ration
should not be performed in presence of the public; and, moreover, every
instrumental noise--every kind of preluding between the acts--constitutes
a real offence to all civilized auditors. The bad training of an
orchestra, and its musical mediocrity is to be inferred from the
impertinent noise it makes during the periods of quiet at an Opera or
Concert.

It is also imperative for a conductor not to allow clarinet-players to
use always the same instrument (the clarinet in _Bb_), without regard to
the author's indications; just as if the different clarinets--those in
_D_ and _A_, particularly--had not a special character of their own, of
which the intelligent composer knows the exact value; and as if the
clarinet in _A_ had not moreover a low semitone more than the clarinet in
_Bb_--, the C#, of excellent effect, [Illustration] produced by the E,
[Illustration] which E gives only the D, [Illustration] on the clarinet
in _Bb_.

A habit as vicious, and still more baneful, has crept into many
orchestras since the introduction of horns with cylinders and pistons:
it is that of playing _in open sounds_; by means of the new mechanism
adapted to the instrument, those notes intended by the composer to be
produced _in closed sounds_, by means of the right hand within the bell.
Moreover, the horn-players nowadays, on account of the facility afforded
by the pistons or cylinders for putting their instrument into different
keys, use only the _horn in F_ whatever may be the key indicated by the
author. This custom gives rise to a host of inconveniences, from which
the conductor should use all his efforts to preserve the works of
composers _who know how to write_.

He should also set his face against the economical fashion adopted by
certain theatres--called lyric--of causing the cymbals and the long drum
to be played by the same performer. The sound of the cymbals when attached
to the drum--as they must be to render this economy feasible--is an
ignoble noise, fit only for bands at tea-gardens. This custom, moreover,
leads mediocre composers into the habit of never employing one of these
instruments without the other, and considering their use as solely
confined to forcibly marking the accented parts of the bar. This is an
idea fruitful in noisy platitudes; and one that has brought upon us the
ridiculous excesses beneath which, if a stop be not put to them,
dramatic music will sooner or later sink.

I conclude by expressing s