Repertoire as Pedagogy

Including music from a wide range of cultures calls for choral directors to rethink the common practices employed in most choral rehearsals, and to open themselves to a world of new procedures within rehearsals and performances. Since few directors are also ethnomusicologists, these new practices may also impact the role the director plays in the rehearsals. This chapter challenges directors to define their reasons for including vocal music from outside the western art tradition. Directors should consider alternative processes for finding repertory, presenting it to the ensemble, and sharing it. They need to address challenges singers meet when matching vocal timbres and movement that are concomitant with multicultural musical traditions. Finally they must blend consistent choices with repertory that reflects cultural diversity.