This device, together with an elaborate arrangement of swells and pedal-notes, has greatly enlarged the capacity of the organ for producing those choral effects which mainly depend upon gradations of volume. Yet the whole system, elaborate as it is, offers but a poor substitute for the marvellous range of individuality that may be expressed on the notes of the piano by instantaneous changes in the values ascribed to single notes. By the same action of his finger the pianist not only makes the note, but also gives its value; while the method of the organist is to neglect the element of finger-pressure and to rely upon other methods for imparting emphasis or softness to his work.
An organ that shall emit a louder or softer note, according to the force with which the key on the manual is depressed, will no doubt be one of the musical instruments of the twentieth century. Whether each key will be fitted with a resisting spring, or whether the lever will be constructed in such a way as to throw a weight to a higher or lower grade of position, according to the force with which it is struck, is a question which will depend upon the results of experiment. But the latter method is more in consonance with the conditions which have given to the piano its wonderful versatility, and it therefore seems the more probable solution of the two. Upon the vigour of the finger's impact will depend the height to which a valve is thrown, and this will determine the speed and volume of the air which is liberated to rush into the pipe and make the note.
The nineteenth century orchestra is a fearfully and wonderfully constructed agglomeration of ancient and modern instruments. Its merits are attested by the fine musical sense of the most experienced conductors, whose aim it has been so to balance the different instruments as to produce a tastefully-blended effect, while at the same time providing for solos and also for the rendering of parts in which a small number of performers may contribute to the unfolding of the composer's ideas. The orchestra cannot therefore be examined or discussed from a mechanical point of view, however much some of the instruments of which it is composed may be thought capable of improvement.
But the position of the conductor himself in the front of an orchestra is, from a purely artistic standpoint, highly anomalous. It is as if the prompter at the performance of a drama were to be seen taking the most conspicuous part and mixing among the actors upon the stage. If an orchestral piece be well played without the visible presence of a conductor, the sense of correct time reaches the audience naturally through the music itself; and any sort of gesticulations intended to mark it are under these conditions regarded as being out of place.
The foremost orchestral conductors of the day are evidently impressed with this unfitness of the mechanical marking of time by the wild waving of a stick or swaying of the body; and accordingly, however much they exert themselves at the rehearsal, they purposely subdue their motions during a public performance. The time is not far distant when the object of the conductor will be to guide his band without permitting his promptings to be perceived in any way by the audience.
For this purpose an "electric beat-indicator" will prove useful. Various proposals for its application have been put forward, and for different purposes several of them are obviously feasible. For instance, in one system the conductor sits in a place hidden from the audience and beats time on an electric contact-maker, which admits of his sending a special message to any particular performer whenever he desires to do so. The signal which marks the time may be given to each performer, either visually by a beater concealed within a small bell-shaped cavity affixed to his desk or to his electric light; or it may be conveyed by the sense of touch through a mechanical beater within a small metal weight placed on the floor and upon which he sets one of his feet.
The electric time-beater in the latter system thus taps the measure gently on the sole of the performer's foot, and special signals, as may be arranged, are sent to him by preconcerted combinations of taps. The absence of any distraction from the music itself will soon be gratefully felt by audiences, and the playing of a symphony in the twentieth century, in which the whole orchestra moves sympathetically in obedience to the "nerve-waves" of the electric current, will be the highest possible presentment of the musical art.