Richard Wagner 
On Conducting [PDF ebook] 
Ueber Das Dirigiren a Treatise on Style in the Execution of Classical Music

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Wagner have been appended. The footnotes, throughout, are the translator’s. The following pages are intended to form a record of my experience in a department of music which has hitherto been left to professional routine and amateur criticism. I shall appeal to professional executants, both instrumentalists and vocalists, rather than to conductors; since the executants only can tell whether, or not, they have been led by a competent conductor. I do not mean to set up a system, but simply to state certain facts, and record a number of practical Observations.