…the players are reading sheet music and surely must be familar with the pieces…so what’s the deal?..style?
He synchronises everyone. If they were to just read their sheet music it wouldn’t take long for them all to be out of synch and making a noise like a tin-cat fight.
Pace and interpretation.
There has to be a leader who interprets the music, decides how fast each passage will go, and coordinates the orchestra accordingly; imagine trying to play with twenty to several hundred musicians, each of whom has his/her own ideas about the tempo and interpretation.
I’ve often wondered, too, about orchestra conductors, and I hope my question isn’t too off the point: What’s the big deal about the conductors? Often, the conductor is world famous, and prominently featured as the most important part of an orchestra. Why? I understand the role a conductor plays in keeping everyone in sync. But don’t the instrument players in the orchestra play a bigger role than the conductor? Isn’t the conductor little more than a human metronome? Why is the conductor such a big deal?
The conductor has a lot to say about how the musicians actually perform, maybe more obviously in rehearsal than during the actual public performance. He not only sets the tempo–and different conductors have different preferences regarding the same music–but decides when and at what volume to bring in and phase out the various sections of instruments. Some conductors are especially fond of prominent brass, others might emphasize the violins or the cellos in the same piece of music. The written score leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and the conductor is the guy who gets to do the interpreting.
Here’s a concert review (not a very positive one) which specifically discusses choices made by the conductor:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38589-2004Feb13.html
Previous link requires registration. Sorry.
These will serve as well:
From a purely mechanical standpoint, those of you wondering about the usefulness of a conductor have a point. After all, rock bands don’t need a conductor.
In fact, one of the hallmarks of a good conductor is the ability to not interfere when it’s not necessary. One of the worst things a conductor can do is to over-conduct.
But the type of music orchestras generally play are much more complicated than a simple march, for example. As said before, scores of players simply cannot coordinate subtle tempo changes or complicated meter changes as a cohesive unit without the guidance of a conductor.
Now to the “music” aspect. A highly skilled conductor can convey the whole range of human emotion with his hands and body at the same time as simple timekeeping. This is what is valued in a conductor. Essentially, the orchestra becomes a single instrument that is played by the conductor. Conductors must be perfectly clear and deliberate in their guidance of the interpretive aspects of a piece.
Rehearsal technique is also important. Especially in less mature groups, someone has to correct problems in an efficient and effective way. Time is money. A smart conductor knows exactly what to fix and how to fix it.
I don’t know the upper limit on the number of players that can manage without a conductor. Part of it depends on the piece, of course. The largest group I can remember playing with unconducted was probably the Mendelssohn Octet (8 string players.) What happens in this type of situation is actually somewhat similar to a conductor, with the duties being shared among various players at different times. Generally, the person with the smallest note values (16ths, for example, when everyone else is playing eighths) will be in control of tempo.
An orchestra conductor doesn’t just walk up and start waving his baton – if that was the whole job, musicians would be better served by a metronome. The conductor leads the orchestra during practice; he familiarizes them with his interpretation of the piece: how fast, how loud, how swift the crescendo will be; whether the violins or the woodwinds will dominate a given passage. Sure, the score says “allegro,” but exactly what tempo does that mean? The conductor decides. During the performance he keeps time, yes, but he also makes sure that the tympani comes in at exactly the right moment, that the violins enter in unison, that the whole enterprise works as a unit.
The great conductors do more than this. The music score is only the bare bones of how a piece will sound. Every conductor works with the musicians to flesh out those bones, and a great conductor will inspire them to carry the piece to new heights. He may even rearrange those bones to suit his vision. There’s more, but I’m tired.
I’ve often wondered about this, too. My brother-in-law, who was in band in high school said it was because you often can’t hear the other instruments. For example, if you’re in the horn section it’s likely the other horns are going to drown everything else out. Is this part of it, too?
Since the question is about music, I’ll move this thread to our arts forum, Cafe Society.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
I’m guessing that an orchestra with tons of practice playing the same piece will only need a conductor to start them off, and after that they should be fine. Is this generally correct?
I completely get the whole conductor and sheet music thing for large scale orchestral concerts. But, post-rehearsal period, is it really necessary when you’re just playing one song with Guns n Roses???
