Today, if we understand why the composer did that we have begun to develop a consciousness of the expressive gestures that lie behind the symbolic notation of them. Attaining this knowledge is a powerful catalyst for communicating it! It becomes our interpretation – our capacity to imagine how the composer heard his or her composition going! Through our study, we will have unmasked the truth behind the composer’s symbolic notation. Inevitably during this process, we will have also imagined telling our students about our insights. In fact, in my experience, we can’t wait to tell them how the composition “really goes!” In this way, the enthusiasm and passion we bring to rehearsals will energize our students to accomplish our goals.
Our knowledge becomes the principal motivating factor that inspires our students to realize, in sound, our goals which are the composer’s goals. Developing that consciousness becomes for our students (and for us) the foundation for teaching and rehearsing (re-hearing), because it is based upon our belief that the insights we have into the score are going to reveal the composer’s expectations of what s/he wanted to hear! In this context, choral conductors’ fundamental goal: education through teaching will become a profoundly inspiring experience.
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