perform his task
in such fashion as to be looked up to by the members of his chorus or
orchestra as the real leader, and if he himself does not feel
confident of being able to do his work better than any one else upon
the ground, he cannot possibly be successful in any very high degree.
A conductor must first of all be a strong leader, and failing in this,
no amount of musical ability or anything else will enable him to
conduct well. We shall have more to say upon this point in a later
chapter.

[Sidenote: SUMMARY OF THE HISTORY OF CONDUCTING]

Conducting of one kind or another has undoubtedly been practised for
many centuries, but directing by gestures of the hand has not been
traced farther back than the fourteenth century, at which time
Heinrich von Meissen, a Minnesinger, is represented in an old
manuscript directing a group of musicians with stick in hand. In the
fifteenth century the leader of the Sistine Choir at Rome directed the
singers with a roll of paper (called a "sol-fa"), held in his hand. By
the latter part of the seventeenth century it had become customary for
the conductor to sit at the harpsichord or organ, filling in the
harmonies from a "figured bass," and giving any needed signals with
one hand or the head as best he could. Conducting during this period
signified merely keeping the performers together; that is, the chief
function of the conductor was that of "time beater." With the advent
of the conductor in the role of interpreter, such directing became
obsolete, and from the early nineteenth century, and particularly as
the result of the impetus given the art by the conducting of
Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner, the conductor has become an
exceedingly important functionary, in these modern days even ranking
with the _prima donna_ in operatic performances! It is now the
conductor's aim not merely to see that a composition is played
correctly and with good ensemble; more than that, the leader of today
gives his own version or _reading_ of the composition just as the
pianist or violinist does. Instead of being a mere "time beater" he
has become an interpreter, and (except in the case of the
organist-director of a choir) he attempts to do nothing except so to
manipulate his musical forces as to secure an effective performance.

[Sidenote: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS OF CONDUCTING]

The conductor works largely through the instrumentality of
_instinctive imitation_; that is, his methods are fo