Baton (conducting)
A baton is a stick that is used by conductors primarily to indicate the musical beat of a piece through horizontal and vertical movements. They are generally made of a light wood, fiberglass or carbon fiber which is tapered to a grip in a 'pear' shape, usually of cork or wood. Professional conductors often have them made to their own specifications based on their own physical demands and the nature of the performance: Sir Henry Wood and Herbert von Karajan are some examples[1]. When Gaspare Spontini arrived in Dresden in 1844, Wagner was required to have a baton made - a thick ebony staff with ivory knobs at either end[2].
Batons vary in length from about 10" up to 24", which Sir Henry Wood requested when his baton was being made[3]. The official Guinness world record for the world's largest baton is currently held by Kenton J. Hetrick, who on 14 October 2006 conducted the Harvard University Band in the introduction to "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with a baton 10 feet (3.0 m) long.[4]
Usage
The baton is usually held in the right hand though some left-handed conductors hold it in the left. The usual way of holding the baton is between the thumb and the first two fingers with the grip in against the palm of the hand. Some conductors like Pierre Boulez, Leopold Stokowski and Dimitri Mitropoulos however, chose not to hold a baton, preferring to conduct only with their hands. This method is common with smaller groups and choral conductors[5].
Whether or not conductors use batons, it must have direct relevance to the music being performed. Leonard Bernstein is quoted as saying 'if [the conductor] uses a baton, the baton itself must be a living thing, charged with a kind of electricity, which makes it an instrument of meaning in its tiniest movement. If the conductor does not use a baton, his hands must do the job with equal clarity. But baton or no baton, his gestures must be first and always meaningful in terms of the music'[6].
History of the Baton
Prior to the use of the baton, orchestral ensembles were conducted from the piano or the first violin led. Conductors first began to use violin bows or rolled pieces of paper before the modern baton was introduced.
16th - 18th Century
The first record of a baton use was by nuns in San Vito Lo Capo in 1594. A contemporary composer noted that 'the Maestra of the concert sits down at one end of the table with a long, slender and well-polished wand ... and when all the other sisters clearly are ready, gives them without noise several signs to begin and then continues by beating the measure of the time which they must obey in singing and playing'[7].
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87) kept time by thumping the ground with a long stick as was practice at the time. He accidentally struck his toe in rehearsal, creating an abscess. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread resulting in his death.
19th Century
The use of the baton was disapproved of until it began to gain acceptance between 1820 and 1840.
The Hallé Orchestra reported that Daniel Turk used a baton in 1810, with motions so exuberant that he occasionally hit the chandelier above his head and showered himself with glass. [8]
Louis Spohr claimed to have introduced the baton on April 10, 1820 while conducting his second symphony with the Philharmonic Society in London though witnesses noted that the conductor 'sits there and turns over the leaves of the score but after all, he cannot, without ... his baton, lead on his musical army'[9]. It is more likely that he used his baton in rehearsal than in concert. It was 1825 when George Smart reported that he sometimes 'beat time in front with a short stick'[10].
When Felix Mendelssohn returned to London in 1832, despite objections from violin leaders, he was encouraged to go on with his baton[11]. Despite the initial disagreement, the baton was in regular use at the Philharmonic a year later and is still used in orchestras throughout the world.
Vasily Safonov is considered the first modern conductor to dispense with the baton entirely.
References
- ^ José Antonio Bowen et al, The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003) p.3,4
- ^ ibid, p.104
- ^ ibid, p.4
- ^ Article in the Harvard Crimson
- ^ Bowen, op.cit., p.4
- ^ Leonard Bernstein, The Art of Conducting in The Joy of Music (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960) p.150
- ^ Ercole Bottrigari, Il Desiderio or Concerning the Playing Together of Various Musical Instruments tr. Carol MacClintock (Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1962) p.66
- ^ Charles Hallé, The Autobiography of Charles Hallé with Correspondence and Diaries ed. Michael Kennedy (London: Paul Elek Books, 1972) p.116
- ^ Ignaz Moscheles, The Life of Moscheles with Selections from his Diaries and Correspondence tr. A.D. Coleridge (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1873) vol.1 p.76
- ^ H. Bertram Cox et al, Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart (London: Longmans Green and Co., 1907) p.212
- ^ John Ella, supplement to 'Musical Union Record' (London) June 11, 1867