Why can bands play for hours often utilizing different instruments without ever looking at sheet music, but orchestra musicians always read from sheet music?

Question

I saw a clip where a pianist was playing and someone was turning her pages for her, but they fumbled and dropped the sheet music. The pianist kept on playing, but it got me wondering why have the sheet music if she knows the song anyway. Do they really need it? Why can’t they just learn the songs like all bands do?

In: 5311

Answer 1

Your typical musician in an orchestra does not own a copy of the sheet music they are called on to perform. In fact, many symphony orchestras themselves *rent* the sheet music for major works, because it is very expensive. So the musicians really only get maybe three days to rehearse musical works that go on for 90 minutes or more – there’s no time to memorize the entire thing.

I *have* seen conductors lead entire symphonies from memory, without a score in front of them.