[Sidenote: ORGANIZING ABILITY NEEDED TO AVOID WASTING TIME]

Having now reviewed the various essentials in conducting from the
standpoint of public performance, we wish emphatically to state our
conviction that in many cases both choruses and orchestras have been
short-lived, being abandoned after a season or two of more or less
unsatisfactory work, directly as a result of the inefficient methods
used by the conductor in the rehearsal. In an earlier chapter (p. 18)
we noted that the successful conductor of the present day must possess
a personality combining traits almost opposite in their nature;
_viz._, _artistry_ and _organizing ability_. We were referring at that
time to business sense in general as needed by the conductor in
selecting works to be performed, deciding upon the place, duration,
and number of rehearsal periods, engaging artists to assist in the
public performances, and in general, seeing to it that the business
details of the organization are attended to in an efficient manner.
But such organizing ability is needed most of all in planning and
conducting the rehearsal, and there is no doubt that mediocre results
at the public performance and not infrequently the actual breaking up
of amateur organizations may be traced more often to the inability of
the conductor to make the best use of his time in the always
inadequate rehearsal hour than to any other source. It is for this
reason that we have thought best to devote an entire chapter to a
discussion of what might be termed "The Technique of the Rehearsal."

[Sidenote: EFFICIENCY NOT A DESTROYER OF IDEALISM]

The word _efficiency_ has been used so frequently in recent years that
it has come to be in almost as bad odor as the word _artistic_, as
employed by the would-be critic of esthetic effects. This antipathy to
the word is perhaps most pronounced on the part of the artist, and
there has been a well-defined feeling on the part of a good many of us
that efficiency and advancement in art appreciation do not perhaps go
hand-in-hand as much as might be desired. Granting the validity of
this criticism of efficiency as a national ideal, it must nevertheless
be evident that the artist has in the past been far too little
concerned with life's business affairs, and that both he and his
family on the one hand, and those having business relations with him
on the other would be far better off if the artist would cultivate a
more businesslike attitude in his r