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© O.Васильєва & A. Соколова
Volume 2 (1) 2021
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Professional Art Education Volume 2 (1) 2021 Scientic Journal
(2021), L. Yatlo (2008).
The article goals and objectives formulation.  
The purpose of the article is to identify the specics 
of teaching conducting and choral disciplines in the 
training of future Music Art teachers. 
Рresenting the main material. One of the main 
directions  of  a  future  Musical  Art  teacher’s  work  is 
the organization of vocal and choral performance of 
student’s  youth  in  establishments  of  comprehensive 
secondary school.
The  analysis  of  the  works  of  A.Bulgarsky, 
I.Zelenetska, A.Kozyr, L.Khlebnika proves that the 
vocal-choral activity of a Music Art teacher has its 
specic  features  caused  by  the  purpose  of  general 
art education.  As L. Masol claims in the «Concept of 
General Art Education», its main purpose is to educate 
students to value the reality and art, the development 
of consciousness, emotional and sensuous sphere 
of  personality  and  its  spiritual  formation  while 
perceiving  and  interpreting  works  of  art  and 
participating in practical art activities» (Masol, 2004, 
c. 3).
Students’  choral  performance  in  secondary 
schools is carried out in several directions. At music 
lessons, choral singing is one of the types of group 
musical activity. In extracurricular activities, it exists 
as  the  work  of  school  singing  groups  (choirs,  vocal 
ensembles, song studios).
These  features  determine  the  specics  of 
conducting and choral training of Music Art teachers 
and encourages the generalization of methods of its 
teaching. Achieving the required level of competence 
in this area is possible through mastering each 
of  the  subjects  of  the  conductor-choir  cycle  and 
understanding their relationship.
Choral conducting is one of the most 
sophisticated kinds of performance art directed to 
training and educating multiskilled professionals 
prepared for careers in pedagogy and performance 
both theoretically and practically. 
The purpose of the course «Choral conducting» 
is to provide future Music Art teachers and leaders 
of  children’s  choirs  with  fundamental  conducting 
training, raise a viable personality able to organize, 
lead creatively, conduct a choir artistically convincing, 
and self-develop constantly. 
The  course  objectives  are  in  the  active 
comprehension of the academic process as an 
important means of enhancing personal being, self-
realization and self-organization of a personality; 
acquiring  choral  conducting  knowledge  (choral 
pieces texts, methods and techniques of a choral 
piece  conducting,  ways  of  self-learning  choral 
scores  etc.);  development  of  a  teacher-conductor’s 
professional abilities and skills (verbal and nonverbal 
communication  with  choral  class,  musical  talents, 
performance reliability, artistry); nurturing exibility 
and speed of mental and emotional reactions; art 
activity; ability of self-development, self-control 
and self-organization; mastering methodological 
fundamentals of choral work; accumulating repertoire 
for further choral work.
Pedagogical principles: systemacity, self-
organization, socialization, cultural correspondence 
and humanization, personal orientation, 
individualization, dialogue interaction, intellectual 
and  creative  development.  Subject  principles:  the 
principle of freedom, graphic clarity and movements 
eciency, warning, sound choral articulation, melos, 
artistic expediency.
The  close  connection  of  «Choral  Conducting» 
with  social,  psycho-pedagogical,  musical-theoretical, 
performance  disciplines  and  subjects  of  the  choral 
conducting cycle. Integration of «Choral Conducting» 
content promotes to shape the productive thinking 
of students learning to be conductors and teachers; 
stimulates to develop the depth, completeness and 
integrity of their competencies. 
Modern teaching of choral conducting is 
not  possible  without  extensive  implementation 
of various teaching methods: problem methods 
(problem-search tasks; determination of features 
of conducting technique, performance), method of 
mental intonation, method of comparison, method of 
creative project, etc. The main task in the study of the 
discipline  «Choral  Conducting»  is  to  prepare  future 
Music Art teachers for practical vocal and choral 
work in the classroom with schoolchildren. To ensure 
this form  of work,  songs  from  the  school  repertoire 
must be included into the very rst classes on choral 
conducting.  Such  work  should  involve  obtaining 
skills of educational and song material presentation 
(creation of introductory conversations, computer 
presentations), analysis of intonation, rhythmic, a 
school  song  diction  diculties,  choice  of  means  to 
overcome the latter, mastering conduction techniques 
of choral singing.
In the career of the music teacher and the head 
of the children’s choir, the ability to play choral scores 
has a signicant role. It contributes to the success of 
their  work  and  problem  solutions  encountered  in 
choral practice. The importance of reading choral 
scores  skills  was  revealed  by  prominent  choral  art 
personality and teacher M. M. Danilin. He emphasized: 
«As a conductor plays the score, so will the choir sing 
under his direction».
