Musical Conductor

Greenmachine

Excuse the ignorant question for the uninitiated, but I have always wondered what a musical conductor actually does. Should the musicians performing not know their marks. When to play, get their timing right themselves.

endacl

It's not all about starting and stopping. How can a viola player judge how loud or quiet they are in relation to the guy over the far side playing the xylophone while there's a trombone blasting over their shoulder? Which member of the orchestra decides the tempo, and manages gradual changes in tempo?

Doshea3

The conductor informs by words (in rehearsal) and gesture (in rehearsal and performance) the interpretative element of the performance, which is the shaping of the dynamics, articulation, speed, etc., aside from the purely technical business of playing/singing the right notes at the right time, which takes practice on the musicians' parts (of course) and also accuracy in giving a beat on the conductor's part.

Depending on the conductor, a lot of what he/she does may happen in rehearsal. In fact, a well-trained small choir can probably sing unconducted and rely on listening to each other (as in chamber music), but the conductor can help to control, shape and add spontaneity to a performance even if the choir knows the music well. You'd be surprised by how poorly some choirs will sing if they are suddenly without a conductor (orchestras at least have the leader to follow in order to keep together).

Conductors conducting large orchestras or choirs play an even more vital role in keeping a large group of spread-out people playing or singing together: even in an orchestra of say, 20, if you are spread out over a wide area you need to be able to watch the conductor because the nature of sound means that we cannot trust our ears alone to stay together, and often it is difficult to hear the instrument ten feet away with whom you are supposed to be pairing over your own instrument.

Conducting from a purely technical point of view is a very subtle and incredibly complex art: you'd be amazed at how much groups of singers (regardless of how musically educated they are) respond to different gestures a conductor makes. (For example, if you make tense heavy gestures they will produce a tense and heavy sound because they replicate the tension you show them in their own bodies.) I am currently doing a masters in conducting and I must say that it has given me a whole new appreciation of the art of the finest conductors.