Don’t they practice? is the conductor really necessary?
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Conductor here… I should also say that I’ve played my fair share of pop/rock bands (there’s a story of going on a rock tour and saying to the audience “anyone got a couch we can sleep on tonight?!” I’ve done those tours. Stayed with some weird ass people… ANYWAY.) Orchestras are intended to play music from any composer. Composers (at least Western Classical composers) are OG rock stars. They had massive egos, fan base, sexual craziness, addictions, many of them were smart asses to political leaders (and got away with it) and many of them died young of their vices. The musicians in an orchestra can play music from any composer. Even modern rock bands often hire orchestras. I’ve seen Metallica arrange parts for a 40 piece orchestra and it’s awesome!
In some cases the conductor is needed for the artistic vision, but I’ve been in groups (as the musician) where the conductor will show us how horrible they are and no, we don’t watch them. As a conductor, the scariest part is when 40 amazing musicians look at you and collectively think “oh, you’re not half bad, we may watch you” and then the pressure is on!!
Rock bands play their own music. I’ve been in rock bands where the group leader will say “your part goes like this: ___” and play it and I have to figure out my part by ear. It takes FOR. EV .ER. Which is why groups eventually gravitate towards written music. Most rock musicians don’t start out reading, but it gets really old taking a week to get one song together when you can pay an arranger a couple hundred bucks and they’ll write it out for you and you can read it for studio work and then memorize for your tour and forget it when you’re done. Most professional orchestras get maybe one rehearsal before a performance. Movie soundtracks are often recorded the first time the musicians see the music! Sometimes you can hear mistakes and it’s funny (to me). That doesn’t happen as much with new movies because of modern recording techniques.
Some orchestras do eventually memorize their shows. Trans Siberian Orchestra, you bet your ass they got their book memorized. Any Broadway musical, they’ll eventually have it memorized. It’s like a right of passage “Hey Bob, you still want your book tonight?” “Sigh…. No, probably don’t.” That help?
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