However,  in  the  practice  of  training  Music  Art 
teachers, reading choral scores as a separate discipline 
is not provided by the curriculum. Therefore, such 
work  should  be  done  more  carefully  within  the 
framework of the discipline «Choral Conducting» and 
focus on the skills of reading scores from a sheet and 
transposition. In our opinion, mastering these skills 
allows the future Music Art teacher to conduct vocal 
and  choral  work  with  children  of  different  school 
ages effectively and exibly. Teaching conducting and 
choral disciplines in higher pedagogical educational 
institutions  is  undoubtedly  inuenced  by  art 
faculties’  students’  educational  background.  Since 
the specialty of Secondary Education (Music Art) is 
gained  by  students  with  different  levels  of  musical 
training (graduates of secondary schools, music 
and pedagogical schools), creating an individual 
educational  trajectory  of  each  of  them  should  be 
based  on  individual  semester  work  plans  according 
to curriculum, syllabus and students’ characteristics. 
Besides it should be gradual, systematic, and 
student-focused to ensure the multifaceted creative 
personality development. 
Тhe purpose of the course «Choral arrangement» 
is to provide music and pedagogical department 
students of pedagogical institutes and universities 
with  essential  knowledge  and  skills  to  make 
transpositions of choral, solo, instrumental musical 
pieces for different choir pieces. It is implemented 
through solutions of such tasks as forming a 
system  of  compositional  knowledge;  nding  the 
best  arrangement  in  accordance  with  artistic  and 
gurative  tasks;  working  out  your  own  individual 
style in arranging pieces for any choir staff; getting 
acquainted  with  arrangements  made  by  prominent 
masters of choral art.
While studying the course «Choral Arrangement» 
future Music Art teachers should learn about possible 
problems  when  changing  author’s  original.  Possible 
transformation of an original composer’s text by the 
author  of  the  arrangement  which  is  a  transposition 
of the main theme material into another compared 
to the original coral score register; changes in voice 
of supporting parties; a transposition of main theme 
material from one choral party to another (cases of 
transposition for a choir without accompaniment of 
instrumental  compositions  with  a  melody  of  a  wide 
range); changing the original tone of the composition  
for a more comfortable range, tessitura and 
dynamics; changing the main party accompaniment  
in  the    transposition  of  vocal  compositions  with 
accompaniment for a choir or a cappella.
The teacher of choral arrangement should 
introduce students to the characteristic of the choral 
arrangement main varieties as a result of the choral 
transposition compared to the original source: 
transposition from one choir to another (for example, 
from a homogeneous choir to a mixed one and vice 
versa),  transposition  of  compositions  written  for 
a  voice  with  accompaniment  (romance,  song)  for 
various  choirs’  staff,  transposition  of  instrumental 
compositions for choral performance.
Considering  the  eld  of  a  Music  Art  teacher’s 
activity,  the  content  of  the  course  «Choral 
Arrangement» should focus on mastering the skills of 
creating scores for children’s choirs  of  different  age 
groups. It should include transpositions for children’s 
starting choirs; choral pieces transposition for more 
experienced choirs; transposition for senior students’ 
choirs (homogeneous, incomplete, mixed); choral 
pieces transposition for complete mixed choirs; 
Instrumental pieces transposition for choirs; free 
arrangements of folk songs.
One of the central disciplines of conducting and 
choral training of a Music Art teacher is «Choral class» 
and «Workshop of working with a choir». The choral 
class is a creative laboratory where students are given 
opportunities to learn conditions and features of a 
choir organization and work. Acting both as a choral 
singer and a conductor and observing the choral 
leader’s  methods  of  work  facilitate  their  mastering 
certain choral techniques.
The role of the choral class course as one of the 
most important subjects in the  professional training 
of a future choral conducting teacher is in blending 
theory and practice in the choral class; on the basis 
of their knowledge of musical theory and vocal and 
choral disciplines students master professional skills, 
necessary for their future career activities.
Analysis  of  choral  class  syllabi  allows  setting 
such course objectives as moral and artistic education 
of students via the direct introduction to choral 
compositions of various epochs, styles, genres; 
gaining vocal and choral skills; obtaining skills of 
working with a choir, accumulating choral repertoire. 
Solving the outlined tasks allows a student not only to 
acquire the ability to sing in a choir, but also helps to 
consolidate their knowledge of a conductor’s practical 
work.
The  knowledge,  skills  and  abilities  acquired 
in the choir class should become the basis for the 
formation of the necessary skills in future Music Art 
teachers  to  work  with  the  educational  choir  in  the 
course  «Workshop  on  working  with  the  choir».  The 
value of the course is that in the process of studying this 
subject the student applies practically their knowledge 
and skills in the work and choir conducting, obtained 
in conducting, choral studies, and choir class. It is in 
the process  of  studying this  subject  that  the student 
acquires professional skills in working with the choir 
and the ability to choose techniques and methods of 
learning choral pieces.
The head of the course educational choir should 
select the choral repertoire for the students’ practical 
work,  taking  into  account  the  specics  of  Music Art 
teachers’ activity. It is recommended to choose bright, 
diverse choral works that students will be able to use 
in  their  further  choral  practice.  When  organizing 
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© O.Vasilyeva & A.Sokolova
Professional Art Education