If everyone has sheet music and all the timing information down, then what’s the composer’s role?
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First off, the one waving the stick is the “conductor”, not the composer. The composer writes the music, and what the conductor does will be explained below.
Imagine you and a bunch of your friends all try to count to 100 in your heads, counting 1 every second. Everyone knows how long a second is, but there will be a very slight variation between people and by the time you get to 100, people will be off-sync with each other. Now imagine if you had a light in front of your group that changes color every second. Everyone has a visual indicator of exactly how long a second is, so it’s much easier to keep track of and (ideally) people will still be in-sync by the time they reach 100. That, in my opinion, is the main role of the conductor: Giving the performers a visual indicator of each segment of time.
The conductor can also help cue people in. Back to our example, imagine if you had to clap once you reach 55 seconds. You can count all 55 seconds (and you should), but just in case you lose track, the conductor can give you a cue on exactly when 55 seconds is, usually with some kind of point of their baton.
Another thing they are in charge of are special notes called “Fermata”. These notes specifically last for however long the conductor wants and are usually placed at the end of songs. The conductor can give a visual signal of exactly when to start, how long to hold, and when to stop these notes, allowing for clean cut-offs (Which generally are what you want). You can establish how long you are going to hold the Fermata beforehand, but again, people will have slight variations in how long that will be.
Of course, conductors can also do a ton of other stuff, but these are what I think of when I think of what they do.
TL:DR While they aren’t technically necessary for anything, they really help keep things in order.
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