Why does classical music require a conductor?
If the orchestra knows how to play the music that they are performing, why do they need someone to stand at the front telling them how to perform it? I understand that it would be useful in rehearsals to instruct the tempo and dynamics, but after they learn how to play the music, why is the conductor still needed?
Other genres don't need a conductor. Have all classical musicians been lobotomized?
>>60829752
are you literally retarded?
>>60829752
>>60829752
[spoiler]I genuinely want to know the answer to this/spoiler]
>>60829885
>>60829906
not OP but what was wrong with the question? I thought it was a valid thing to say
i would like to know the answer too
>>60829752
>Why does classical music require a conductor?
It doesn't. They could honestly perform without them.
>>60829885
>>60829906
Autism
>>60830047
autism
i was usually really bad at following the conductor. and i was percussion. i eventually would learn the song well enough to only have to really watch him count in.
didn't help i was behind a bunch of risers most of the time and could barely see.
>>60830209
what did u think of whiplash the movie
>>60829752
It doesn't, but there's a good reason to use a conductor. When performing a composer's piece, a lot is left up to the interpretation(s) of the musicians playing it. With a conductor, you have an individual overseeing the entire orchestra, making the final interpretation decisions, who can mold the entire orchestra to a singular vision of how to perform the piece. Keeping time during performance, what we commonly see at first glance, is just a part of the job.
Conductors who only conduct were only really a product of the post-classical era, in which public music was on the rise and more people were needed to organize and facilitate performances.
>>60829752
Why does rock music require a drummer?
If the band knows how to play the music that they are performing, why do they need someone to sit at the back telling them how to perform it?
I understand that it would be useful in rehearsals to instruct the tempo and dynamics, but after they learn how to play the music, why is the drummer still needed?
They're more for helping the audience follow the music than for the orchestra.
Most stages are set up like shit, so a lot of members can't even see him. They just kinda have to know.
From what I know the conductor is mostly a figurehead, but he's also important as the primary interpreter of the music for the orchestra
>>60830258
haven't seen it.
>>60830334
It's not the same though, the conductor isn't the rhythm section.
>>60830209
As a percussionist, what the fuck dude?
>>60830334
you what, every sound the drum makes is part of the music, if all you want from a drum is rythm why dont you GIT GUD.
>>60830853
i was pretty bad not gonna lie, but i also used the rest of everybody to keep time. i rarely had to start at the start of the song as well.
>>60829752
please not again. it has been years.
>>60830045
why have them then
>no one has posted the actual answer
Are you all fucking stupid or am I being punked
In an orchestra, you are dealing with a large amount of musicians spread out over a pretty huge space. The more musicians there are, the farther apart the two edges of the orchestra are going to be.
Now I know this may be hard to understand, but sound doesn't travel instantaneously. It actually travels through the air as a certain rate. When you're dealing with a small group of musicians, like a rock group or quintet, the time delay will be too small to be noticeable, as it will take much less time for sound to travel from one side of the group to the other.
Now, in a large orchestra, that delay does start to become an issue. In a group that large, if someone right next to you and someone all the way across the orchestra played a note at the exact same time, you would actually hear a noticeable delay, even though there technically was none.
This is where the conductor comes in! Light travels much much faster than sound, so fast that, for our purposes, we'll call it instant! Now, instead of having to rely on sounds coming from across the orchestra that, to an outside observer, are happening earlier than you're actually hearing them, you can rely on the light coming from the conductor! Waving his stick around and having a good time, everyone in the orchestra will be seeing what he's doing at the same time, allowing them to all play in sync.
Hope this cleared things up, dummies
>>60830334
the conductor is not a thing in the music making noise
>>60831285
>tfw i thought this was a joke until i realized that could actually be true
>>60831482
No jokes are you developmentally disabled
>>60830334
If all you need is rhythm from the drummer, just replace them with a metronome.
>>60831482
It is. Sound travels at a set speed, but for all practical purposes even at orchestral sizes that's not an actual issue.
>>60831285
definitely this but there's another even more obvious reason
When there's things like a ritardando, fermata or a caesura they can't just keep playing, they need someone to look at. In a jazz combo or any small group it's easy for each member to stay in communication with each other and stay together when the music leaves or changes time. With a >100 piece orchestra (with everyone sitting down) it'd be ridiculous to expect that to work.
A conductor is essentially like a DJ controlling all the levels and effects in that they control all the instruments. The conductor is to the musicians as the musicians are to their instruments.
Also classical music doesn't require a conductor smaller chamber groups play without a conductor all the time
I used to play in an orchestra and believe it or not they actually keep the whole orchestra on time.
>>60831647
He's right, the delay makes a difference. If you'd ever worked with microphones you'd know this. If you put a mic on a snare drum and a couple overhead mics over the whole set if you zoom in on the audio on a computer you can see that the transients are offset, just from the 2-3 feet of extra distance. You may not think it makes a difference, but when you align them, it makes the sound much more clean and powerful.
Now depending on you ensemble setup, you might have, say, cellos and clarinets be 20-30 feet apart, both playing 16th notes at 150 bpm. If they're not right on point it'll just sound like a mess.
>>60830732
>the conductor isn't the rhythm section.
