Baton

A modern wooden conducting baton

A baton is a stick that is used by conductors primarily to exaggerate and enhance manual and bodily movements. They are generally made of a light wood, fiberglass or carbon fiber which is tapered to a grip shaped like a pear, drop, cylinder etc, usually of cork or wood. The grip can be customized based on the conductor's needs. 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 (although young left handed conductors are encouraged to learn right handed). 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, choose 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].

The first batons were in a narrow cone shape and had an engraving of three rings at the bottom of the cone. This indicated where you would put your hand. These batons were made out of wood.

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].

19th Century

The baton began to gain in popularity 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 to England 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.

John Ella (1802-1888): Family papers, pedigrees and early pictures of this musician are held at the Record Office in Leicester, archive collection MISC1260 and MISC1294, also DE6612 and at The East Riding of Yorkshire Archives in Beverley, collection DDX551.

References

1. ^ José Antonio Bowen et al., The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003) p.3,4
2. ^ ibid, p.104
3. ^ ibid, p.4
4. ^ Article in the Harvard Crimson
5. ^ Bowen, op.cit., p.4
6. ^ Leonard Bernstein, The Art of Conducting in The Joy of Music (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1960) p.150
7. ^ Ercole Bottrigari, Il Desiderio or Concerning the Playing Together of Various Musical Instruments tr. Carol MacClintock (Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1962) p.66
8. ^ Charles Hallé, The Autobiography of Charles Hallé with Correspondence and Diaries ed. Michael Kennedy (London: Paul Elek Books, 1972) p.116
9. ^ 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
10. ^ H. Bertram Cox et al., Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart (London: Longmans Green and Co., 1907) p.212
11. ^ John Ella, supplement to 'Musical Union Record' (London) June 11, 1867