<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section does not cite any sources . Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> An early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape . This has been practiced at least as far back as the Middle Ages . In the Christian church, the person giving these symbols held a staff to signify his role, and it seems that as music became rhythmically more complex, the staff was moved up and down to indicate the beat, acting as an early form of baton . </P> <P> In the 17th century, other devices to indicate the passing of time came into use . Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown in pictures from this period . The large staff was responsible for the death of Jean - Baptiste Lully, who injured his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for the King's recovery from illness . The wound became gangrenous and Lully refused amputation, whereupon the gangrene spread to his leg and he died two months later . </P>

The motion given by early conductors to guide an instrumental ensemble was called