What are the main schools of thought on conducting?

Question

Conductor Kevin Purcell writes on his personal website:

There are schools of conducting thought that have evolved over the years. Some of the more prominent of these (in no specific order) are the Saito Method (apologies for the lack of diacritic), the Malko and Scherchen inspired techniques and the Russian ‘Musin’ school.

https://kevinpurcell.com.au/Content/2016/02/is-there-really-a-good-book-on-conducting/

The Saito Method has its own website, but I've found it difficult to find information on the other techniques mentioned here.

What is the distinction between these methods? How do they differ?

Answer 1

for the Malko technique you should also look for Elizabeth A. H. Green there are videos on Youtube of her demonstrating some of the exercises herself here

as far as I understand the Malko technique tries to develop independent hand technique along with deep musical understanding to make it easier to express what you wish to conduct to players, it consists of standardized exercises and score studies to achieve this goal. You can just watch the video to get an idea I guess, this method is pretty accepted as far as reaching good hand movement goes.

Scherchen has a method book, which I have not read and I am completely unfamiliar with so maybe someone else can explain better.

He only mentioned a few schools of thought on conducting though, currently there is not a unified method for conducting or even a way to evaluate the conductor without a great orchestra to go along with them.