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

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

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Everyone has the sheet music, but they have to play at the same tempo, and raise and lower volumes, there may be parts that slow down, speed up, some instruments aren’t played, so they’d need to know exactly when to restart playing, or stop. Or to say, trumpets are getting louder right now, so start and louder, louder, okay, loud enough. The hand signals are interpreted by the musicians after a lot of practice.

The consuctor brings it all together using a silent language that the band understands and communicates with. Someone may be playing off beat or tone, he’s signalling them to correct them.
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The sheet music is technical, the conductor combines it and brings it together

Edit: conductor, not composer

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