ABSTRACT
As has been noted before, the relationship between Ibbs and Tillett and conductors was generally speaking not a formal one, at least not before the Second World War. On the other hand, the agency run from Steinway Hall by Frank L. Cooper (who was joined by the former tenor John McCormack early in 1939), listed 27 conductors, including Beecham, Barbirolli, Coates, Furtwangler, Sargent, Toscanini, Walter and Wood (and a host of other singers and instrumentalists also to be found on Ibbs and Tillett's lists). They were evidently not exclusive; indeed that word does not appear anywhere in Cooper's brochure, while Ibbs and Tillett's first pages are devoted to artists for whom they are sole representatives. It is worth pausing to consider the career conductor between the two world wars, using Albert Coates as an example. Among his papers, not located in the Ibbs and Tillett archive but in the author's possession, there are two typewritten undated lists evidently made during the summer of 1933, relating to the period from September to November that year. They are entitled 'Secretary's General Instructions', and 'Secretary's Instructions, Concert after Concert' respectively, and were probably drawn up by his permanent secretary and intended to help a temporary replacement. Ibbs and Tillett and its competitor Harold Holt are mentioned at various points and the document provides a detailed description of Coates's routine. The notes are very specific and not only reveal the punishing schedule this conductor undertook, but also follow the complex infrastructure of his and many another musician's life, which such an agency would have to coordinate.
