Recommended Summer (Score) Reading by John Darling

School is just about finished. Summer break and the long overdue, well-deserved vacation is that light at the end of the tunnel. Have you picked out your summer reading yet? The latest romance novel, mystery who-done-it, spy thriller, next year’s scores? As much as none of us wants to start thinking about next year, the summer break may provide an opportune time to settle down into the process of learning our scores for next year. No doubt there are new scores that aren’t available yet that you will want to program. However, if you get a head start on internalizing most of your music for next year this summer, there will be more time for all of the other “things” that will require your time next fall.

A useful process that helps me with my overall score preparation is the “score reading” process. The distinction between score reading and score analysis is an important one. Score reading is a the process by which you, the conductor, “read” the score from upper left to bottom right without stopping, very much in the same manner you would normally read a novel. This process is described as “Step 2” from “Guide to Score Study for the Wind Band Conductor” by Frank Battisti and Robert Garofalo. If you don’t own this publication, I strongly recommend that you buy a copy. It is a meticulously detailed step-by-step process for score study that will serve you well as a conductor and educator, and hopefully provide you with additional tools and skills that you can integrate into your own routines. The following is a synopsis of “Step 2” as outlined in their book.

GUIDELINES FOR SCORE READING

1. Choose a tempo and establish a pulse that will allow you to read and hear the music without stopping. [The minute you stop and look at what caused you to stop, you are analyzing. That comes next.]

2. Don’t analyze the music. Avoid being concerned with details [at this point].

3. Use your intuition and musical imagination. Let your subjective, nonanalytical feelings about the music surface naturally.

4. Don’t try to memorize the music. Don’t force the process by trying to absorb more than what comes naturally to you.

5. Do not use the piano. [Using the piano as an aid diminishes the challenge of developing your inner ear. Go to the piano only as a last resort.]

6. Do not listen to recordings of the work. [Recordings can be a useful tool, but not at this stage of the process. Too many people end up “imitating” the recording and not realizing their own interpretations.]

7. Allow playback time to evaluate progress in hearing the music in the mind. Set aside the score and listen to the inner hearing image.

A conductor must allow sufficient time for score reading and must establish conditions that allow for good concentration. One should only read a score when the mind is fresh. A high level of concentration will enhance what is absorbed and remembered.¹

More detail and rationale are provided in the publication. The key to score reading is repetition without stopping. It should go without saying that the better you know and stay out of the score, the more you can project your skills at the ensemble for detection and correction. The more confident you are about the pieces you conduct, the better your students will be able to reflect the realization of your interpretation. You know who is coming back next year and you should have an idea of what the incoming class is capable of, so go get the pieces you think they can handle and get a jump on next year’s challenges. I look forward to hearing many of your bands again next year.

¹ Frank Battisti and Robert Garofalo, Guide to Score Study for the Wind Band Conductor (Ft. Lauderdale: Meredith Music Pub., 1990).