Some critics have called Debussy a revolutionist. They are wrong. Debussy’s musical ancestors are Rameau and Couperin; and his works show us that “_revolution_ is merely _evolution_ made clear for all to see.” Such is the French music of the present—beautiful, refined, clear, polished, delicate, enchanting! * * * * * We, in our great country, like to hear all schools of music, and our wonderful orchestras are able to play equally well the works of all composers and of all schools and nationalities. Some of us prefer the French, some of us the Russian, and some of us the German Schools; but our taste is broad and cultured, and we wish to hear the various ways in which the musical minds of the day are expressing themselves. What an advance since the days of “a consort of lutes, or viols”! What a development since the Fifteenth Century, when gentle ladies played the _psaltérion_ and flute and _vielle_, as seen in our frontispiece! But to appreciate the evolution of the Orchestra, let us look at the picture of an Orchestra of the Eleventh Century (facing page 274), the earliest known representation of any Orchestra, taken from the capital of a column of a church near Rouen, and then compare it with the picture of the Symphony Society of New York (facing page 272). Between these two Orchestras, separated by a period of eight hundred years, we can realize the progress of “music’s ever welling spring, which has flowed through the centuries until it has become an ocean.” CHAPTER IX THE CONDUCTOR _The Score; a page from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; requirements of a Conductor; Lully; Wagner; our Symphony Orchestras._ The Orchestra, a great instrument, composed, as we have seen, of so many different instruments, voices, and human personalities, awaits the Conductor before it becomes of value. He enters, takes his stand before his men, raises his tiny white _bâton_, and the large body is vitalized into sound. All these many vibrations and voices reach our ears; and we, following the unfolding patterns and musical phrases, put them all together in the shape and form that the composer heard in his dreams, reduced to writing and made permanent for posterity. It is the Conductor’s work to make this musical pattern clear to us and to realize the composer’s intentions. If the Conductor did not understand the composition as preserved in the printed score, we could not put together all these musical fragments. It would be nothing but a broken-up jig-saw puzzle! A Conductor has to _know_ the score. [Illustration: ORCHESTRA OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY] To read a score requires a very high order of musical intelligence. Some of us have never thought to ask what the big book looks like that lies on the Conductor’s desk. Facing page 276 is a page from the Conductor’s score of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It is the opening of the second movement, _Andante con moto_.