Conducting

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conducting in the musical sense means: beating time to help a group of musicians to play well together.

If a large orchestra are playing music, it is important that they all play exactly together. They need to know exactly when to start, what speed to go, how loud or quietly to play and what the mood of the music should be. If two, three or four people play music together they can talk about this amongst themselves and one person can nod with his/her head or with a violin bow or flute to help the group to start and finish together. With an orchestra there are so many people that they need a conductor.

In the 17th century orchestras were very small so they did not need a conductor. But as orchestras grew in size it became more and more necessary to have someone in front to lead. The French composer Lully (1632-1687) used to beat time by banging a big stick (like a walking stick) on the floor to the time of the music. One day he banged his stick very hard and it went through his foot and he became ill and died.

Conducting as we know it had become normal by the 19th century. The composer Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a very good conductor. Some conductors in Victorian times were very conceited and behaved like showmen. The conductor Louis Antoine Jullien (1812-1860) was a French conductor who often came to England. He wore white kid gloves which were presented to him on a silver tray at the start of the concert. He dressed in expensive clothes and his long black hair waved all over the place as he conducted. His success was immense, in France at first, in the UK afterwards and then even in the US where he also happened to work with PT.Barnum.His concerts were a mix of dance and "classical" music, always with the best musicians. his life is so peculiar that a biography (in French) has been published(see http://louisjullien.site.voila.fr). The conductor Sir Henry Wood (1869-1944), who was famous for conducting The Proms was a well-liked man who was respected and loved by orchestras and audiences.

Conductors usually beat time with their right hand. This leaves their left hand free to show the various instruments when they have entries (when they start playing) or to show them to play louder or softer. Most conductors have a stick called a “baton”. It makes it easier for people at the back of large orchestras or choirs to see the beat. Other conductors prefer not to use a baton. A conductor stands on a small platform called a “rostrum”.

To be a good conductor is not easy. It is not just a question of giving a steady beat. You have to know the music extremely well so that you can hear any wrong notes. You need to be able to imagine exactly the sound you want the orchestra to make. You also have to communicate this to the orchestra so that they know what you want. Some conductors speak very little during their rehearsals. They make everything clear through the way they conduct.

Some of the most famous conductors today are: Claudio Abbado, Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davies, Sir Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink.

Some famous historical conductors available on recordings include:

Arturo Toscanini Bruno Walter Gustav Mahler Leonard Bernstein Wilhelm Furtwangler Leopold Stokowski Georg Solti John Barbirolli Otto Klemperer George Szell

Some composers also chose to conduct their own works including some folks from the list above Gustav Mahler Leonard Bernstein and some who were not known much for conducting other peoples works Aaron Copeland and Igor Stravinski. There is a little bit of debate if that might be like the lawyer who has himself for a client, but these recordings are a valuable record of what the composer intended, and are sometimes even document with rehearsal comments on audio and video recordings.

Informally, I have known many musicians who say that if you want a good performance, don't look at the conductor, he will just confuse you. This is sometimes an opinion about a particular conductor, but some people have this opinion about most conductors. There have been some very famous conductors who have been rejected by their orchestras both on the first date and in ugly separations after years together.

There may also be a technical issue here. Is it better for an orchestra musician to listen to a soloist in a concerto or a singer at the opera and accompany them based on what they hear and see, or wait for the conductor to interpret, and pass on the same information? It would make an interesting study to see how much latency there is between both approaches, but you can be certain that a fine orchestra will not anticipate or lag by very much in any situation.

Many groups have even formed with the intention of going conductorless. This is particularly true of baroque orchestras where it is authentic historical practice to have the concert master or even a harpsichordist signal the opening notes and tempo of a piece.

Popular culture sometimes adds conductors to the mix. Seinfeld had a Maestro who conducted without his pants, bugs bunny appears as Leopold to conduct , and of course Mickey gets pretty exhuberant as he dreams he is conducting the Sorcerer's Apprentice in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mr. Holland's opus featured a high school band director, as did the less tasteful, less inspiring American Pie Band Camp. Many other examples can be added to this list.

A conductor's training and rise to fame can be a strange mix of things. Sometimes there may be a patron or patroness involved. Serge Koussevitsky married a very rich woman who hired no less than the Berlin Philharmonic for his premier. Another story said she bought him an orchestra and they performed on a ship cruising up and down the Volga. Often there are famous mentoring relationships like Gustav Mahler and Bruno Walter, or Serge Koussevitsky and Leonard Bernstein. The debut of conductors who would become vary famous might occur by happy accident when a famous conductor like Bruno Walter calls in sick and is replaced in a very visible way by a young unknown like Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic performing the very complex Richard Strauss tone poem Don Quixote.