is, they raise the arm at the rest which
commences the bar, and lower it at the time of the chord.

I cannot approve of such a method, which nothing justifies, and which
may frequently occasion accidents in the execution. Neither do I see
why, in recitatives, the bar should not be divided regularly, and the
real beats marked in their place, as in music beaten in time. I therefore
advise--for the preceding example--that the first beat should be made
down, as usual, and the stick carried to the left for striking the chord
upon the second beat; and so on for analogous cases; always dividing the
bar regularly. It is very important, moreover, to divide it according to
the time previously indicated by the author, and not to forget,--if this
time is _allegro_ or _maestoso_, and if the reciting part has been some
time reciting unaccompanied,--to give to all the beats, when the orchestra
comes in again, the value of those of an allegro or of a maestoso. For
when the orchestra plays alone, it does so generally in time; it plays
without measured time only when it accompanies a voice or instrument in
recitative.

In the exceptional case where the recitative is written for the orchestra
itself, or for the chorus, or for a portion of either orchestra or chorus,
it being then requisite to keep together, whether in unison or in harmony,
but without regular time, a certain number of performers, _the conductor
himself becomes the real reciter_, and gives to each beat of the bar the
duration he judges fit. According to the form of the phrase, he divides
and subdivides the beats, now marks the accents, now the semiquavers, if
there are any, and, in short, indicates with his stick the melodic form
of the recitative.

It must of course be understood that the performers, knowing their parts
almost by heart, keep their eye constantly upon him, otherwise, neither
security nor unity can be obtained.

In general, even for timed music, the conductor should require the
players he directs to look towards him as often as possible.

_An orchestra which does not watch the conducting-stick has no conductor._
Often, after a pedal-point for instance, the conductor is obliged to
refrain from marking the decisive gesture which is to determine the
coming in of the orchestra until he sees the eyes of all the performers
fixed upon him. It is the duty of the conductor, during rehearsal, to
accustom them to look towards him simultaneously at the important
m