Page:Essentials in Conducting.djvu/43

Rh final section of a composition, but to bring the baton down a few inches for the first beat of the measure, and then to hold it poised in this position, either counting the beats mentally, or trusting to feeling to determine the time for stopping. A slight upward movement is then made just before the tone is to be released, and it is the warning conveyed by this preliminary movement that enables the performers to release the tone at the precise instant when the baton is brought down for the cut-off. It should be noted that the release; must come at the end of the duration value of the final note. In 4–4 a final  would therefore be held up to the beginning of the fourth beat, i.e., until one is on the point of counting four; a final , until the beginning of the first beat of the following measure. It is because of carelessness or ignorance on this point that composers now sometimes resort to such devices as  to show that the final tone has four full beats. In such a case, the ending  means exactly the same thing as , the tone being released precisely on one of the following measure, in either case.

In the case of a hold (fermata), the movement for the cut-off depends upon the nature of what follows. If the tone to be prolonged forms the end of a phrase or section, the baton is brought down vigorously as at the end of a composition; but if the hold occurs at the end of a phrase in such a way as not to form a decided closing point, or if it occurs in the midst of the phrase itself, the cut-off is not nearly so pronounced, and the conductor must exercise care to move his baton in such a direction as to insure its being ready to give a clear signal for the attack of the tone following the hold. Thus, with a hold on the third beat,  the cut-off would probably be toward the right and upward, this movement then serving also as a preliminary for the fourth beat to follow.