Essentials in Conducting | Page 6

of creative imagination that enables the inventor to
project his mind into the future and see a continent spanned by railways
and telephones, and the barrier of an ocean broken down by means of
wireless and aeroplane; and in every case the inventor works with old
and well-known materials, being merely enabled by the power of his
creative faculties (as they are erroneously called) to combine these
known materials in new ways.
In the case of the musician, such creative imagination has always been
recognized as a sine qua non of original composition, but its necessity
has not always been so clearly felt in the case of the performer. Upon
analyzing the situation it becomes evident, however, that the performer
cannot possibly get from the composer his real message unless he can
follow him in his imagination, and thus re-create the work. As for
adding anything original to what the composer has given, this is plainly
out of the question unless the interpreter is endowed somewhat
extensively with creative imagination; and the possession of this
quality will enable him to introduce such subtle variations from a
cut-and-dried, merely accurate rendition as will make his performance
seem really spontaneous, and will inevitably arouse a more enthusiastic
emotional response in the listeners.
Weingartner sums up the value of imagination in the final paragraph of
one of the few really valuable books on conducting at our disposal.[3]

More and more I have come to think that what decides the worth of
conducting is the degree of suggestive power that the conductor can
exercise over the performers. At the rehearsals he is mostly nothing
more than a workman, who schools the men under him so
conscientiously and precisely that each of them knows his place and
what he has to do there; he first becomes an artist when the moment
comes for the production of the work. Not even the most assiduous
rehearsing, so necessary a prerequisite as this is, can so stimulate the
capacities of the players as the force of imagination of the conductor. It
is not the transference of his personal will, but the mysterious act of
creation that called the work itself into being takes place again in him,
and transcending the narrow limits of reproduction, he becomes a
new-creator, a self-creator.
[Footnote 3: Weingartner, On Conducting, translated by Ernest
Newman, p. 56.]
This quality is indispensable to all musicians, be they creators or
performers, but is especially desirable in the conductor, for he needs it
not only from the standpoint of interpretation, as already noted, but
from that of manager or organizer. Upon this latter point we shall have
more to say later, but it may be well to state just here that if the
conductor could imagine what was going on in the minds of his players
or singers, and could see things from their viewpoint; if he could
forecast the effect of his explanatory directions or of his disciplinary
rulings, nine-tenths of all the quarreling, bickering, and general
dissatisfaction that so frequently mar the work of any musical
organization could easily be eliminated. We might also add that if the
conductor could only foresee the effect upon his audiences of certain
works, or of certain interpretations, his plans would probably often be
materially altered.
[Sidenote: ORGANIZING ABILITY AND A SENSE OF
LEADERSHIP]
But the conductor must be more than a humorous-minded and
imaginative musician. He must also (especially in these modern times)
be an organizer, a business man, a leader. The qualities of leadership

and organizing ability are so closely connected that we shall for the
most part treat them together in our discussion, and they are so
important that a fairly extensive analysis will be attempted.
In an article on Schumann in Grove's Dictionary Dr. Philip Spitta, the
well-known historian and critic, comments upon the conducting of this
famous composer as follows:[4]
Schumann was sadly wanting in the real talent for conducting. All who
ever saw him conduct or played under his direction are agreed on this
point. Irrespective of the fact that conducting for any length of time
tired him out, he had neither the collectedness and prompt presence of
mind, nor the sympathetic faculty, nor the enterprising dash, without
each of which conducting in the true sense is impossible. He even
found difficulty in starting at a given tempo; nay, he even sometimes
shrank from giving any initial beat, so that some energetic pioneer
would begin without waiting for the signal, and without incurring
Schumann's wrath! Besides this, any thorough practice, bit by bit, with
his orchestra, with instructive remarks by the way as to the mode of
execution, was impossible to this great artist, who in this respect was a
striking contrast to Mendelssohn. He would have a piece played
through, and if it did