Introduction

Summary

The parrot-cry has … gone up that Englishmen should conduct English orchestral concerts. But where are the Englishmen? Mr. Wood is ill; when he is well he has plenty of work to do; Dr. F. H. Cowen has his hands full at the Crystal Palace, at Liverpool, at Bradford, and in Scotland. These are our only two conductors of experience. Dr. Elgar is to direct the next Queen's Hall concert, but the composer of ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ would not care, I should think, to give up his time to conducting. Who else is there? And where are the orchestras? I can only think of Mr. Godfrey at Bournemouth, where the municipality spends its money on an orchestra. That is, indeed, the solution to the problem. When England has its municipal-aided music, so that every town of decent size possesses its own permanent orchestra, as is the case in Germany, we shall have conductors of our own, and with the increased musical activity our composers will grow. Until that time comes, to protest against foreign music and musicians is foolish.

E. A. B., ‘Music and the Drama. Music’, Daily News (1902)

The agency and value of orchestral and choral-orchestral conductors are widely appreciated today. Inspirational and acclaimed conductors embody gifts of leadership and interpretation that elicit celebrity ranking and treatment. The work of those who preside on the podium is dynamically linked to elevated institutional identity, status and box-office returns. In these pages we turn back to a period when understandings of the function, craft, role, value and status of the conductor were taking shape in Britain. With the Austro-German tradition as its strongest impetus, baton conducting was progressively adopted during the nineteenth century. This very visible concept of centralized control, in which the baton conductor played no instrument but rather made soundless gestures in the foreground, acted as a catalyst for change. A transformation in the performance and reception of orchestral and choral-orchestral music was underway. Integral to this transformation was the increasing recognition of the scope of the conductor's impact. Plentiful evidence of reactions to this process is found in the shifting parameters and language of criticism as well as in institutional and personal struggles to accommodate the growing autonomy embedded in the conductor's role.