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Jason Paulk, Editor <jason.paulk@enmu.edu>

A Beginning Conductor’s Journey in Score Study

by Carmen Ramirez

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can deal of skill and effort, and that is what makes it in-
remember. I started piano lessons when I was eight, teresting. 1
joined choir when I was ten, began playing cello in For the purposes here, we will examine Gabriel
the school orchestra when I was twelve, and later Fauré’s Requiem. I chose to study and conduct this
2
began learning other instruments on my own time. piece as my final project for the conducting class, as
Now I am a twenty-one-year-old junior music theory I had sung the work previously. Being familiar with
major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the piece helped when creating markings on the score.
loving every minute of my education. There are so This idea of being able to audiate the score is an im-
many classes I want to take and there is so much more portant part of the process as a conductor.
about music that I want to learn, but there just does
not seem to be enough time before I graduate.
Luckily, in the fall semester of 2020, I had a little Composer Background
extra space in my schedule and decided to take Con- To fully comprehend a musical score and its mean-
ducting. Although this class was not a graduation re- ing, one must first consider the life of the composer
quirement, I thought it would be an important skill and understand the circumstances that led them to
to learn as a musician. I never thought that a con- write the piece. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was born
ductor’s job was easy, but I also never realized just in Pamiers, Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, France, where he
how much goes into conducting. A conductor has to spent all of his life immersed in music. Under the di-
practice and analyze every little detail about a piece rection of many distinguished French musicians, such
of music before it ever gets to the first rehearsal, and as Camille Saint-Saëns, Fauré expanded his musical
3
even after that, changes may be made in the moment. knowledge at the École Niedermeyer and was even-
The art of conducting requires coordination and tually recognized as a gifted composer of French art
physical endurance. The score study that precedes song. He additionally wrote piano solos, quartets and
the performance is time consuming, requiring a great quintets, cello and violin sonatas, music for chamber

CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2023 Volume 63 Number 7 69