A baton is a stick that is used by conductors primarily to exaggerate and enhance the manual and bodily movements associated with directing an ensemble of musicians. 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 normally vary in length from about 10" up to 24", which Sir Henry Wood requested when his baton was being made.[3]
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The baton is usually held in the right hand though some left-handed conductors hold it in the left (young left-handed conductors are sometimes 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.)[3]
Conductors view their gestures as the primary means to communicate musical ideas, whether or not they choose to use batons. Leonard Bernstein is quoted as saying 'if one [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'.[4]
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.
Prior to the use of the baton, orchestral ensembles were conducted from the harpsichord or the first violin lead. Conductors first began to use violin bows or rolled pieces of paper before the modern baton was introduced.
The first reported use of the conducting baton in a performances dates back to 709 BC, during which the leader "Pherekydes of Patrae, giver of rhythm" had...
"...stationed himself in the centre and had placed himself on a high seat, waving a golden staff, and the players on the flute and cythara were...placed in a circle around him...now when Pherekydes with his golden staff gave the signal, all the art-experiences men began in one and the same time...".[5]
On 8 January 1687, Jean-Baptiste Lully was conducting a Te Deum in honor of Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness. He was beating time by banging a long staff (a precursor to the baton) against the floor, as was the common practice at the time, when he struck his toe, creating an abscess. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread, resulting in his death on 22 March.
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.[6]
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".[7] 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'.[8]
When Felix Mendelssohn returned to London in 1832, despite objections from violin leaders, he was encouraged to go on with his baton.[9] 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.