The conductor is also a musician, and the instrument they play is the entire orchestra.
Leonard Bernstein asks these questions and gives his answers in a 1955 Omnibus program. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1dn3at
A websearch on “orchestras without conductors” turns up a wealth of articles on these questions.
Thanks for posting this – fascinating.
I just found this earlier thread, with links to even earlier threads. https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=858960
This is absolutely fascinating. I trained as a physicist, but I’d never considered this effect. Thanks for posting.
I’ve played in a few instances with a guest conductor. Even though the band had rehearsed the music beforehand and knew it, and it was simple music, and the guest conductor was just as good/professional as our regular conductor… it still was hard to follow them. The whole band had issues, not just me (in none of the instances were we professional musicians).
A conductor is pretty crucial to the whole operation. They’re an important part of the band and they do in fact lead the band to where they want it to go.
Keith Lockhart has been the conductor of the Boston Pops for 24 years. He and his staff would be very involved in planning the performances for the entire season. Keith is the face of the orchestra and does a lot of promotional work.
Conducting a live performance is just one part of his job.
Re: acoustics, aside from the delay, it can just be hard to hear all of what’s going on. Especially when you have the piccolos shrieking in your left ear. There’s a heavy visual component to playing together, as most pieces aren’t just set steadily to a metronome for their entirety. At small size you can see everyone. At large, you cannot. Hence the conductor.
Quick bump:
Last weekend I saw a musical at a summer stock theater. There was no orchestra pit; the six-piece orchestra was backstage. A monitor hanging on the back wall of the audience let the 10 or so dancers see the musical director/ conductor so they could all stay in step with each other.
And that’s to say nothing of the constant tweaking and directing an orchestra does during a performance