over-arduous or a bit sleepy during
the first stages of rehearsing a new composition, and makes a wrong
entrance, perhaps during a pause just before the climacteric point.
The occurrence is really funny and the other performers are inclined
to smile or snicker, but our serious conductor quells the outbreak
with a scowl. The humorous leader, on the other hand, sees the
occurrence as the performers do, joins in the laugh that is raised at
the expense of the offender, and the rehearsal goes on with renewed
spirit.

An instrumental performer makes a bad tone, and the conductor laughs
at him, saying it sounds like a wolf howling or an ass braying. If the
remark is accompanied by a smile, the performer straightens up and
tries to overcome the fault; but if the comment is made with a snarl
there is a tightening up of muscles, an increased tension of the
nerves, and the performer is more than likely to do worse the next
time.

There is a difference of opinion between the conductor and some
performer about fingering or bowing, phrasing or interpretation, and a
quarrel seems imminent; but the conductor refuses to take the matter
too seriously, and, having ample authority for his own viewpoint,
proceeds as he has begun, later on talking it over with the performer,
and perhaps giving him a reason for his opinion.

Humor is thus seen to have the same effect upon a body of musicians as
oil applied to machinery, and musical machinery seems to need more of
this kind of lubrication than almost any other variety.

But the conductor must distinguish carefully between sarcastic wit,
which laughs _at_, and humor, which laughs _with_. In a book bearing
the copyright date of 1849, the writer distinguishes between the two,
in the following words:[1]

Humor originally meant moisture, a signification it
metaphorically retains, for it is the very juice of the
mind, enriching and fertilizing where it falls. Wit laughs
at; humor laughs with. Wit lashes external appearances, or
cunningly exchanges single foibles into character; humor
glides into the heart of its object, looks lovingly upon the
infirmities it attacks, and represents the whole man. Wit is
abrupt, scornful ...; humor is slow and shy, insinuating its
fun into your heart.

[Footnote 1: Whipple, _Literature and Life_, p. 91.]

[Sidenote: THE VALUE OF A CHEERFUL ATTITUDE]

The conductor with a sense of humor will ordinarily have the