The foundation of successful choral music education begins with the selection of repertoire that is of artistic and pedagogical merit and appropriately fitted to the needs of the ensemble. The limited resources presently available to beginning teachers and the relatively indiscriminate methods traditionally utilized by new conductors reduces their effectiveness in selecting choral literature. Several recent studies on literature selection have uncovered pertinent data related to processes and criteria used by narrow groups of music educators, yet these studies stop short of suggesting a methodology that could prove useful to preservice and beginning secondary choral music educators. This document presents a rubric-based methodology for the evaluation of choral literature designed specifically for preservice and beginning choral music educators.
The analytic rubric presented in this document is designed to determine the quality of the core aesthetic characteristics of the composition and the inherent pedagogical value for use in secondary choral music education. In addition to providing a detailed description and rationale for each component of the selection rubric, the document includes a review of related literature and musical examples that demonstrate effective utilization of the selection rubric. The Appendix includes a directory of distinctive lists of choral repertoire.