The Technic of the Baton: A Handbook for Students of Conducting (Classic Reprint)
(Conducting is an art, and a difficult one to master. It r...)
Conducting is an art, and a difficult one to master. It requires a special talent, enthusiasm, great nervous vitality; a serious study of the works written by the masters of music; the magnetic power of forcing the executants to carry out the conductors demands; infinite patience, great tenacity, great self-control, and absolute knowledge of the technique of the baton. The last is a complete sign language through and by which the conductor issues his commands and achieves his results. With the baton and an infinite variety of movements of hand, wrist and arm, the conductor indicates the tempo and its changes, the dynamics, the expression, and in fact all the inner spirit and meaning of the music. He insures precision and unanimity whether his executants number one hundred or one thousand, and plays upon them as the pianist upon his keyboard or the violinist upon the strings of his Cremona. Much of this must be inborn, but much can be acquired by study. Mr. Albert Stoessel sbook will be of great help to the earnest student. Mr. Stoessel was appointed teacher of conducting in the Bandmasters School, which I founded during the war at General Pershing srequest at G. H. Q., Chaumont, France. HJ sbook is admirably planned and executed. It is clear, practical and stimulating, and I hope it will be generally used throughout the country. The lack of routine and the ignorance of even the simplest rudiments of the art of beating time is appalling among many of our conductors, organists and choir-masters. Mr. Stoessel sbook should be of great help to them. (S igned) Walter
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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University String Orchestra Album: Selected Classics for String Orchestra- Full Score
(1. Serenade in Four Movements (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) by...)
1. Serenade in Four Movements (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) by W.A. Mozart
2. Aria bt A.F. Tenaglia
3. Two Gavottes (from the Suite in D Major) by J.S. Bach
4. Two Dances (from the Ballet, "Terpsichore") by G.F. Handel
5. Marche Militaire by Franz Schubert
6. Gavotte (from "Iphigenia in Aulis") by Christoph W. von Gluck
7. Chorale and Chorale Prelude by J.S. Bach
8. Minuet (from the Sixth Suite) by J.P. Rameau
9. "Emporer" Variations by Franz Joseph Haydn
10. Two Old Dances by William Byrd
11. Overture to "The Messiah" by G.F. Handel
Compiled, edited, and arranged by Albert Stoessel in 1927, the University String Orchestra Album remains a sought-after compendium of orchestral classics by Mozart, Bach, Handel, and more. Stoessel, with the help of Martin Bernstein, arranged these standards with careful attention paid to ensemble flexibility. The collection can be performed by various instrumental combinations including a third violin part to act as an optional viola part replacement. This full score makes this collection perfect for contests and festivals.
Albert Frederic Stoessel was an American composer, violinist and conductor. He composed several works for chorus and orchestra, a sonata for violin and piano, and other symphonic and chamber works. Besides, Stoessel was the author of an instruction manual, Technique of the Baton (1919).
Background
Albert was born on October 11, 1894 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the eldest of the two sons and one daughter of Albert John and Alfreda (Wiedmann) Stoessel. Both parents were first-generation Americans, their families having come, respectively, from Switzerland and the German province of Swabia.
Education
Stoessel's father, a professional violinist and leader of a theatre orchestra in St. Louis, began teaching his son the violin at a very early age, and by the age of twelve Albert had begun composing. He attended local public schools through the eighth grade and continued his violin study with St. Louis teachers.
In 1910, at the age of fifteen, with money earned chiefly from the sale of two published compositions, he went to Berlin to study at the Hochschule fur Musik with such masters as Emanuel Wirth, Willy Hess, and August Hermann Kretzschmar.
Career
After completing his studies in 1913, Stoessel began his professional career, touring Europe as second violinist with the Hess Quartet. He made his debut as solo violinist in November 1914 with the Bluthner Orchestra in Berlin, and followed this appearance with others in London and Paris.
He returned to the United States in the summer of 1915, established a home at Auburndale, Massachussets, and made his American debut with the St. Louis Symphony on November 19.
After America's entry into World War I, Stoessel was drafted into the army and later commissioned a second lieutenant as bandmaster of the American Expeditionary Forces' 301st Infantry Band, which reached France in July 1918. At the close of the war he was appointed director of the newly founded A. E. F. Bandmaster's School in Chaumont, France, where he met the conductor Walter Damrosch, one of the school's sponsors.
Stoessel returned to the United States in 1919 and the next year accepted Damrosch's invitation to serve under him as assistant director of the New York Oratorio Society. He also continued his composing and undertook a heavy schedule of concert tours, beginning with a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Monteux on April 1, 1920.
In 1921 he traveled as assisting artist to Enrico Caruso on the tenor's last tour of the United States. Starting in 1921, Stoessel gradually shifted the emphasis of his career from the violin to the podium. In that year he succeeded Walter Damrosch as director of the New York Oratorio Society and became an orchestral conductor at the annual Chautauqua (New York) Music Festival.
Stoessel's educational activities date from 1923, when he was asked to organize and direct the first music department of New York University.
He resigned in 1930 to give full time to the duties at the Juilliard Graduate School in New York that he had assumed in 1927. There, as head of the orchestra and opera departments, he directed the training of student conductors, orchestra members, and young singers, and conducted the school's opera performances.
Many of his students later made successful careers as conductors, section leaders and first-chair players in orchestras, and members of opera companies. Stoessel continued to appear as guest conductor with leading symphony orchestras, including those of St. Louis, Cleveland, New York, and Boston.
In his concerts he presented many new works by composers such as Werner Josten, Robert Russell Bennett, George Antheil, and Gian Francesco Malipiero, as well as his own orchestral compositions. He was responsible for the first New York production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1934), and for the first uncut performances given in New York of Bach's two great choral works, the Mass in B Minor and the St. Matthew Passion.
Early in 1943 Stoessel, now forty-eight, was disappointed in his hope of being made director of the Cleveland Symphony. He showed some signs of heart disease and was warned to take a year's rest, but agreed to give a final concert conducting members of the New York Philharmonic at the annual award ceremonies of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City.
As the orchestra played the closing chord of the premier performance of Robert Nathan and Walter Damrosch's narrative cantata, Dunkirk, he collapsed on the podium and died immediately of a heart attack.
(1. Serenade in Four Movements (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) by...)
Religion
Reared in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Stoessel after his marriage became a Christian Scientist, like his wife, but later joined the Episcopal Church.
Views
As a conductor Stoessel commanded the affection and respect of his musicians. As a composer, he was thoroughly trained, painstaking, and somewhat conservative.
Personality
More than six feet tall and sturdy in build, he possessed innate dignity and kindliness and carried his points on the podium by careful instructions, a clear beat, and unfailing courtesy. Always even-tempered, he yet conducted with fire and brilliance.
Connections
On June 27, 1917, at Auburndale, Stoessel married Julia Pickard, who had been a pupil of his in Berlin. Their children were Albert Frederick, who died in childhood, Edward Pickard, and Frederick.