Sunday 27 September 2009

Chironomy: conducting Gregorian Chant


"Chironomy, like all conducting, is nothing more or less than the visual, the manual reproduction of the essential skeleton of the music, with the purpose of inducing the singers to execute it according to the
ideas the conductor wishes to express."
 
-- From THE TECHNIQUE OF GREGORIAN CHIRONOMY by Joseph Robert Carroll
 
Read this to learn how to go about conducting your schola:  http://musicasacra.com/books/chironomy.pdf

Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement says it: "has written the best, perhaps even the only, complete tutorial in conducting chant according to the Solesmes method, which is known as chironomy. This guide was first published in 1955 by the Gregorian Institute of America, and is republished in 2009 by the Church Music Association of America. It is no substitute for a live lesson but it is the best tutorial in print."

http://www.musicasacra.com/books/chironomy.pdf