Embodying Music: The Visuality of Three Iconic Conductors in London, 1840-1940

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the visuality of three iconic conductors who worked in London between 1840 and 1940; Louis Jullien, Hans Richter and Sir Henry Wood. It investigates the ways in which the public saw, discussed and understood how they moved, dressed, behaved and conceptualised their role, both on and off stage. The primary source material includes portraits and written descriptions of the conductors‘ posture, gesture, rehearsal and performance technique and behaviour, and elements of the conductors‘ off-stage personas. The texts and images are analysed using reception, historical and iconographical methods to establish their place within the greater corpus of music criticism and portraiture, and to ascertain whether the observations and images were unique or typical of conductors of the period. The results are then contextualised by relating them to the wider socio-cultural environment in which they were created. The importance which contemporaries attached to the visualities of Jullien, Richter and Wood was closely related to the increased prominence of conductors in concert life generally. Differences in gesture size and style between the three conductors, and indications of shifts in what audiences and critics considered to constitute good conducting, suggest that expectations of what a conductor did and how it was effective changed in this period. Contemporary conducting theory was likely to have had an influence on modes of depiction and the reception of images and gesture. Different visual aspects dominated the reception and portraiture of each conductor, although musical and non-musical factors could also influence the results. For example, issues of gender and national stereotypes influenced Jullien‘s public persona; perceived Germanic qualities and a personal connection with Wagner framed much of Richter‘s reception; and the influence of wars and national attitudes towards native musicians underpinned much of Wood‘s image. The metaphors applied to the three conductors and their roles in the music-making process were profoundly influenced by contemporary ideals of creativity, power, masculinity and leadership. Observers compared Jullien to a mesmerist, magician or military hero; Richter‘s role as a Wagnerian conductor was intellectualised, and his musical knowledge viewed as an intuitive, internal process; and, at the end of his life, Wood was celebrated as a craftsman, his hard work, punctuality and good nature cited as integral factors in the process by which he successfully translated the written score into sound. It is clear that the subjects‘ visualities were self-consciously fashioned, where possible. While the findings of this study are specific to its particular subject matter, the broader implication of the research is that visuality is likely to have been a pervasive and ongoing factor in the reception of conductors since the beginning of the profession.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.