Conductors: Do We Need Them?

I don't know about you, but every time we watched videos of orchestra performances in class, I would notice how animated the conductor's actions were and all the funny faces they made. This led me to think about why they are so important. After all, the musicians are the ones creating the music. What's so special about this one person standing in front of 100 or so people flailing their arms? Anybody can do it...right?

WRONG. As a former music student myself, I was taught that to sound good, you needed to sound as one. Whether an orchestra consists of 13 people or 1,000 people, the key to perfection is sounding like one fine-tuned instrument. While sitting there and playing, it's not always easy to take notice of everybody else or hear them from across the room. On top of that, you need to concentrate on the notes in front of you. How do you stay on beat? The person flailing their arms at the front of the room is the key. As long as you keep that person in your sight, you can stay on beat and catch all the cues.

I did a little research and found this: Are conductors really necessary?

This article gives a lot of insight from the conductor's point of view. Many people think conducting is easy and that anybody can do it. Vladimir Ashkenazy of the Sydney Symphony says this, "No performance is the same as another one. Sometimes you are inspired to do phrasing this and that way, and the orchestra reacts. I've seen great orchestras playing without a conductor the pieces they knew. They played it well, but there was no particular direction. Somehow it was mechanical — without substance, without an interpretation."




Like a director gives life to a movie script, a conductor breathes life into the notes on the page. Any musician can play beautifully with enough practice, but to really reach the hearts of the audience, it requires somebody passionate about music standing on 'the outside' to draw the notes out.