,
the following principle should be noted: _A preliminary movement
sufficiently ample to be easily followed by the eye must be made
before actually giving the beat upon which the singers or players are
to begin the tone, if the attack is to be delivered with precision and
confidence._ Thus in the case of a composition beginning upon the
first beat of a measure, the conductor holds the baton poised in full
view of all performers, then, before actually bringing it down for the
attack, he raises it slightly, this upward movement often
corresponding to the back-stroke between an imaginary preceding beat
and the actual beat with which the composition begins. When a
composition begins upon the weak beat (_e.g._, the fourth beat of a
four-pulse measure), the preceding strong beat itself, together with
the back-stroke accompanying it, is often given as the preparation for
the actual initial beat. In case this is done the conductor must guard
against making this preliminary strong beat so prominent as to cause
the performers to mistake it for the actual signal to begin. If the
first phrase begins with an eighth-note ([music notation]), give a
short beat for 4 and an extra up-beat for the first note of the
phrase. If it begins with a sixteenth-note, do the same thing, but
make the extra up-beat with which the first tone is to be coincident
shorter and quicker. If a good attack cannot be secured in any other
way, beat an entire preliminary measure until the attack goes well,
then adopt some such plan as has just been suggested.

[Sidenote: THE RELEASE]

The preliminary up-beat which has just been discussed is equally
valuable as a preparation for the "release" or "cut-off." The movement
for the release is usually a down stroke to right or left, or even
upward. It is customary not to beat out the final measure of a
composition or a complete final section of a composition, but to
bring the baton down a few inches for the first beat of the measure,
and then to hold it poised in this position, either counting the beats
mentally, or trusting to feeling to determine the time for stopping. A
slight upward movement is then made just before the tone is to be
released, and it is the warning conveyed by this preliminary movement
that enables the performers to release the tone at the precise instant
when the baton is brought down for the cut-off. It should be noted
that the release must come at the _end_ of the duration value of the
final