What are composers doing when they’re waving the stick?

Question

If everyone has sheet music and all the timing information down, then what’s the composer’s role?

In: 952

Answer 1

1. Conductors tell the players how fast the music is going. To play in sync, they need to know what speed to play at. The movements show when each beat is, so players know when to play their notes.

2. A lot of music is interpreting it in an interesting way. Composers will write down “get louder” or “gradually slow down”, but everyone has a different idea of how much. The conductor helps keep everyone together in interpretation. Even more than that, they can add variation where they think it is needed, like telling the players to get louder even if it isn’t written in (all conductors do this at higher levels).