Score Reading: A Key to the Music Experience

by Michael Dickreiter

Overview

The ability to read an orchestral score is an obvious necessity for conductors, but it can also be rewarding for musical amateurs. Following the score while listening to a piece of music can both heighten understanding and furnish a basis for judging the performance; a careful examination of the score can provide insights into the musical structure of a work that may be difficult to gain by listening. This book offers the knowledge required to read complex scores, with clear, accessible techniques for identifying and isolating the essential parts. Exercises using excerpts of scores from the simple to the difficult encourage the student or music lover to develop reading skills.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574673258
Publisher:	Amadeus Press, LLC
Publication date:	03/01/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	266
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael Dickreiter has earned a Tonmeister (sound engineer) diploma from Detmold Music Academy and a Ph.D. from Heidelberg University. He is an instructor at the School for Radio Technique in Nuremberg and the author of several books on sound recording techniques, acoustics and musical instruments.

Table of Contents

1.	Introduction	7
2.	Types of Scores	11
3.	The Look of a Score	17
	Parts, lines, brackets	17
	How to determine a score's makeup or instrumentation	20
	Organization of a score page	23
	Notation of individual instruments	31
	Transposing instruments	34
	Title pages: "Opus" and other work-numbering systems	39
	Partial scores	40
4.	Scores and Their History	41
	The first scores	41
	Renaissance and baroque scores	46
	Scores of the classic and romantic periods	51
5.	Reading a Score--Hearing a Score	65
	Methods for following a score	66
	Following a single part	67
	Chamber music scores	70
	Counting beats and measures	73
	Synchronizing image and sound	76
	Musical reading of a score	82
6.	Examples for Practicing Score Reading	91
	"Erbarme dich, mein Gott" (Have mercy, O Lord), Aria No. 47 from The Passion According to St. Matthew, BWV 244, Part II	92
	Romanze in F Major, Op. 50, No. 2, for violin and orchestra	101
	Waltz in D-flat Major, Op. 64, No. 1, for piano, the "Minute Waltz"	119
	Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Serenade in G Major, K. 525, fourth movement	124
	Quintet in A Major for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass, "The Trout," fourth movement	133
	Symphony in C Major, K. 551, "Jupiter," excerpt from the first movement	150
	Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, excerpt from the first movement	162
	Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, excerpt from the first movement	176
	Prelude to Tristan and Isolde	200
	The Firebird, ballet suite, 1945, excerpt	220
	A few scores recommended for further practice	243
7.	Orchestras and Conductors	245
	Numbers and types of instruments	248
	Seating plans	251
	Spatial effects	254
	The conductor	256
	Conducting technique	260
8.	Instrumentation and Score Reading: Suggestions for Further Reading	263

Editorial Reviews

Reading musical scores offers another way of experiencing the joy of music. Here, Dickreiter (Sch. for Radio Technique, Nuremberg, Germany) provides "the knowledge required for following a score while listening and, before listening, to obtain from the score all necessary information about the orchestra's makeup and the music's general formal arrangement." Chapter topics include the physical look of a score and ways to follow a score. The technical is overlaid with informative and easy-to-read history lessons on scores, orchestras, and conductors. Musical examples appear throughout, and there is an entire chapter of examples for practicing score reading. In formal music instruction settings, teachers will want to stick with Gordon Jacob's classic How To Read a Score (1944), but the amateur listener-musician will find both Dickreiter's writing and Pauly's translation fluent. Recommended for public libraries.--Janet Brewer, Murray State Univ., KY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Offers knowledge required to read complex musical scores, with clear, accessible techniques for identifying and isolating the essential parts. Explains various types of scores and their uses, and details visual appearances of various kinds of notation. Exercises using excerpts of simple and difficult scores encourage students to develop reading skills. Dickreiter teaches at the School for Radio Technique, Nuremberg. Pauly is professor emeritus at Lewis and Clark College. Published in 1983 and 1997 as ssel zum Erlebnis Musik/>, by Schott Musik International, Mainz. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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