American Choral Review Archive

The Choral Conductor and the Orchestra, adapted from the Lehrbuch...

The Choral Conductor and the Orchestra, adapted from the Lehrbuch der Chorleitung by Kurt Thomas, is published as a sequel to "The Choral Conductor" (Volume XIII, Numbers I and 2 of the American Choral Review). The American Choral Foundation once again gratefully acknowledges permission received from the publishers of the original German edition, Breitkopf and Hartel, Wiesbaden, and their American representatives, Associated Music Publishers, New York. Having been intended to mark the occasion of the author's seventieth birthday, the publication of this small volume is a memorial tribute: Kurt Thomas died on March 31, 1973.

It was the author's explicit wish that selected chapters from the two supplementary volumes of his text be added to the English publication of the work. The discussion presented here (Volume III, Chapter I of the Lehrbuch) reflects his experience in combining choral and orchestral practice which culminated in his direction of the Thomaner and the Gewandhaus-Orchester as Cantor at St. Thomas's in Leipzig. At the same time it suggests a fundamental artistic goal that guided him in his historic assignment: to reinstate the natural integration of vocal and instrumental elements that characterized choral performance in the days of his great predecessor.