Chironomy

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The skill of using hand gestures to lead musical performances encompasses directing musicians through visual communication methods while interpreting and shaping music together
2. The technique of guiding musical interpretation through hand motions involves directing musicians and conveying musical ideas non-verbally
3. The practice of directing musicians by making deliberate hand movements to shape the performance of a musical piece

Etymology: In ancient Greece, "kheironomia" meant gesturing or gesticulation, and a "kheironomos" was a skilled gesturer, a mime whose hands did the talking. The word is built from "kheiro-", meaning hand, and "nomos", a word with the sense of control or management. So the original idea was a hand that manages or directs, which sits neatly with the later musical sense of a conductor shaping sound without speaking. The term passed into Latin as "chironomia" and then into French as "chironomie" before reaching English. Its ancient meaning was not about music at all but about the expressive gestures of performers on stage, which suggests that the connection between hands and performance was present from the start.