If everyone has sheet music and all the timing information down, then what’s the composer’s role?
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Even skilled musicians can gradually get off when it comes to timing, especially when it comes to tempo changes. Everyone might have a slightly different idea of what “speed up” or “slow down” means, or if it’s a really drastic or sudden tempo change. The conductor’s role is to make sure everything stays on pace by swinging the baton in tempo with the music, as well as making other hand gestures to communicate various cues throughout the music.
You’re absolutely correct when you say that professional musicians won’t have any issue playing the music on their sheet or playing at the correct tempo.
The conductor is doing a few things during a performance:
1. They “live mix” the band by telling certain players/instruments to change their volume. It is notoriously hard to know how loud your instrument sounds to the audience when you’re sitting in the band. The conductor can hear all instruments from up front and can keep people from playing too loudly or softly.
2. They offer a visual way to keep time, especially for the percussion section. When you’re on stage, it’s actually really really hard to keep time with an instrument that’s in front of you vs behind you. Instruments in front of you will naturally be heard with a slight delay, but instruments behind you will be heard instantly. That’s why the percussion section is always in the back, so the entire band hears their rhythm correctly.
The person waving the stick is a conductor. A composer is the one who wrote the music.
The sheet music is a set of instructions to the musicians. One of the conductor’s job is to make sure the musicians play in unison. They musicians have to start together, play together, and end together. Also, the conductor is like a sound board technician. They can alter the EQ or “equalizer” by telling some sections to play louder and softer at a certain point to enhance the music or feeling. It’s like adding more bass, mid-voices, or more treble on a sound system.
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
Even skilled musicians can gradually get off when it comes to timing, especially when it comes to tempo changes. Everyone might have a slightly different idea of what “speed up” or “slow down” means, or if it’s a really drastic or sudden tempo change. The conductor’s role is to make sure everything stays on pace by swinging the baton in tempo with the music, as well as making other hand gestures to communicate various cues throughout the music.
Composer *and* conductor here!
A composer writes music, you’re thinking of a conductor. Whenever a large group of musicians play together, it’s best for them to have a leader to start them off, keep them playing together, and give them suggestions on when to play loud or soft or heavy or light or whatever. That’s the conductors job, just like the conductor of a train is the guy who makes the train stop and go.
The stick is called a baton, and helps make the wide variety of gestures easier for the ensemble to read. There are actually a lot of “rules” to advanced stick waving, with its own kind of language that both the players and conductor understand.
Usually the composer is sitting in the audience listening to the music, although they may be called to conduct their own pieces from time to time. Either that or they’re dead.
You’re absolutely correct when you say that professional musicians won’t have any issue playing the music on their sheet or playing at the correct tempo.
The conductor is doing a few things during a performance:
1. They “live mix” the band by telling certain players/instruments to change their volume. It is notoriously hard to know how loud your instrument sounds to the audience when you’re sitting in the band. The conductor can hear all instruments from up front and can keep people from playing too loudly or softly.
2. They offer a visual way to keep time, especially for the percussion section. When you’re on stage, it’s actually really really hard to keep time with an instrument that’s in front of you vs behind you. Instruments in front of you will naturally be heard with a slight delay, but instruments behind you will be heard instantly. That’s why the percussion section is always in the back, so the entire band hears their rhythm correctly.
For me, whilst the musicians all play their instruments, according to the music, the conductor is playing the musicians, according to their vision for the performance.
To conduct feels like every musician is connected to you with invisible bungee cord. As you conduct, you are pulling on those cords and subtly shifting not just the timing and dynamics, but the -style- of how the musicians play. The better the conductor, the more control of the bungee ropes they have.
The bungee ropes are made up of the respect the musicians have for their conductor. Pull too tightly and without a strong vision, and it loses its stretchiness and stops working.
Composer *and* conductor here!
A composer writes music, you’re thinking of a conductor. Whenever a large group of musicians play together, it’s best for them to have a leader to start them off, keep them playing together, and give them suggestions on when to play loud or soft or heavy or light or whatever. That’s the conductors job, just like the conductor of a train is the guy who makes the train stop and go.
The stick is called a baton, and helps make the wide variety of gestures easier for the ensemble to read. There are actually a lot of “rules” to advanced stick waving, with its own kind of language that both the players and conductor understand.
Usually the composer is sitting in the audience listening to the music, although they may be called to conduct their own pieces from time to time. Either that or they’re dead.
Tbh conductors are often obsolete, but they offer their personal preferences/ideas to the ensemble and try to get everyone on the same page musically (interpreting styles, tempos, etc). Music is very nuanced and it’s helpful to have a “leader.”
One of my former colleagues from the Chicago Symphony told me a story about how the orchestra collectively ignored their guest conductor once, instead just cuing each other because the conductor’s vision was not clear.
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