Tool used by
conductors to gesture towards and cue an
ensemble.
Traditionally,
choral conductors do not use batons as the idea of punctuating any choral passage with a baton is the
antithesis of the
technique usually taught to choral singers.
A baton is normally a length of
plastic,
fiberglass,
bone, or
wood with a handle of absorbant wood (like bubinga) or
cork. The absorbancy is important due to the fact that conducting is a work out and your hands sweat, along with everything else. Nothing jars a conductor like having a baton slip from his hand during a
raucous passage.
Conductors use
gestures with the baton in imply direction and interpretation within the ensemble.
Herbert von Karajan called it his "musical paintbrush." They are also used to cue performers of an approaching entrance.
Conducting, like any profession, has its dangers.
Sir Georg Solti is a perfect example of what can happen to the over-zealous conductor: he managed to injure himself twice with his baton during rather loud passages of two different pieces. Once, in his 60's, he hit his baton with his left hand while
cueing and broke off half an inch of it under the skin. The second injury was during his first performance for
the Queen, at
Covent Garden in
London. His arms began gesturing in such a wild manner, the poor man stabbed himself in the head with his baton, causing him to
bleed all over his tux and the score.
He was a
trooper though. He finished the
opera.