Before the Baton – Musical Direction and Conducting in Stuart and Georgian Britain: Music in Britain, 1600-2000

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