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The Department of Liturgical Music of the Orthodox Church in America once again will be offering an online course, “Choral Conducting for Beginners,” which will begin on September 12, 2018.
“The class sessions are devoted to demonstrating basic conducting technique, beginning with elementary conducting patterns and concluding with an emphasis on conducting liturgical chant,” said Prof. David Drillock, Department Chair, who will teach the course.
The course—which will be limited to 12 registrants—will consist of 12 sessions over a period of 13 weeks.
The first half of the course concentrates on the relationship between text and music, accented and non-accented syllables, and in the first six sessions the practical exercises are focused on learning the basic beat patterns, conducting within the conducting plane, various forms of cutoffs, use of the left hand, basic dynamics, and analysis of the music used in the exercises and assignments.
The second half of the course concentrates on the techniques of conducting chant, singing in phrases, analyzing specific examples of both metered and non-metered music, and preparing music for conducting.
Class sessions will be posted at weekly intervals on the course web site (OCA Moodle). Once the session is posted on the website, students in the class can access the course at any time of the day. The learner is expected to have completed the weekly assignments and to be proficient in the conducting exercises by Friday of the week in which each session has been posted. The learner should plan on spending at least an hour per day practicing the conducting exercises assigned in each session.
Each learner will be required to meet interactively with the instructor via Skype for a 30-minute session each week. These sessions provide an opportunity for each individual learner to demonstrate his or her comprehension of each session and the ability to perform the conducting exercises correctly. At these interactive meetings, the learner will receive necessary feedback from the instructor together with helpful suggestions for improvement. Such one-on-one real time Skype sessions also will enable the instructor to provide extra help and answer specific questions. Following each Skype session, written evaluations will be provided to each participant.
Prof. Drillock is Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Music at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY. Dr Mark Pearson, who designed the online course format, will provide technical support and program assistance. Dr. Pearson has recently retired from Earlham College, where he was Instructional Technologist and Course Designer managing all aspects of the college’s Moodle Learning Management System.
Directions for submitting the course fee of $250.00, made payable to the Orthodox Church in America, DLM, are included on the registration form. Deadline for registration is September 9, 2018.