Even with a very familiar piece, each performance is a new interpretation, so the conductor’s role is still valid and necessary.
As for backing music for Guns and Roses and the like, I suspect the orchestra would be unable to hear the other musicians properly in order to keep together with them, and the conductor may well have an earpiece feeding him the full mix.
You’ve got it. To clarify slightly, the reason a rock band doesn’t need a conductor is because the rythym section of a band keeps everyone in time, and the music is more simple.
There was in interesting program on UK TV a little while ago - Faking It. They got a punk singer to conduct an orchestra. They had about a month to train him, and the idea was to pass him off as a real conductor in a competition. He did pretty well in the end, although I think most of the judges identified him as the impostor he did fool at least one of them. But it did take him a full month to get anywhere with the orchestra, when he started they just couldn’t keep in time. And he was only learning how to conduct a single piece of music.
Don’t think so no, they really need the conductor to keep them in time. Especially on pieces that fade to almost nothing before starting off again.
One of the other things to remember is that people, in general,(at least when playing handbells, which isn’t exactly the same as an orchestra) associate slow with quiet and fast with loud. This means that someone keeping a consistant beat contributes to people staying together.
Also, in many groups, some of the instrumentalists don’t play at all for large stretches of music. Any stretch longer than about 3 measures is very difficult to count and stay together with a group that has kept playing without you. The conductor gives you something to watch and help you stay in rhythm.
Anecdote: In West Lafayette, IN, at least when I lived there, part of the July 4 celebration is a competition among kids for conductor. The song the band plays is Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” , which the band could play in their sleep by ear. They play a long stretch while several judges pick out the 3 or 4 best kid conductors. The kids are each given a chance to conduct a 6 or so measure stretch and then the winner conducts the whole song. The last time I was there, one of the judges gave the winner this hint “Start waving your arms when the music starts and stop when they stop playing”. I had to chuckle, because it is supposed to be the other way around, the band following the leader.
Others have already mentioned the conductor’s role during rehearsal. During the performance, one of the roles of the conductor is to indeed keep everyone together in tempo. What you may not realize though, is how many tempo changes most symphonic pieces have. They can’t just get up there and start the orchestra off, then take a break until it’s over. There are parts when it slows down (ritardando, rallendando), then resumes the previous tempo (a tempo). There are complete time signature changes in the middle of pieces. There are times it may speed up (accelerando). There may be a solo section that ends in a cadenza, where the solist may be very free with the time siganture, and only the conductor can bring the rest of the orchestra back in at the same time. A handful of examples, but unlimited time signature possibilites. Keeping the orchestra together is only a portion of what the conductor does, I just wanted to mention that because no one had addressed it yet.
The conductor certainly does have a role to play in symphonic music, as many here have pointed out. One can verify this easily by listening to different recordings of the same piece of music, with the same orchestra, conducted by different conductors. Believe me, you will hear the difference.
But (there’s always a “but”) symphonic music can be performed without a conductor. Classical music fans will certainly be familiar with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a highly regarded orchestra that does not work with a conductor. They’re fantastic, both on record (which is probably easier to get away with) and in concert.
Good post.
Another point is that the conductor generally shapes the music. There are thousands of unwritten accents, crescendos, rallentandos, etc. that a good conductor can convey with subtle gestures.
As to the point of rehearsal time = money, yes, a simple downward push of the left hand, for example, is much more efficient than stopping the orchestra and explaining “put an accent, but not a really big one, on the 3rd beat of measure 237.”
Of course, this is all in theory. As I am a real conductor, I can tell you what the job actually involves:
I am a referee.
I am the collector of ulcers.
I spend many hundreds of hours reading scores, only to be told I’m nothing more than a metronome in a tux.
I maintain an account at Mr. Tux.
When things go right, I take no credit.
When things go wrong, I take the blame.
I have spent many thousands of hours refining the most subtle sign language ever invented. Only I have seen the end result. All others ignore it.
I am under the illusion that dynamics include fff, ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp, and ppp. This is my own personal fantasy. In reality, there are only two. They are fff and ffff.
Chorus members have no eyeballs, according to my best evidence.
and the best description of my job:
Does anyone here play trumpet? I’ll pay you a kidney.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons?
Ravel’s Bolero?