. The purpose of the study was to determine the full-day exposure dose including individual practice and ensemble rehearsals for collegiate student musicians. Sixty-seven college students of classical music were recruited representing 17 primary instruments. Of these students, 57 completed 2 days of noise dose measurements using Cirrus doseBadge programed according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health criterion. Sound exposure was measured for 2 days from morning to evening, ranging from 7 to 9 h. Twenty-eight out of 57 (49%) student musicians exceeded a 100% daily noise dose on at least 1 day of the two measurement days. Eleven student musicians (19%) exceeded 100% daily noise dose on both days. Fourteen students exceeded 100% dose during large ensemble rehearsals and eight students exceeded 100% dose during individual practice sessions. Approximately, half of the student musicians exceeded 100% noise dose on a typical college schedule. This finding indicates that a large proportion of collegiate student musicians are at risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss due to hazardous sound levels. Considering the current finding, there is a need to conduct hearing conservation programs in all music schools, and to educate student musicians about the use and importance of hearing protection devices for their hearing.

The research enterprise in the United States is a vast one, with at least 15 music education and two music therapy research journals. This is in addition to the multitude of papers presented at a myriad of state, regional and national conferences, including the hundreds of papers presented at the biannual meetings of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC): National Association for Music Education. Much of the USA music education research occurs in situ, such as general music classrooms and secondary ensemble rehearsals, and examines the impact of different aspects of teaching strategies on students' attentiveness, attitudes and achievement, as well as studying informal learning. While common in the USA, it is unusual to see work in the UK that focuses on ensemble conducting or music classroom or ensemble management. Also, work in the USA can be classified under the titles used by the Special Research Interest Groups of MENC: Affective Response, Adult and Community Music Education, Creativity, Early Childhood, Gender Research in Music Education, History, Instructional Strategies, Learning and Development, Measurement and Evaluation, Perception and Cognition, Philosophy, and Social Sciences. Of late, there has been an increased interest in multicultural issues in research as well. There is a deficit of published philosophical inquiry, however.

Skilled ensemble musicians coordinate with high precision, even when improvising or interpreting loosely defined notation. Successful coordination is supported primarily through shared attention to the musical output; however, musicians also interact visually, particularly when the musical timing is irregular. This study investigated the performance conditions that encourage visual signaling and interaction between ensemble members. Piano and clarinet duos rehearsed a new piece as their body motion was recorded. Analyses of head movement showed that performers communicated gesturally following held notes. Gesture patterns became more consistent as duos rehearsed, though consistency dropped again during a final performance given under no-visual-contact conditions. Movements were smoother and interperformer coordination was stronger during irregularly timed passages than elsewhere in the piece, suggesting heightened visual interaction. Performers moved more after rehearsing than before, and more when they could see each other than when visual contact was occluded. Periods of temporal instability and increased familiarity with the music and co-performer seem to encourage visual interaction, while specific communicative gestures are integrated into performance routines through rehearsal. We propose that visual interaction may support successful ensemble performance by affirming coordination throughout periods of temporal instability and serving as a social motivator to promote creative risk-taking.

This study aims to enhance socio-emotional awareness and regulatory processes in small ensemble rehearsals through the design and implementation of a macro-level collaboration script. Developed using design-based research principles, the script is grounded in the cyclical model of regulated learning ( Hadwin et al., 2018; Zimmerman & Campillo, 2003) and incorporates prompts adapted from Näykki et al. (2017) for ensemble contexts. Five student ensembles from a higher music education institution in Norway participated in the study. Ensembles using the script (n = 3) were compared with baseline ensembles without it (n = 2). Data from video recordings and focus group discussions were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings indicate that the script effectively supports socially shared regulation of learning by fostering collaborative planning, shared task and emotional monitoring, and reflective dialogue. Scripted ensembles consistently engaged in all regulated learning phases (planning, monitoring, and reflection) and exhibited greater socio-emotional awareness through more equitable participation. Notably, both conditions spent less than half of the rehearsal time on actual performance, highlighting the central role of verbal interaction in ensemble rehearsals. These findings suggest the collaboration script serves as an effective scaffold for enhancing socio-emotional dynamics and group-level regulation, offering valuable insights for improving student-led ensemble rehearsals. Further research is needed, however, to refine its design, particularly in balancing structured guidance with the fluid, creative dynamics essential to musical collaborations.

This essay introduces an experiential process through which student actors can explore any Shakespearean play. Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints technique serves as the foundation for a creative process informed by devising exercises and physical composition. In this essay, I demonstrate how this physically based dramaturgical process enables students to pay particular attention to the foundational elements that uniquely shape the story, such as time, space, sound, architecture, and gesture. This process gives student actors the agency to create material inspired by Shakespeare yet infused with their own imagination and curiosity. It allows students to wake up Shakespeare’s text in unexpected ways, embrace collaboration, and embody the richly detailed expression of Shakespeare’s poetic language. This essay aims to be a resource for educators and directors alike who are interested in a collaborative process that can either be integrated into rehearsals or serve as a foundation for classroom-based discussions. As such, this process can be mapped onto any classical or contemporary play, even though this essay features Shakespeare as the foundation for exploration.

The Journal has and continues to serve as a barometer of evolving norms and practices in the choral field. Because of its scope and reach, one might argue that its articles have not just informed but shaped the ideas, practices, and opinions of the choral profession. Because of its longstanding and varied contributions to the field, CJ provides a wealth of data for scholars to mine. Beginning with issues from 1966, we identified eighty-four articles related to treble choir vocal pedagogy, repertoire, musicology, composer interviews, rehearsal technique, and ensemble perception and identity.10 For the purpose of this article, we will broadly dehne treble choir, under the auspices of ACDA, as any choir that sings a variation of SA/SSA/SSAA repertoire. [...]we as a profession are able to better dehne SA choirs at the secondary and/or collegiate level, we are choosing to use the treble choir designation for this analysis. Only featured articles are peer reviewed; however, Repertoire & Resource columns and letters to the editor were found to include a significant amount of treble choir repertoire recommendations. [...]the contents of all three of these offerings were worthy of analysis.

In this article, the co-columnists explore the theme of expanding our practice in an effort to provide inspiration for the new school year. They share examples from their own practice and highlight the work of colleagues from across the country. The article ends with prompts to assist the reader in identifying ways they may consider expanding their own practice and also some suggestions to help ensure success.