Alisha Reeve MUSE 376 Choral Methods Citation Directing the Choral Music Program Chapter 4: Planning and

d Building the Choral Program Kenneth H. Phillips 2004 There are many possible ensembles at the high school level. At this age you will have every voice represented. The types of ensembles a particular school will have will often depend on interest and enrollment. A Concert Choir is one of the most popular. It is generally auditioned and the number of students in the choir depends almost entirely on balance and blend. Another type of ensemble is a Chamber Choir or Madrigal Choir. This is a small, selective group of strong singers. It is useful for introducing students to classical literature. Choral Unions are generally found in schools with small choir enrollment. It is a mixture of weaker and stronger students; it allows the weaker students to experience a varied repertoire of music. Mens and Womens choirs are sometimes offshoots of a larger choir. By separating by gender even more varied repertoire can be learned. Show, Swing or Jazz choirs are becoming more popular. These groups often meet as extracurricular groups and are not graded. The size of these groups can very greatly. Treble choirs are often a necessity. This group results when there are too many females interested in choir and not enough men to balance them. A Treble choir is an alternative to keep the girls singing. A ninth-grade mixed chorus is also a very important group. At this point all four voice parts should be represented and thus four part scores can now be performed. This introductory choir allows for experience reading this type of music and gaining the knowledge necessary for participation in more advanced

choirs. This information will be very useful when it comes time to organize a choral music program of my own. The types and number of choirs I have will largely depend on enrollment and this list gives many wonderful ideas. This chapter also includes information on different schedules various schools might be on. We recently discussed block scheduling, 50 minutes schedule (7 periods), and trimesters. It will be very important to know how to plan for various different types of schedules. When going into a new program this can really help plan for long term goals. It might also let you know exactly how hard you will have to recruit to have a large program.