Draft:Norval L. Church

Norval Luther Church (December 12, 1896-June 1987) was a conductor, teacher, composer, author, and musicologist. He was an early proponent of teaching conducting as a performing medium. Church trained many conducting students during his 38-year tenure at Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), who themselves passed on his methods to their own students and professional colleagues. As a music educator, Church composed instrumental method books with his mentor and friend, Peter W. Dykema, to teach children with varying abilities how to play their instruments by reading simple musical excerpts.

Education
High School Diploma (1915): Church graduated from Homer High School (NE) in 1915.

Teaching Certificate (1916): Church received a teaching certificate from Wayne State Teachers College in Wayne, NE, in 1916. Associate's Diploma (1922): Church attended Kearney State Teacher’s College in Kearney, NE, from January 1921 to March 1922, earning a junior college diploma. While at Kearney State, Church met Peter Dykema, a frequent guest lecturer from the University of Wisconsin.

Bachelor's Degree (1925): Church relocated to Madison, WI in August 1922 to study with Dykema at the University of Wisconsin. Dykema also served as the faculty sponsor and National Supreme President for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the honorary music fraternity to which Church was elected. In 1925, Church graduated from Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in music.

Master's Degree (1930): Church completed a master's degree in education from Stanford University in 1930.

Doctoral Degree (1957): Church received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Phillips University in 1957.

Career
Pete Jenson School District, Nebraska (1916-17): Church taught public school for one year before joining the U.S. military in May 1917.

U. S. Armed Forces (1917-1919): During World War I and was stationed at Alcatraz Island, CA, where he played percussion in the band and taught music lessons to some of the interred prisoners. Church was discharged from military duty in April 1919 and returned to Emerson, NE.

University of Wisconsin (1923-25): While studying at the University of Wisconsin, Church served as the assistant director of university bands, directing the marching band during his junior and senior years and conducting the University Second band his senior year. Additionally, he served as director of music at University High School, where he recruited a high percentage of students into the music programs and led the band to a state championship.

Teachers College, Columbia University (1925-1962): In 1924, Dykema left Wisconsin to serve as professor and department chair of music education at TC. Church followed Dykema to New York City in 1925 to work at TC as an assistant professor of music. Church taught vocal and instrumental conducting and led the instrumental music education department at TC for 38 years. He was promoted to associate professor of music education in 1936 and professor of music by 1941.

San Jose College (1929-30): During the 1929-30 school year, Church was given a one-year leave of absence from TC. He worked as the music department head at San Jose College while he attended Stanford University.

Retirement (1962-1987): Church received professor emeritus status upon his retirement from TC in 1962. In retirement, Church remained active as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and author.

Publications
Church developed approaches to teaching instrumental music and rhythmic reading. He authored three instrumental music education books with his TC colleague Peter Dykema: Modern Orchestra Training Series; Modern Band Training Series; and Masterworks for Strings. He wrote many journal articles on conducting and music education including “Conducting as a Performing Medium,” published in the Instrumentalist magazine’s first volume in 1946, "Music Educators' Round Table" in Music Journal, "Teaching Instrumental Music through Music" in Progressive Education, and "Instrumental Activities" in Teachers College Record. In 1981, Church filed a copyright for a book he was writing entitled Conducting, a Performing Medium. He completed the book but it has not been published. Church created a nine-page synopsis of the book entitled Excerpts from Conducting Is a Performing Medium in 1970.

Conducting, Adjudicating, and Composing Activities
Church conducted many professional, community, and student bands, choirs, and orchestras throughout his career. In 1934, Church formed the Riverside Symphony Orchestra, a community ensemble that met at New York City's Riverside Church, and served as its permanent conductor until the 1960s. Church also served as the music director of the Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra in the 1960s. Church visited many parts of the United States to adjudicate music festivals; guest-conduct bands, choirs, and orchestras; and lecture at music schools, conferences, and professional association meetings. He guest-conducted the Honolulu Symphony while lecturing at the University of Hawaii in 1948. Church composed numerous short works for bands, choirs, and orchestras. Church was commissioned to compose a piece for chorus, orchestra, and band entitled, “The Candle of the Lord,” to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Oklahoma’s statehood and Phillips University. The piece was premiered in Enid, OK in 1957.

Professional Affiliations
Church served as the national past president of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America. His other professional affiliations included the National Association for American Composers and Conductors; National Committee on American Music; Phi Delta Kappa; Kappa Delta Phi; and Alpha Delta Kappa. Church was founding member of the Musicians Club of America, American Association of University Professors, the Northeastern America Music Educators National Conference, American String Teachers Association, and the American Musicological Society.

Teaching Conducting
Church's students were given the opportunity lead musical ensembles during their conducting classes. Church’s conducting classes were featured in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s News of the Week, as well as in news articles in American Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, and Parade. In 1937-38, Church made a 16-mm. motion-picture study of 15 European conductors leading their ensembles in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia. Church used the motion pictures in his TC conducting classes.

