Abstracts Category : Other

An Analysis of Influences on Choral Performance Adjudicators' Rating Decisions of Choral Performance

by Christopher M Hansen

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine influences on choral music adjudicators rating decisions of choral performance quality and (b) to see if differences existed among those influences by participants years of adjudication experience and academic training (degree focus). Part One of the study included eight randomly selected participants (<i>N </i> = 8), comprised of choral adjudication experts, to aid in the construction of the data collection instrument. Part Two of the study included a convenience sample (<i>N</i> = 71) comprised of choral music performance adjudicators within the southeastern United States. For the primary purpose, the <i>Choral Adjudicator Preference Scale </i> (CAPS), a researcher-constructed data-gathering instrument, was developed to determine influences on choral adjudicators rating decisions of choral performance. A Cronbachs Coefficient Alpha measure of internal consistency was calculated to establish reliability of the CAPS data collection instrument. A coefficient of .934 was found for the CAPS, which indicated a high level of internal consistency. Validity for the data-gathering instrument was established through three sources, (a) an open-ended questionnaire sent to the eight choral adjudicators, (b) a thorough review of the related literature and (c) verification by choral activities chairpersons among the southeastern states. For research question one (What factors influence adjudicators decisions when adjudicating choirs?) a principal component analysis revealed 23 items that coalesced among four factors of influence: (a) the ensembles performance, (b) visual aspects, (c) extra-musical aspects, and (d) the conductors contributions. These four factors accounted for 61.49 percent of the total variance in participants responses. For the secondary purpose, a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was calculated to determine if differences existed among factors of influence by participants years of adjudication experience and academic training (degree focus). For research question two (Do differences exist among adjudicators influences on rating decisions by years of adjudication experience?) a significant main effect was found for the factors, <i>F</i> (3, 189) = 216.581, <i> p</i> = .000, 2 = .775; however, there was no main effect for years of adjudication experience, nor an interaction effect among the factors and years of adjudication experience. For research question three (Do differences exist among adjudicators influences on rating decisions by academic training?) a significant main effect was found for the factors, <i> F</i> (3, 201) = 195.326, <i>p</i> = .000, 2 = .745; however, there was no main effect for academic training, nor an interaction effect among the factors and academic training. A discussion of the influences on choral adjudicators rating decisions was presented. Recommendations for future research were