Before the Baton

This beautifully produced volume is a remarkable achievement - clearly the outcome of exhaustive, wide-ranging research. a stimulating and thought provoking read. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY * [A] fascinating and carefully argued book. Peter Holman distils a great breadth of reading, reflection and practical experience into a convincing description of how large-scale musical performances were directed before baton conducting took hold in the 1830s. This book has a great deal of interest to organists -- and for organists who also enjoy opera. -- David Knight * BIOS Journal *

PETER HOLMAN is Emeritus Professor of Historical Musicology at Leeds University. When not occupied with writing and research, he organises performances of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music, mostly directing them from the keyboard. He is director of The Parley of Instruments, Leeds Baroque, the Suffolk Villages Festival and the annual Baroque Summer School run by Cambridge Early Music.

To Beat or Not to Beat: The Continental Context 1. 'Heard but not Seen': Leading Anglican Cathedral Music from the Organ 2. 'With a Scroll of Parchment or Paper, in Hand': Large-Scale Choral Music 3. 'Accompanied all along on the Organ by his Own Inimitable Hand': Handel and the Direction of his Oratorios 4. 'The Conductor at the Organ': The Oratorio Tradition after Handel 5. 'That Ridiculous Custom': From Devolved Direction to CentralizedTime-Beating in Seventeenth-Century Theatre Music 6. 'Il maestro al cembalo': Directing Opera and Theatre Music from the Harpsichord 7. 'A New Discipline and a New Style of Playing': Directing Opera and Theatre Music from the Violin 8. 'That Powerful Sovereign, the Conductor': From the Piano to the Rostrum Superconductors or Semiconductors? Lessons for Today