Connection to West Texas
From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, several Lubbock, Texas-area band directors studied conducting with Church at TC and earned graduate music degrees or professional diplomas. Ted Crager, band director at Lubbock's Monterey High School, earned a doctoral degree from TC in 1955. Crager studied conducting with Church for several years during the summer months. When he returned to Lubbock each fall, he shared Church's conducting techniques with Gary T. Garner. Garner said, “I attribute whatever I know about conducting, for good or for ill, to Norval Church, much of it through Ted Crager.” Crager served as director of bands and music department head at West Texas State College (now WTAMU) from 1958-1963.

Joe Haddon had been the marching band director at Texas Tech University from 1947-1954 when he took the job as the band and orchestra director at Midland High School, as well as the supervisor of instrumental music for the Midland school district. Haddon studied conducting with Church, earning master's and doctoral degrees, as well as a professional diploma, from TC. In 1959, he invited Church to lead a one-day music festival in Midland. This event afforded Garner his first and only in-person opportunity to witness Church conducting an ensemble. In 1961, Haddon became the band director at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX. The following year, Haddon invited Church to direct the band and teach conducting at the two-week Midwestern summer band camp.

Gary Garner adopted Church’s methods during his own 70-year conducting and teaching career and taught them to hundreds of his conducting students at West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) from 1963-2002. In the mid-1980s, Church visited the WT campus in Canyon, TX to give a one-day conducting workshop. During his visit, Church gave Garner an autographed copy of Excerpts from Conducting Is a Performing Medium, which summarizes Church's conducting methods.

Conducting Methods
As a conducting teacher, Church developed rules, or universal principles, that the conductor could apply in specific musical contexts. These principles are listed below.

Conducting is a performing medium: Since conducting technique is not easily attained, Church expected his students to study and practice their conducting gestures just as diligently as any other instrumental or vocal performer. 

Pragmatic: Church was a pragmatist and taught his students to take responsibility for ineffective ensemble playing caused by their poor conducting technique. Additionally, the overriding principle to which a conductor must adhere when gesturing to the ensemble is: Does it work?

A clear, readable stick technique is sufficient to produce an artistic performance: Church taught his students that possessing musicianship and the ability to read a musical score are necessary but not sufficient to produce an artistic performance. Conductors must acquire a comprehensive, readable conducting technique. A technically proficient conductor is more likely to produce an artistic performance.

Lack of bodily control leads to an inartistic performance: Church eschewed conductors who tensed their bodies, gestured awkwardly, or unconsciously moved parts of their body with the music's beat. Such gestures render the music impotent, negate the music's aesthetic, and present the audience with an ungraceful picture. Conductors must learn to control their bodies, rid themselves of tension, and appear controlled and graceful.

The beat is a timed line: According to Church, the conductor's primary responsibility is to show the music's phrasing. Church developed the idea that the beat is a timed line moving through space from point to point at a predictable rate of speed. Rather than simply beating the basic patterns of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, the conductor must vary the timed line's speed, length, and intensity to show the music's phrasing.

Rules for preparatory beats: Church taught his students that the goal of any preparatory gesture is to provide the ensemble with only as much preparation as necessary to respond appropriately, but not an instant more. Any additional time the conductor gives beyond what is needed is an invitation for an early entrance. Church's preparation for a response that occurs on the downbeat, which he labeled Rule One, is unconventional: if a note occurs on the beat, move immediately after the preceding beat. Most traditional conducting methods require the conductor to move before the preceding beat.

Church created rules for preparatory beats occurring on the upbeat (Rule Two: if a note comes on the upbeat or last third of the beat, move on the downbeat) and between the upbeat and downbeat (Rule Three: for pickup notes totaling less than a third of a beat in duration, move after the preceding beat). Garner added an additional rule for notes falling after the downbeat but before the upbeat (Rule Four: for pickup notes of more than a half beat in duration, move quickly on the previous full beat with a quick stop, then move on the rest).

Principle of negation: According to Church, if there is no rhythmic activity occurring in the music, the conductor will pulse the baton lightly or keep it still. The conductor negates the beat to discourage ensemble musicians from entering at the wrong time. Additionally, the conductor looks awkward when beating time in the absence of rhythmic activity.

Rebound principle: If the conductor negates one or more beats, the last active gesture will end in a rebound. The rebound should appear natural, resulting from the conductor arresting the arm's momentum as it moves down, left, or right. The rebound's speed and vigor are determined by the music's tempo and style.

Family
Church was the sixth of seven children born to John Milton Church and Luella Booth Church on December 12, 1896, in Plainview, NE. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Homer, NE.

Church married Sylvia M. Wilcox on October 16, 1918. Church and his wife, Sylvia, adopted twin sons, Richard Norval Church and Robert Wilcox Church, in 1927. Sylvia Church passed away of a heart attack on December 29, 1941.

Church married Francesca Esterly Korn on June 1, 1942. Ms. Korn graduated from Teaneck (NJ) High School, the Juilliard School, and TC. She was a professional cellist and teacher in the New York City area. Norval and Francesca Church had two daughters, Francesca Val Church and Ellen Booth Church.

Church passed away in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, in June 1987, a few months after his 90th birthday. In November 1987, an oil painting of Church by artist Marcia Howe was presented to TC by his late wife, Francesca Church. The painting hangs in the special collections room of the TC Gottesman Libraries. Church donated his body to Columbia University medical science and was interred on August 23, 1990 at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY.