The Electrician, the Magician and the Nervous Conductor

The conductor must be able both to see and hear; he must be agile and energetic; he must know the construction, principles and range of the instruments; he must be able to read a score and must have … other almost indefinable gifts without which an invisible bond cannot be struck between him and those whom he directs … The musicians must share his feelings, his perceptions and his emotions. His feelings and emotions will then pass to them, his inner flame will warm them, his electricity will charge them, his drive will propel them. He will radiate the vital spark of music. But if he is lifeless and cold he paralyses everything around him, like icebergs floating in polar waters which you can tell, from the sudden chill in the air, are not far away.¹

The above is a passage from Berlioz's essay ‘Le chef d'orchestre, théorie de son art’, written in 1855 as the final chapter in an English version of the orchestration treatise. It was the first widely read account of modern conducting, serialized in both the Revue et gazette musicale and the Musical Times in 1856 and available in Italy and Germany soon thereafter. Written at the height of Berlioz's career, the essay was born of both knowledge and imagination, a record of the composer's struggle to master the art of orchestral leadership (often at odds with prevailing French tradition) and to elevate it to new heights. Among other things, it marked the moment when conducting emerged as an autonomous pursuit, a practice with its own technical and creative aims. No longer simply a time-beater or administrator, the chef d'orchestre celebrated by Berlioz was an interpreter, a locus of power, energy, and charisma.²

The change articulated in the essay as well as the rhetoric underpinning it had begun to take shape several decades earlier. Through the early part of the nineteenth century, the old conductor-violinist and conductor-keyboardist – leaders operating from within the ranks of the orchestra – gradually gave way to the idea of an independent baton-wielding director. This shift emanated from German-speaking centres: Carl Maria von Weber is reported to have led with a stick (or scroll of paper) in 1812 in Berlin, and more consistently as...