, however, that many chorus-masters, or sub-conductors of
orchestras, are sometimes of real utility, and even indispensable for the
maintenance of unity among very large masses of performers. When these
masses are obliged to be so disposed as that one portion of the players
or chorus-singers turn their back on the conductor, he needs a certain
number of sub-beaters of the time, placed before those of the performers
who cannot see him, and charged with repeating all his signals. In
order that this repetition shall be precise, the sub-conductors must
be careful never to take their eyes off the chief conductor's stick for
a single instant. If, in order to look at their score, they cease to
watch him for only three bars, a discrepancy arises immediately between
their time and his, and all is lost.

In a festival where 1200 performers were assembled under my direction,
at Paris, I had to employ four chorus-masters, stationed at the four
corners of the vocal mass, and two sub-conductors, one of whom directed
the wind-instruments, and the other the instruments of percussion. I had
earnestly besought them to look towards me incessantly; they did not
omit to do so, and our eight sticks, rising and falling without the
slightest discrepancy of rhythm, established amidst our 1200 performers
the most perfect unity ever witnessed.

With one or more electric metronomes, it seems no longer necessary to
have recourse to this means. One might, in fact, thus easily conduct
chorus-singers who turn their back towards the chief conductor; but
attentive and intelligent sub-conductors are always preferable to a
machine. They have not only to beat the time, like the metronomic staff,
but they have also to speak to the groups around them, to call their
attention to nice shades of execution, and, after bar-rests, to remind
them when the moment of their re-entry comes.

In a space arranged as a semicircular amphitheatre, the orchestral
conductor may conduct a considerable number of performers alone, all
eyes then being able to look towards him. Nevertheless, the employment
of a certain number of sub-conductors appears to me preferable to
individual direction, on account of the great distance between the chief
conductor and the extreme points of the vocal and instrumental body.

The more distant the orchestral conductor is from the performers he
directs, the more his influence over them is diminished.

The best way would be to have several sub-