Handbook of Conducting

Herman Scherchen (1891-1966), the distinguished German conductor, was largely self-taught in music. He played the viola in the Berlin Philharmonic (1907-10) and in 1918 founded the Neue Musikgesellschaft in Berlin. He was an ardent champion of twentieth-century music, especially that of Schoenberg, with whom he toured. From 1928 to 1933 he was in charge of music for the Konigsberg Radio and in 1933 settled in Switzerland and led for six years the Zürich Radio Orchestra. A number of Scherchen's classic recordings from the 1950s and early 1960s are again available, now on compact disc. Handbook of Conducting offers an admirably full and clear analysis of the techniques of conducting. First published in 1933, it is still of immense value to all students of conducting. It will be of interest as well to all musicians and anyone who listens to orchestral music.

Norman Del Mar is Conductor and Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music. He has recorded extensively with English orchestras and written books on orchestration and instrumentation, as well as studies of Richard Strauss and Mahler's Sixth Symphony.