Open score reading is one of the hardest skills to master as a choral accompanist. The average pianist is pretty adept at reading music as traditionally laid out: treble clef and bass clef; however, with open score, the music is spread out and difficult to take in all at once. Typically, we see choir music scored either with soprano and alto joined in the treble clef and tenor and bass in the bass clef, or with each vocal part on a separate line as follows: sopranos, altos, and tenors on their own lines written in treble clef, and the basses notated on the sole bass clef staff. Of course, there are exceptions that go beyond “simple” SATB reading, but this is where the majority of choral music lies. So, what is the choral accompanist to do?
Just as pianists have to grow in their sightreading abilities with a traditional score, choral pianists have to grow in their sightreading abilities with open score. The best way to develop fluency in either case is to read a lot of music at a lower level.
Think about a child who is learning to read. A child begins by recognizing letters as representing sound, then strings the letters/sounds into a word. A first reading experience might look like reading a single word on a page accompanied by a picture: c-a-t. As the child progresses, he or she will start encountering some of the same letter combinations (words) over and over, developing a vocabulary of words he or she can read “at sight.”
The same thing happens with a pianist. We begin with recognizing step (seconds) and skip (thirds) intervals, moving up or down or staying the same, and then we add to that vocabulary with bigger intervals, chords, and longer strings of “words” in the form of scales and arpeggios. But if we move too quickly into harder-to-decipher patterns, our fluency lags behind. We end up with a disconnect between our playing ability (higher) and our reading ability (lower). To fix this, we must read a lot of music at a level lower than our playing ability in order to build up our ability to recognize patterns quickly.
For the choral accompanist interested in improving their skill in open score reading, I have put together several resources. One is the online workshop for How to Read Open Score. This gives a step-by-step overview of different scenarios one will face in choral accompanying, along with practical exercises for becoming more aware of what is happening on the page, how the voices are moving, and what is most important to play at any given time.
Another resource I have put together is The Well-Tempered Chorale Player. This is a collection of Bach chorales notated in open score for the purpose of developing the skill of reading SATB vocal parts that mostly move together (homophonically).
I have found that most collections of Bach chorales available today tend to either be choral parts written on two staves, or simply a keyboard reduction or realization of the parts. While both are helpful in giving the pianist an overview of the melodic and harmonic structure, neither are very helpful for practicing open score reading. The solution is found within each choral score of the Bach cantatas themselves, which offer both the voice parts on separate staves and a piano reduction suitable for accompaniment. I have selected 15 chorales from these works for you so that you do not need to search through each full cantata in order to find what you are looking for!
The chorales in The Well-Tempered Chorale Player are ordered loosely in the circle of fifths, so that you progress from reading in C major to the flat and sharp keys. Major and minor keys are both represented, and you will notice that all of the keys in which Bach wrote the chorales are represented in this collection.
Lastly, I host a Community of Choral Pianists on Facebook where like-minded choral accompanists can exchange ideas, ask questions, and get support for their work.
I hope you take advantage of one or more of these resources as you seek to build up your skills in reading open score for the benefit of your choir!
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