Choral rhythm | textbook and exercises

The set of exercises, canons and short pieces contained in this book were created with the intention of developing the rhythmic competences of a youth choral ensemble, but it can also be used confidently in other age groups. It refers to the young chorister’s natural inclinations to play with music, to spontaneously respond to sound stimuli, and to selfishly enjoy the process of producing rhythmic noise. The resources of low-budget sound creation were used here, which are within the reach of every choral student: from vocal sounds, possible to obtain with your own vocal organs, to clapping, stomping or snapping your fingers.

The aim of the presented rhythmic and melo-rhythmic exercises is the motoric coordination of the body in vocal activities and work on ensemble synchronization of the musical pulse with the articulation of sounds of a text phrase. Creative ways of using the specific features of the Polish language phonetics for musical purposes will also be presented, as well as rhythmic issues less willingly undertaken in music education: syncope, polyrhythm, polymetric and irregular meter. The exercises largely refer to the style of popular music, which is a natural environment for the emergence of expressive rhythmic phenomena (fortunately it is also the natural ecosystem of young people). They are graded in terms of the level of difficulty and provided with an appropriate methodological commentary explaining their purpose and method, as well as suggesting possible solutions to various problems. Detailed comments are also an interpretation of my method of working with the choir, indicating important issues and effective ways of achieving goals.
 

The choral miniatures included in the collection (mostly not exceeding a dozen or so bars) constitute a small testing ground, used to test the acquired skills. Some of them can be treated as ensemble singing exercises in everyday choral practice, and some also as minor concert pieces. I present them for use in the hope that their light form and absurd librettos will ease the hardships of dealing with the problems they contain (just as they have eased the author’s effort to write them).

Marcin Wawruk

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