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Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Classical music is unique among musical forms in that the same works, many of which are hundreds of years old, get performed and recorded again and again, often many times each year.
There is a reason why certain otherwise ephemeral performances live on in the memory, decade after decade, and it is invariably down to that figure on the podium — the eternal giver of rhythm, doing so much more than just waving their hands in the air….
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. Counterpoint Classical music. What does a conductor actually do? Share using Email. By Clemency Burton-Hill 31st October Clemency Burton-Hill finds out how conductors translate their visions into glorious sounds.
A conductor should challenge his or her students. Challenging students keeps them from getting bored and encourages intellectual and creative growth. Find compositions that they will love but which will also motivate them to practice and improve their musical skills, and even seek out new experiences that can ameliorate their musicianship.
A conductor should select a good program of music for concerts. What is your repertoire? Are you picking compositions that please you or are they selected with your students and audience in mind?
You want to select pieces that can enhance the musical growth of your students but also that stimulate their appreciation of music.
Are you rotating the same old compositions? Be daring and find some new pieces that everyone can enjoy. Input from the troops never hurts. It makes them happier and makes for a better all-around musical experience. A conductor should keep up with current popular music. School conductors are often stereotyped as old and stodgy, and while knowledgeable about serious music and music of the past have little knowledge of other types of music students like—current popular music in its myriad forms, which today could include everything from rock and country to dance and hip hop.
They know the music, in some cases very well indeed; but what they don't know is the conductor's interpretation of the piece, and this is what he gives them during the rehearsals. The presence of the conductor during the actual performance is more about show, but what's wrong with that? Dave, Beard, England 1 It gives the conductor some recognition for all the hours spent in rehearsal highly deserved, in my experience.
There is much more to the playing of music than reproducing the written score in aural form. It is possible for musicians to forget, and when you consider that they are playing their instrument, reading the score and trying to keep together with those around them all simultaneously, any help is welcome. Especially for brass, woodwind and percussion players, there can be considerable stretches of time when they are not required, signalled in the score by something like bars rest.
Even the most rhythmically-minded can lose count. If the responsibility is placed in the hands of the conductor, then in the worst case they can at least get it wrong together. Clive Gordon, Ruislip UK In the classical era, all orchestras played without conductor, being led by the 1st violin or the soloist. It was at the beginning of the 19th century that orchestras got large enough for a conductor to be necessary - the main reason is that in a large orchestra, the time taken for the sound to travel from the front of the orchestra to the back is long enough for there to be a lag between what the violins and the timpani are playing timps in the wrong place will bring everything to a halt.
In student orchestras the timps are nearly always late because the player is doing it by ear. As far as I am aware, Russian orchestras have had conductors as long as European orchestras - Turgenev makes a reference to Rubenstein conducting in one of his stories, so I think that's far enough back for me.
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