Beating Time Through the Ages

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 77, 2 April 1937, Page 9

Beating Time Through the Ages

Sir John Gardner .Wilkenson. says that, in the orchestras of ancient Egypt it was customary for one or two musicians to beat time by the clapping of hands at regular intervals. In ancient Greece one of the musicians wore on his right foot a heavy leaden shoe to enable him to stamp the time loudly enough for all the other musicians to hear and follow. Apparently the method of time beating varied only with the years and never with any attempt* at * interpretation. “One man conducted with his foot,” Johann Bahr, leader of the orchestra at Weissenfals, wrote in 1719, ‘ ‘ another with his head, a third with his hand, some with both hands, some again took a roll of paper, and others took a stick.” Some used a handkerchief tied to the end of a piece of wood; others hammered a key on the organ bench; and in the Sistine Chapel in Rome in the 16th century it was customary to beat time with a roll of paper called the “sol-fa.” One hundred years later Jean Baptiste Lulli used a heavy stick—possibly his walking stick—which he pounded on the floor to emphasise the time. His premature death was attributed to this

method of conducting; if is said that accidenal blows on hiß legs with the stick ultimately caused gangrene. A century later we learn that the conductor struck a stick on on© of tho desks with such metronomic regularity that contemporary writers dubbed him “a wood chopper.” In the 18th. century conducting; wa,s “doubled” with the playing of the organ, the violin, the flute, or the harpsichord. Johann Sebastian Bach, his son, Phillipp Emanuel, aud Handel are associated with the practice. Even in the early 19th century the conductor would sit at the harpsichord and signal the beat with his head tq the leader of tho orchestra, who, in turn, would indicate the tempo to the men with movements of the violin while he was playing, or with his bow when at rest. Sometimes there .was both a time-beater (at the piano or harpsichord) and a conductor. In Vienna, it is said, Haydn’s 1 Creation’ was given with Kreutzer at the harpsichord and Salieri as conductor. In the early days of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra this method was used exclusively. Lulli used to indulge in the playful habit of breaking violins, in a rage, when the orchestra played out of tune. Handel once threw a kettle-drum at his players. ' Gluck once crept'under the desks at a rehearsal in order to pinch the calf of an offending playerl