On Conducting | Page 4

NACH GOETHE:
"Fliegenschnauz' und Muckennas' Mit euren Anverwandten, Frosch im
Laub und Grill' im Gras, Ihr seid mir Musikanten!"
* * * * * * * *
"Flysnout and Midgenose, With all your kindred, too, Treefrog and

Meadow-grig. True musicians, YOU!"
(After GOETHE).
[The lines travestied are taken from "Oberon und Titanias goldene
Hochzeit." Intermezzo, Walpurgisnacht.--Faust I.]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

Wagner's Ueber das Dirigiren was published simultaneously in the
"Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik" and the "New-Yorker Musik-zeitung,"
1869. It was immediately issued in book form, Leipzig, 1869, and is
now incorporated in the author's collected writings, Vol. VIII. p.
325-410. ("Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen von Richard
Wagner," ten volumes, Leipzig, 1871-1883.) For various reasons,
chiefly personal, the book met with much opposition in Germany, but it
was extensively read, and has done a great deal of good. It is unique in
the literature of music: a treatise on style in the execution of classical
music, written by a great practical master of the grand style. Certain
asperities which pervade it from beginning to end could not well be
omitted in the translation; care has, however, been taken not to
exaggerate them. To elucidate some points in the text sundry extracts
from other writings of Wagner have been appended. The footnotes,
throughout, are the translator's.

ON CONDUCTING

The following pages are intended to form a record of my experience in
a department of music which has hitherto been left to professional
routine and amateur criticism. I shall appeal to professional executants,
both instrumentalists and vocalists, rather than to conductors; since the
executants only can tell whether, or not, they have been led by a
competent conductor. I do not mean to set up a system, but simply to
state certain facts, and record a number of practical observations.
Composers cannot afford to be indifferent to the manner in which their
works are presented to the public; and the public, naturally, cannot be
expected to decide whether the performance of a piece of music is
correct or faulty, since there are no data beyond the actual effect of the
performance to judge by.

I shall endeavour to throw some light upon the characteristics of
musical performances in Germany--with regard to the concert-room, as
well as to the theatre. Those who have experience in such matters are
aware that, in most cases, the defective constitution of German
orchestras and the faults of their performances are due to the
shortcomings of the conductors ("Capellmeister," "Musikdirectoren,"
etc.). The demands upon the orchestras have increased greatly of late,
their task has become more difficult and more complicated; yet the
directors of our art-institutions, display increasing negligence in their
choice of conductors. In the days when Mozart's scores afforded the
highest tasks that could be set before an orchestra, the typical German
Capellmeister was a formidable personage, who knew how to make
himself respected at his post--sure of his business, strict, despotic, and
by no means polite. Friedrich Schneider, of Dessau, was the last
representative I have met with of this now extinct species. Guhr, of
Frankfort, also may be reckoned as belonging to it. The attitude of
these men towards modern music was certainly "old fashioned"; but, in
their own way, they produced good solid work: as I found not more
than eight years ago [Footnote: Circa, 1861.] at Carlsruhe, when old
Capellmeister Strauss conducted "Lohengrin." This venerable and
worthy man evidently looked at my score with some little shyness; but,
he took good care of the orchestra, which he led with a degree of
precision and firmness impossible to excel. He was, clearly, a man not
to be trifled with, and his forces obeyed him to perfection. Singularly
enough, this old gentleman was the only German conductor of repute I
had met with, up to that time, who possessed true fire; his tempi were
more often a trifle too quick than too slow; but they were invariably
firm and well marked. Subsequently, H. Esser's conducting, at Vienna,
impressed me in like manner.
The older conductors of this stamp if they happened to be less gifted
than those mentioned, found it difficult to cope with the complications
of modern orchestral music--mainly because of their fixed notions
concerning the proper constitution of an orchestra. I am not aware that
the number of permanent members of an orchestra, has, in any German
town, been rectified according to the requirements of modern
instrumentation. Now-a-days, as of old, the principal parts in each
group of instruments, are allotted to the players according to the rules

of seniority [Footnote: Appointments at German Court theatres are
usually for life.]--thus men take first positions when their powers are on
the wane, whilst younger and stronger men are relegated to the
subordinate parts--a practice, the evil effects of which are particularly
noticeable with regard