What does a conductor do?

They may not be directly looking at him, but believe me, they see him.

I'm not sure of everything he does, but it's a lot.

He's responsible for bringing the entire orchestra together into one living entity. He's the vision of what the music is supposed to sound like, the emotions conveyed, what he wants the audience to hear. He's aware of every note, every nuance, every space between the notes. Nothing gets by him.

During the hours and hours (and hours and hours) of practice pre-performance, he works at bringing out each individuals part and how each individuals playing effects every other musician individually and as a whole.

No pun intended, but the conductor is the engine of the orchestra, where all the power comes from. Without him, there would be 50 interpretations of how something should be played.

I'm not a musical person at all, so I'm sure someone more experienced will have a better explanation. That's just my take on it.

I thought he collected the tickets and threw non-payers off the train.

Hey, kev. You did NOT answer my question about Yorkshire pudding.

Amazing what a musician can see out of the corner of his eye, Brit. I learned a lot about conductors when I participated in the community concert in Virginia. Learned that when the conductor raises his baton, that is when the music begins. I had always thought the opposite.

I figured the whole baton thing didn't do much other than put on a show, the performers know the music by the time they his stage. But his role behind the scenes putting together the music is a big one, working with the musicians, putting it together in sync. Kind of like what Chai said. Except I'm more wicked smart.

BBB
The conductor's job:

http://www.cso.org/main.taf?p=1,1,4,8

SCHUBERT'S COST-CONTAINED UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
I once wrote a parody about a conductor and the orchestra and the problems of providing health care. You may find it funny but learn something about the relationship between a conductor and the orchestra.
---BBB

SCHUBERT'S COST-CONTAINED UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTH CARE REFORM
By BumbleBeeBoogie - March 15, 1995

Have you ever wondered what would happen to the quality of your medical care under a draconian rationing program in your health plan? Let's look at it another way. Imagine, if you can, how a Bach fugue would sound with a harmonica instead of a pipe organ; a Sousa march without a booming tuba; or the Beatle's without Ringo's throbbing drum beat. Would the quality of the music be affected? Would you want to listen to it? Now, apply these examples to understand what could happen to the quality of medical care under the cost-containment goals of a health plan. Imagine Schubert's Unfinished Symphony as it would be performed by a civic orchestra under these circumstances.

The following memo from the symphony's treasurer may make you sick---but with laughter:

Under the Symphony's new cost-containment program, the attendance of the orchestra conductor will be unnecessary for public performances. The orchestra musicians obviously are required to practice. They have the conductor's prior authorization to play the symphony at a predetermined cadence and at an expected level of quality. Considerable money will be saved by merely having the conductor critique the orchestra's performance during a retrospective peer review meeting.

For considerable periods, the four oboe players have nothing to do. Reducing their numbers and spreading their work over the whole orchestra will eliminate peaks and valleys of activity.

Dispensing with either the snare drums or the kettle drums will eliminate an obvious redundancy and still produce the needed cadence for the musicians.

All twelve violin players produce identical notes with identical motions, an unnecessary duplication. The violin section will be drastically cut, resulting in substantial savings. Electronic amplification, with its high reproductive quality, may be used if more sound volume is desirable.

Much effort is expended by the musicians playing 16th notes, or semi-quavers, an excessive refinement. Most listeners can't distinguish such rapid playing. All notes will be rounded up to the nearest 8th. When this is done, it will be possible to use trainee musicians without loss of quality.

No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns, the same passage already been played by the strings. Elimination of all redundant passages, as determined by a cost-containment committee, will reduce the concert from two hours to twenty minutes. A great savings in salaries and overhead will be achieved. In fact, if Schubert had attended to these matters on a cost-containment basis, he probably would have been able to finish his symphony.

That's excellent BBB even I can see through that.

Letty my apologies I don't even remember the Yorkshire pudding question, if you ask the question again I'll get right on it.

In most cases, the baton is what lets the orchestra know what the tempo is. Trying to get 100 musicians to play at the same speed isn't easy! With many uppoer-tier orchestras, especially when they're playing a "standard" like Beethoven's 6th, the musicians can often slacken their attention to the conductor just a little, since they've quite likely played this piece countless times before; that might explain why the orchestra that Kev saw didn't appear to make much eye contact with the conductor. But even then the orchestra will need a few visual reminders of how much they should actually slow down when the score says rallentando, or something like that; trying to get everyone to feel what andante translates into in actual performance without the aid of a conductor is usually pretty disastrous.

It sounds mostly functional, and of course it is, but tempo is an enormous factor in determining whether we like one interpretation of a piece over another. One great exercise is to compare Pinnock's recording of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 to Furtwangler's... it'll give you a great idea of just how much a conductor can determine the sound of a piece.

I don't think the baton is necessary, I'm not sure, but I once went to a concert, and the conductor put down his baton in the last piece, and just blinked his eyes to show the tempo instead of using the baton. I was in a good place to see this, and was amazed as it was the best piece in the whole concert!

I used to play for a conductor who would use the baton only for faster pieces. For slow movements, he felt like he had more control in shaping the phrases with just his hands.

Letty,

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/barnicle/stanley/words/yorkshire%20pudden.htm

Hey, fresco. Believe it or not, Brit, I have made Yorkshire pudding. I was just teasing kev. Thanks for the recipe in song, however. Love it!

See that conductor's baton? <smile>



Have had the honor of seeing them perform several times in Daytona Beach.