Keyboard Skills for Music Educators: Score Reading

Shellie Gregorich, Benjamin Moritz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136666186
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Keyboard Skills for Music Educators: Score Reading is the first textbook equip future educators with the ability to play from an open score at the keyboard. Score reading can be a daunting prospect for even the most accomplished pianist, but it is a skill required of all choral and instrumental music instructors. Although most music education curricula include requirements to achieve a certain level of proficiency in open score reading, standard textbooks contain very little material devoted to developing this skill.

This textbook provides a gradual and graded approach, progressing from two-part reading to four or more parts in a variety of clefs. Each chapter focuses on one grouping of voices and provides many musical examples from a broad sampling of choral and instrumental repertoire ranging from Renaissance to contemporary works.

Part 1

Two and Three Part Reading in Traditional Clefs

Chapter 1

Two Parts: Treble/Bass

1 Introduction

Two-part open scores that use one treble clef and one bass clef are very similar to traditional piano music on the grand staff. Because most music educators have some experience reading piano music, this open score format is an excellent place to begin. You will encounter this format in choral music scored generally for women (treble clef) and men (bass clef), or more specific scorings such as soprano-bass, or alto-bass. Other instances might include two-part excerpts from larger scores, or instrumental duets. Visually, the differences between a treble/bass open score and a piano grand staff are slight.

• The grand staff includes an arched bracket grouping the treble and bass staves into one system, while a typical open score will unite the staves with a straight bracket.

• The bar lines on the grand staff run continuously from the top staff to the bottom staff, while bar lines in an open score stop at the bottom of each staff. See Ex. 1.1a and Ex. 1.1b.

• In piano and instrumental music, consecutive flagged notes (eighth notes, sixteenth notes, etc.) within the same beat (or beat group) are beamed together. In choral music, flagged notes are only beamed together if they are part of a melisma (one syllable stretched over multiple notes) and within a beat structure.^* See Ex. 1.2a and Ex. 1.2b for a comparison.

EX. 1.1a Beethoven, Sonatina in G Major, Anh. 5, movt. II, mm. 1–8. Piano score, grand staff.

EX. 1.1b Mozart, “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen,” from Die Zauberflöte, mm. 11–13, open score.1

*The practice of breaking up metric beaming to indicate syllables may be changing. More and more contemporary scores and editions are applying the instrumental typography to choral scores as well. The metrical information provided by instrumental beaming is helpful for rhythmic reading, especially in complex contemporary music. This book will utilize the older typography because – although things are changing – most choral scores you will encounter still utilize the broken beam method.

EX. 1.2a Mozart, “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen,” from Die Zauberflöte, mm. 14–16, traditional beaming.

Note that the hand position changes on the second half of m.2.

EX. 1.2b Mozart, “Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen,” from Die Zauberflöte, mm. 14–16, choral beaming.

As you can see from Ex. 1.2b, the lack of metric beaming can make a difference in a score’s readability. It can be especially difficult with three or more staves involving complex rhythms, so it is very helpful to start with just two staves and accustom yourself to this format.

A final difference between open scores and piano music is the independence of voices. Music written for the piano often includes a relatively static, harmonic part in the bass clef while the treble clef contains a melodic line. Choral and instrumental music frequently includes more independence of voices, creating an added challenge when performing these voices at the piano. Exercises 1.3 and 1.4 are good examples of this – try both of them slowly at the piano after first looking over it.

EX. 1.3 Diabelli, “Domine Exaudi,” mm. 66–70.

EX. 1.4 Purcell, “What Can We Poor Females Do,” from Orpheus Britannicus, mm. 7–10.

2 Sight-reading Exercises

Now that you know what to look for, try the following series of sigh...