Choral Conducting Verses Brass Conducting

On May 7th 2005 at Street in Somerset Brian Howard led a very informative and interesting session on the similarities and differences between conducting vocal groups compared to brass bands.

Brian is well known as an adjudicator and conductor, having been involved conducting choral groups and brass bands, and is a member of ABBA and the NABBC.

Working with eight brass players from the Burnham and Highbridge band, and a small choir specially formed for this occasion, Brian spoke about his own experiences, using the two ensembles to demonstrate his points.

Brian began by stressing a fundamental similarity between the members of both groups; they do it for enjoyment. As a conductor it is not always easy to remember this, particularly when faced with the frustrations caused by punctuality and attendance, and the apparent lack of home practise by certain band members!

Brian asked the question, when thinking about both groups - what is a conductor's role?

For both groups the conductor:

selects the music that is to be performed.
needs to know the score and music thoroughly prior to rehearsing it. This is essential to ensure rehearsals are effective and productive.
needs to begin and end the music. The preparatory beat is used at the start of the music, which lets the musicians know when to start, and the tempo and style of the music.
needs to keep time so the ensemble performs together.
prepares the music, teaches it, then interprets it by finding and moulding the special moments in the piece.
needs to use his/her most valuable asset: the ears.

It is the last point that I believe to be the most important for any conductor. The more conducting I do, the more I realise this, and can never be reminded of it enough. When conducting we need to listen to the group and check for basic errors of pitch and rhythm, for balance of the parts, sense of ensemble, intonation, tuning etc. I believe it is also important to try to train the performers to listen for themselves, as this will increase their musicianship and understanding.

To appreciate the differences in the role of the conductor, Brian suggested the need to understand the fundamental differences between a brass band and a choir themselves. He summed them up as follows.

Choirs have words to sing, brass players do not.
A mixed choir commonly has 4 different musical lines (SATB), compared to the standard 19 lines of a full brass band.
Batons are normally used for conducting brass bands, whereas the majority of choral conductors choose not to.
In a choir, it cannot generally be assumed that all members can read music, whereas in a brass group it can.

Having words to sing gives a choir a certain advantage over brass players in many ways. The lyrics help to give non-music readers an indication of the rhythm of the music. The sentence structure and punctuation clearly points to natural breathing points and how to shape the phrase. The meaning of the music is also clear. As brass music does not have words, Brian suggested it was a good idea for a conductor to find the original words, if there were any, and share them with the band. Alternatively, perhaps one could invent words to assist the ensemble in building up an image, or pick a single word to grasp a particularly tricky rhythm.

The sheer number of staves in a brass band score can be challenging for a conductor in terms of reading and preparing it. In a choir only one instrument is used - the voice. In a brass band there are many, and knowledge of the instruments and the way they work is important. I feel one should have at very least a grounding in the two main brass types - valves and slide, as well as percussion.

Brass players need to play with precision. In order to achieve this precision the players need to know, at a glance, which beat of the bar they are on. Most brass conductors find using a baton does this more effectively than without a baton. In a choir the conductor usually mouths the words to the ensemble, so they all know where they are whether they are music readers or not. At which beat they are in the bar is less important and the conductor's hands are free to shape the music.

So what can we, as brass band conductors, learn from our choral counterparts? The use of lyrics in choral music creates an instant advantage and impact on the conductor and ensemble alike. We should consider the following:

If a piece was originally a song or choral piece, research the words.
Share with the band the meaning of the words/music.
If the music was taken from a film or play, describe what is happening in that scene or act.
Use lyrics to help define rhythms.

The session was very informative. It was also most enjoyable listening to both ensembles, particularly the choir's rendition of John Rutter's Gaelic Blessing. As a brass band conductor it is not always easy to find time in between rehearsing and engagements to attend recitals given by non-brass ensembles. I would encourage brass conductors to listen to other types of ensembles and share experiences with their players and other conductors, as we can all learn from each other.

Maria Fricker 2005

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Choral Conducting Verses Brass Conducting