The Orchestral Conductor

The Orchestral Conductor: Theory of His Art is by Hector Berlioz. The text says that music appears to be the most exacting of all the Arts, the cultivation of which presents the greatest difficulties, and that of creative artists the composer is almost the only one who is dependent upon a multitude. The text lists faults such as causing the chorus-singers to fail in taking up a point in a finale, and the cry that follows: The singers are detestable! The orchestra has no firmness. The malevolent orchestral conductor is very rare, while the conductor full of goodwill, but incapable, is on the contrary very common.

The text says that an orchestra which does not watch the conducting-stick has no conductor, and that the conductor should require the players he directs to look towards him as often as possible. The text says the conductor should use all his efforts to preserve the works of composers who know how to write, and should set his face against the economical fashion adopted by certain theatres of causing the cymbals and the long drum to be played by the same performer.