This project arose out of a need by the author to increase his personal expertise in the area of performance of solo vocal literature. As a current music educator, the author has determined that music preparation and performance are activities which take a large portion of his involved time within the context of music instruction. As a result, preparation and performance are of paramount importance for the teacher of music to understand and convey to his students based on personal experience. The project also provides the author/presenter with the opportunity to demonstrate his acquired skills in the area of musical performance. A final consideration for selecting a recital as a project was to enhance future educational, professional, and performing opportunities for the author/presenter.
As a means of achieving the desired development of content expertise in the area of music rehearsal and performance, the choice of a recital was made after consultation with the author\u27s major professor. It was determined that a suitable format for a recital includes the selection of a unifying theme such as a particular historical or stylistic period. In this case, music of the Baroque was selected because of its accepted artistic and aesthetic merit as well as its technical challenge to the presenter in terms of performance difficulty. Barogque literature (music) for bass/baritone was selected to match the author\u27s voice type.
It is hoped that as a result of presenting the recital and report document the presenter will have gained an increased awareness of the specific music to be performed in terms of how and why the music was originally written and performed and be able to demonstrate this increased awareness through a stylistically correct performance. Brief lecture segments interspersed throughout the recital serve as an additional means to demonstrate, in verbal form, the increased awareness and expertise in the area of Baroque vocal music which has been acquired