advantage
also of being cheerful in his attitude toward the performers, and this
is an asset of no mean significance. It is a well-known psychophysical
fact that the human body does much better work when the mind is free
from care, and that in any profession or vocation, other things being
equal, the worker who is cheerful and optimistic will perform his
labor much more efficiently at the expense of considerably less mental
and bodily energy than he who is ill-humored, worried, fretful, and
unable to take a joke. But the _foreman_ who possesses this quality of
cheerfulness and humor is doubly fortunate, for he not only secures
the beneficial results in his own case, but by his attitude frequently
arouses the same desirable state of mind and body in those who are
working under him. It is particularly because of this latter fact that
the conductor needs to cultivate a cheerful, even a humorous outlook,
especially in the rehearsal. As the result of forming this habit, he
will be enabled to give directions in such a way that they will be
obeyed cheerfully (and consequently more effectively); he will find it
possible to rehearse longer with less fatigue both to himself and to
his musical forces; and he will be able to digest his food and to
sleep soundly after the rehearsal because he is not worrying over
trivial annoyances that, after all, should have been dismissed with a
laugh as soon as they appeared. There must not of course be so much
levity that the effectiveness of the rehearsal will be endangered, but
there is not much likelihood that this will happen; whereas there
seems to be considerable danger that our rehearsals will become too
cold and formal. A writer on the psychology of laughter states that
"laughter is man's best friend";[2] and in another place (p. 342) says
that the smile always brings to the mind "relaxation from strain."

[Footnote 2: Sully, _An Essay on Laughter_.]

[Sidenote: THE VALUE OF IMAGINATION IN CONDUCTING]

Creative imagination is an inborn quality--"a gift of the gods"--and
if the individual does not possess it, very little can be done for him
in the artistic realm. Constructive or creative imagination implies
the ability to combine known elements in new ways--_to use the mind
forwards_, as it were. The possession of this trait makes it possible
to picture to oneself how things are going to look or sound or feel
before any actual sense experience has taken place; to see into
people's min