If everyone has sheet music and all the timing information down, then what’s the composer’s role?
In: 952
In addition to what most folks are saying, think about the conductor like a coach in sports. Why does a team have a coach if they don’t score any points? Well, it’s the coach’s role to decide what kind of plays the team makes, and likewise the conductor’s role to decide how the orchestra shapes the music.
To use a famous example from writing, think of the sentence “I owe her money?” Notice how it changes based on the emphasis: “I **owe** her money?” “I owe **her** money?” “I owe her **money**?” What’s the correct phrasing? Depends on the context, it’s not obvious in the text. Likewise, a lot of phrasing in music is not obvious in the written music, and the conductor has the final say in decisions if different musicians are trying to say the same thing with conflicting emphasis.
Sheet music has general timing information, but it’s not going to be absolute. And most people couldn’t look at something that says “play this at 132 beats per minute” and have an inherent, absolute idea of what that is and be able to do so perfectly.
The conductor thus uses the baton as a single point of focus for all of the musicians to play their tempo towards. Each wave is one beat, and it’s done in such a way that it will be consistent – the wave down is always the first beat of a measure for instance, and a 4/4 measure will go down, left, right, up for each of the four beats.
This also means that the conductor can control the tempo of the piece, if any part requires a slowdown or speedup, the conductor will convey the exact pace with the baton. Many pieces will have sustained notes that are held until the conductor cuts them off, which is conveyed by holding the baton steady, and then sweeping it horizontally for the cutoff. Other information can also be conveyed. Larger strokes can cue the musicians to play louder, and smaller strokes quieter. A flourish in the direction of a specific section or musician can function as a cue to resume playing after a longer rest. Etc.
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Don’t tell anyone I told you this:
Orchestra players can’t play. Yeah, none of them know how to play music. What is actually happening is that the Conductor (not the composer) is a Wizard, and he is conjuring music with his wand.
Seriously, don’t tell anyone I told you this. The Wizardry world is gonna hang me if they found out I told someone over the internet their secrets.
Most of the composers are decomposing.
It’s the orchestra conductor “waving the stick”. BTW, it’s called a baton.
Uh, what do you mean? They are rocking that mugle wand.
I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Don’t tell anyone I told you this:
Orchestra players can’t play. Yeah, none of them know how to play music. What is actually happening is that the Conductor (not the composer) is a Wizard, and he is conjuring music with his wand.
Seriously, don’t tell anyone I told you this. The Wizardry world is gonna hang me if they found out I told someone over the internet their secrets.
There is a game called Maestro VR that would show you exactly what they do.
I don’t have VR anymore but I’d love to try this game out, as I too, was curious what the conductors role was until I saw the game play for this.
There is a game called Maestro VR that would show you exactly what they do.
I don’t have VR anymore but I’d love to try this game out, as I too, was curious what the conductors role was until I saw the game play for this.
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).
Speaking as a former member of an orchestra who played an instrument that often had long breaks in pieces, one of the most important things that conductor does is point at sections when they are supposed to come in. 🙂 Think of the beginning of Pachelbel’s Canon.
Sure, I could sit there and count off my 157 bars of rests, or I could wait for my section to start getting ready and wait for the conductor to point at us.
Note: This was not a professional-grade orchestra. Those folks probably all count AND memorize every part to the piece, so they don’t really need this.
Latest Answers