Drawing Out the Singers’ Musicality: Collaborative Rehearsal Methods for Adult Choral Ensembles

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/sq87bv43q

Abstract

A conductor’s job is to draw musicality and meaning out of the performers, but what if instead of relying on just the conductor’s musical interpretation and intuition, we could draw on the musical experiences and background of the entire ensemble to create that performance? This is the goal of collaborative rehearsal techniques. Considering the particular setting of adult amateur choirs, collaborative learning may be used as one way to mobilize the previous experiences and knowledge of the singers in order to deepen the performance beyond the singular experiences of the conductor. Beginning with the theoretical foundations upon which collaborative learning is based, this paper will provide an explanation of collaborative learning relative to the traditional teacher-led classroom environment. Additionally, it will include a review of the literature that discusses collaborative learning within music education in order to establish the efficacy and applicability of collaborative learning techniques. Due to the fact that research is limited largely to K-12 education environments, much of the discussion will be bound to that context. It is the goal of the paper’s final section to transition this research to the adult amateur choir rehearsal. The final section provides a list of gathered techniques from the literature that were created for both instrumental and choral ensembles of various experience levels.

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