ient works, the double-bass parts were
extremely simple; therefore there can be no reason to impoverish them
still more: those in modern scores are rather more difficult, it is
true; but, with very few exceptions, there is nothing in them impossible
of execution; composers, masters of their art, write them with care, and
as they ought to be executed. If it is from idleness that the simplifiers
pervert them, the energetic orchestral conductor is armed with the
necessary authority to compel the fulfilment of their duty. If it is
from incapacity, let him dismiss them. It is his best interest to rid
himself of instrumentalists who cannot play their instrument.

Flute-players, accustomed to having their parts written in the upper
octave, and not admitting that their part can be written below that of
clarinets or hautboys, frequently transpose entire passages an octave
higher. The conductor, if he does not carefully peruse his score, if he
is not thoroughly acquainted with the work he is conducting, or if his
ear lacks keenness, will not perceive the strange liberty thus taken.
Nevertheless, multitudes of such instances occur, and care should be
taken to banish them entirely.

It happens everywhere (I do not say in some orchestras only)--that when
ten, fifteen, or twenty violinists have to play the same part in unison,
that they do not count the bars' rest; each, from idleness, relying on
the others doing it. Whence it follows that scarcely half of them come
in again at the right moment; while the rest still hold their instrument
under their left arm, and look about them. Thus the point is greatly
weakened, if not entirely missed. I invoke the attention and vigor of
orchestral conductors to this insufferable habit. It is, however, so
rooted that they will only ensure its extirpation by making a large
number of violinists amenable for the fault of a single player; by
inflicting a fine, for example, upon a whole row, if one of them misses
coming in. Even were this fine no more than half-a-crown, I will answer
for it that each of the violinists would count his rests, and keep watch
that his neighbors did the same, since it might be inflicted five or six
times upon the same individuals in the course of one performance.

An orchestra, the instruments of which are not in tune individually, and
with each other, is a monstrosity; the conductor, therefore, should take
the greatest care that the musicians tune accurately. But this ope