To my untrained eye it just looks as if he’s randomly waving a wand at people. Does the orchestra actually NEED him standing there waving at them? surely they look at their music sheets and start playing when required?
Also what kind of training do you have to undergo to become a conductor?
As for the first question yes. You’ll find a full answer here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33076
As for training, my younger brother (conductorman in the above thread) is a conductor of a college orchestra. he has a Doctorate degree. YMMV. I’ll ask him to give you a better answer (he doesn’t frequent the board that often).
Conductors are absolutely necessary in two regards.
First, most of their job is actually off the scene. If there are 80 people in an orchestra, that means there will be 80 different views on a certain piece. The conductor’s role is to impose a single interpretation, thus ensuring any kind of coherence in the group. For small groups like quartets, members can just agree with each other that a certain passage should be played without any vibratto. When there are 40 people in the string section, you need someone there to tell people not to shake their fingers.
The second part is on stage. Their role is not only to give cues, but to provide a single point onto which performers can focus, and effect the way they will play.
I was in a choir and an orchestra and I can assure you that without anyone conducting, we were utter crap, with a bad conductor, we sucked, and with our regular, talented and typically extrovert conductor, we more or less rocked.
The key word being: cohesion.
Also check out this Cafe Society thread, in which we discuss the differences between major conductors and ensembles.
Absolutely. Conductors are used to supply electrical power to overhead lamps. This allows the musicians and audience to see.
Har!
Har, again!
RR