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Conducting During CO V ID: What is possible and
Conducting During COVID: What is possible and how has the role of the conductor changed?

Conductor Collective in New York of latency and the pianist is likely provide gestural information that is
and by composer Karen Siegel on to eventually slow down. It can be not tempo related, such as dynam-
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their respective websites, by Vocal beneficial for singers’ confi dence in ics, articulation, intensity, expres-
Revolution, an a cappella group in this new format to begin with pitch sion, etc. Karen Siegel, co-found-
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New England, and in an ACDA and tempo support, such as a prac- er of C4: the Choral Composer/
webinar. 10 tice file or recording and then move Conductor Collective, describes

Even when using a video stream- to the unaccompanied metronome, how she designates each corner of
ing platform like Zoom concurrent- where the singers have less pitch her screen to each voice part and
ly with Jamulus, the Zoom video will support and the conductor can bet- points to that corner to cue that
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have more latency than the Jamulus ter hear the choir and provide feed- part. Each conductor and choir
audio, so conducting in real time back. can be creative during this time

will feel significantly ahead of what Using a traditional rehearsal and develop gestural signals to con-
the conductor is hearing and is very technique such as the “rehearsal vey relevant information during a

difficult to maintain tempo. In ad- frame” outlined in Barbara Brin- live-remote performance. Similarly,
dition, while there is much less la- son and Steven Demorest’s choral number cues (held up with fi ngers)
tency in Jamulus, there is still some methods book, Choral Music: Methods or even instructions in the chat can
latency, so it is difficult for the sing- and Materials, works well in a live-re- be used to guide performance.

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ers to keep a steady beat without ex- mote environment. In a rehears- Another issue of relevance to
ternal support, and the tempo will al frame, the conductor isolates a both the conductor and singers is
inevitably slow down. problem area, identifi es, diagnoses, how to manage computer screen
The easiest solution to the la- and solves the problem, and then space. Each computer will have a
tency-caused tempo problem is to puts the isolated area back into video platform open in order to see
rehearse with a metronome. The the context of the piece to see if the conductor and choir members,
conductor may need to adjust the the problem remains solved or not. Jamulus open for audio levels, and
metronome’s tempo in reaction to The conductor then gives feedback possibly a PDF open of a musical
how the choir is singing and this to the singers and either contin- score. It is important that each sing-
technique obviously works best for ues working on the same problem er continually monitors their audio
pieces with little to no rubato. Other area or moves on to a new section output level on the left side of Jam-
external tempo aides could include depending on whether or not the ulus to make sure that their micro-

midi-generated practice files or re- problem is still solved. In a live-re- phone is neither too loud nor too
cordings, although with recordings mote environment, the conductor soft. Singers can also adjust the vol-
it is harder to distinguish between can easily rehearse smaller sections ume levels of the other members of
the recorded singers and your sing- of music that are proving more dif- the choir in Jamulus to create their

ers when listening to provide feed- ficult by isolating them at the piano own unique balance of the group.
back. The conductor may also need and then putting them back into the One way to declutter the computer
to monitor the volume levels of the context of the larger piece. Latency screen is to print out hard-copies of
recordings during playback to make is less of an issue for smaller num- the score or use a separate tablet for
sure that they are loud enough to bers of measures and accumulates the music; but if that is not possible,
be heard but not so loud as to over- over time, so this type of detail-ori- each singer should arrange their
power the microphone input levels. ented work can be approached by windows so that they can always see
Finally, the conductor or an ac- using more traditional rehearsal the conductor and their own audio
companist could also play choral techniques. output levels at all times.
parts from the piano, as one might During a live-remote perfor- Vocal warm-ups, ear-training,
in a traditional choral rehearsal, but mance or run-through of a piece, it and sight-reading translate well to
that will still introduce an element is still possible for the conductor to the live-remote platform. The con-

68 CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9