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

On average, classical music tends to be significantly more complex than non-classical.

Once, I tried to learn Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 on my bass for fun. It took me about as much time to memorize the first ~15 seconds than it would typically take me to learn an entire pop song.