ing of the following phrase. But all of these
things are done in different ways by various conductors, and no set
rules can therefore be formulated.

The most important point to be noted by the beginner in conducting is
that one must not direct with merely the hand and arm, but must use
the entire body from head to toe in communicating to his chorus or
orchestra his own emotion. Facial expression, the manner of grasping
the baton, the set of the shoulders, the elevation of the chest, the
position of the feet, the poise of the head--all these must he
indicative of the emotional tone of the music being rendered. But be
sure you feel a genuine emotion which leads you to do these various
things, and do not play to the audience by going through all kinds of
contortions that are not prompted at all by the meaning of the music,
but are called into existence entirely by the conductor's desire to
have the audience think that he is a great interpreter. If the
conductor does his work at any point in such a fashion that the
audience watches him and is filled with marvel and admiration because
of the interesting movements that he is making, instead of listening
to the chorus or orchestra and being thrilled by the beautiful music
that is being heard, then that conductor is retarding rather than
advancing the progress of art appreciation; in short he is failing in
his mission. One of the sincerest compliments that the writer has ever
received came when he asked his wife whether he had conducted well at
a certain public performance, and she replied that she guessed it was
all right, but that she had been so absorbed in listening to the music
that she had not thought of him at all!

The development of modern orchestral and operatic music has brought
about a tremendous change in the prominence of the conductor, and
there is no doubt but that his part in musical performance is now more
important than that of any other type of interpreter, being probably
second in importance only to that of the composer. From having been
originally a mere time-beater, he has now come to be the interpreter
_par excellence_; and as Weingartner remarks (_op. cit._, p. 9) in
referring to Wagner's conducting:

He is often able to transform as if by magic a more or less
indefinite sound picture into a beautifully shaped,
heart-moving vision, making people ask themselves in
astonishment how it is that this work which they had long
tho