The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-01-02
EATING TIME.
"hen the Eaton Was First Used It Was
IA Formidable Six Foot Club.

"hen HIe Eaton Was First Used It Was
"a Formidable Six Foot Club.
Investigations into the origin of the
baton, or stick for beating time, which
Is used nowadays by the conductor of
every large orchestra, have brought out
the interesting fact that the first conduc.
tors baton was a formidable staff, about
SIX feet long, which the old time French
musician, Lully by name, who invented
1t, may have used as much to intilnidate
the members of his orchestra as to mark
the time. In the very oldest orchestras,
as In Chinese Orchestras of the present
day, there was no conductor in the
modern sense. Every performer played
as well as he could, and the man who
played upon the lOudest instrunent-the
kettle drum, for instance-lnarked the
time for the rest.
When music became more systematic
and refined, the chief command of the
orchestra was given to the member who
was regarded as the most accomplished
and skillful. He assigned the other mem.
bers their parts, drilled them at re.
hearsals and supervised the final per
Torrance.
To produce Il good effect it was ncces.
sary of course that the musicians
should play III time, and the chief Of the
orchestra, who himself played one in.
strument, was accustomed to mark the
beat by stamping on the floor with one
foot. For this easOn the conductor OF
an orchestra was at that period called
the pedarius.
Afterward it became customary fol
him to give the time by clapping the
fingers Of his right hand against the hOl.
low Of his left. The beater Of time after
this fashion was called the manuductOr.
Meantime experiments were made in
marking the time by striking together
shells and bones. The bones were soon
given up as instruments tc be used by
the conductor of an orchestra; but they
survived as an independent instrument.
Boys and negro Ministries ''play on the
bones with great gusto to this day.
In the carly part OF the Seventeenth
century the musician already alluded to,
Lully by name, arose. He found all
these instruments Of leadership i~neffec-
tive, and in order to reduce his PERFORM
6IS W COlLl pItLc StDJtCJIOI, lis pEOCuitil
Il stout staff six feet long, with which he
pounded vigorously on the floor to mark
the time.
One day, becoming particularly impa-
tent, and pounding with especial vigor,
Luily struck his foot instead Of the floor
with his baton. The wound gangrened,
and Lully died from its effects in 1857.
The baton continued III use through
out the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
centuries, but though it gradually de-
creased in size, there is no evidence that
conductors marked the time III any other
way than by pounding upon their music
stands or some other hard object.
All this pounding must have had an
unpleasant effect upOn the music, and
critics and musicians began to ridicule
the practice. In purse OF time, there
fore, we find musical conductors 10
longer humping upon the floor or their
music stands, but beating the time en-
tirely in the air. 1t seems to have taken
players IA very long time to learn that
they could get the time as cHsily by
means of the eye as Ivy e Ct the ear.
Youths Companion.