Marking for Musicality

Score Study for Directors in a Hurry

Presentation to Messiah University Graduate Program in Music

Jordan Randall Smith — Tuesday, April 23, 2024 – 7:00 PM EST

• Contact Jordan
  
  

What do we need to Mark?

Session Overview

Big Idea: Score preparation is a tremendous time saver!

1. Mark to Learn (what the composer has written for us)

   1. Blow It Up

   2. Label It

   3. Name It

2. Mark to Decide (what the composer has left up to us)

   1. What you will do

   2. What your students will do

3. We Mark to Teach (our students how to succeed)

   1. Reminders

   2. Notes

4. We Mark to…. (?)

Big 10

1. Mark all key areas, chords, and important cadences.

2. Mark bowings, bow strokes, PAWS, distribution, fingerings.

3. Label cues and attention, including ties and syncopations, and long multi-measure rests.

4. Translate foreign musical terms.

5. Label page turn info.

6. Add character, moods, descriptions in each section.

7. Add dynamic and other markings that students will also use in their parts.

8. Notes about chord membership.

9. Reminders about conducting challenges, when and where to look.

10. Sticky-notes: rehearsal challenges, tactics, plans.
    
    

Even More Marking

Accents

• Weight accents (length. weight=wait)

• Sfortzato accents

• Modern accents (harsh)

• Dolce accents (vibrato)

• Agogic accents (subtle emphasis)

Vibrato

• None, minimal, normal, “sweetened” (slightly more than usual - use with care)

• Wide/narrow, slow/fast

• How does the vibrato develop?

  • Start vibrating before the first note

  • No vibrato, gradually warm up

  • Start slow, add speed

  • Vibrate pizz. = illusion of length

• More: Learn String Vibrato with Violinist Itzhak Perlman: “Vibrato can vary within a piece or even within a phrase: you might play the first theme in a piece with a medium-width vibrato, but when the theme appears again later, you may play it with a wider vibrato to make the second appearance more intense.”

EVEN MORE Marking

Inspired by Lawrence Golan’s system and Atul Guwande’s evidence, I have compiled a lot of the common markings I regularly need to reasonably prepare my score into some handy checklists that keep me anchored to each score, and each task and help me prepare efficiently. I print them on sticky notes, or paste them digitally into documents.

• To get a copy of some of my additional score study checklists, please get in touch! When you do, please tell me about yourself!

Further Reading

• Golan, Lawrence. Score Study Passes. GlobeEdit, 2020.

• Green, Elizabeth. Orchestral Bowings and Routines.

• Hopkins, Michael. The Art of String Teaching. GIA Publications, 2019.

• Kaastra, Linda T. Grounding the Analysis of Cognitive Processes in Music Performance: Distributed Cognition in Musical Activity. Explorations in Cognitive Psychology. New York, New York ; Routledge, 2021.

• Meier, Gustav. The Score, The Orchestra, and the Conductor. Oxford University Press, 2009.

• Stith, Gary. Score & Rehearsal Preparation. Meredith, 2020.

• Woods, Kenneth. “Score Marking” A view from the podium (blog), 2006. Link

Books