Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Volume 4

The long-awaited release of the next installment of the invaluable Teaching Music through Performance in Choir series continues the tradition of essential insights from leading choral directors and Resource Guides to the best choral literature in print. Jo-Michael Scheibe, chair of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California's Department of Choral and Sacred Music, leads a new team of outstanding choral music educators on topics relevant to today's choral directors.

The chapters in Part I cover "The Rise of Concert Gospel Music" by Jeffery Ames; "Choral Pedagogy: The Anatomy of the Rehearsal Process" by Hilary Apfelstadt; "Painting with Sound: Developing Tone with Female Voices through Choral Literature" by Lynne Gackle; "Choral First Aid or Long-Term Music Learning? Re-Thinking and Re-Designing the Choral Rehearsal" by James Jordan; "Consonant Connection" by Jo-Michael Scheibe; and "The Collaborative Conductor: The Maestro Me vs. The Art of We" by Phillip Swan.

Part II presents Teacher Resource Guides for nearly 100 outstanding choral works for a diverse range of ensembles (SATB, SAB, treble, and men's voices) graded by level of difficulty. Each guide contains invaluable information in 9 units: Composer, Composition, Historical Perspective, Technical Considerations, Stylistic Considerations, Musical Elements, Form and Structure, Suggested Listening, and Additional References and Resources.

Indexes by title, publisher, and composer/arrangers for all four volumes of the series are included, and an extraordinary companion recording of all selections is also available.

There is simply no better way to find and prepare the best choral literature available for achieving excellence in choral music education at all levels.