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Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 23:01:29 -0500
From: "Anbumani. S"
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To: Agathiyar
Subject: [agathiyar] What does a 'conductor' do ?
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Dear Agathiyars,

One of my doubts, that bewildered me for long was: what is that fellow
in western classical music programs standing - commonly called
the 'conductor' - doing ? With his back turned towards the viewers, his
baton and his gesture reminded of a bullock cart-driver in my then
ignorant eyes.

Recently I found what he actually does and I write here for other
enthusiastic souls who might have been like me. [Composers are like our
song writers, while conductors are music directors. Metronome - a 'time
table'
used in music.]

Why do we need a conductor ?

- Even the most vituosic musicians don't have an absolutely infalliable
sense of tempo. Even an expert player, though will get close most of
the time to the beats, won't play exactly every time. In a very
large group of musicians, such as an orchestra, even a specifially
notated
metronome marking is likely to receive several slightly different
interpretations. The conductor is there to unify the orchestra's
tempo.

- Composers also understand that many factors can alter that tempo.
Different concert halls with different acoustics, different sized
orchestras and even different barometric pressure can influence an
orchestra's
tempo. As a result for the past century, conductors have felt free to
treat the metronome marking only as a starting point - or even to
ignore it completely. Beethoven's symphonies are virtually always
played at a slower tempo than Beethoven himself specified.

- For the most part, composers don't want their music played at exactly
one speed all the way through. They may indicate a metronome marking
for convenience, but they also expect a certain ebb and flow in their
music. At certain points, they want the music to relax or slow down;
at
other times they want it to speed up and push ahead slightly.
The conductor can indicate all this to the musicians.

What does he do by waving his baton ?

He slices time.

A conductor's beat pattern indicates the different beats of the music
(as
shown below).

|
|
| .
| . 4
| .
| .
| .
. . | .
. . | .
-------------------------
2 . | 3
. |
|
.|
| 1


[Stroke 1 - downward; stroke 2 - upward curve; stroke 3 - horizontal;
stroke 4 - upward climb]

Hope this interests some.


Anbu(dan).
PS: Btw, this is from the book 'Classical Music for Dummies'.

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