Being a conductor is a bonkers job?!

[WineIsMyCarb]

Watching Last Night is the Proms. Not musical at all myself.
But AIBU to think that being a conductor is a bonkers job?! I see how someone is required to keep everyone's timing together, encourage more volume, say, from some instruments and less from more enthusiastic orchestral... members (?)
But your job is to wave your arms around in front and look moved or serious at seemingly random bits of music.
Lighthearted, in case anyone thinks I'm suggesting conductors should be taken as political prisoners or anything ludicrous.

What's the career path here? Did they work their way up from being a lowly recorder player doing Twinkle Twinkle at the back?

And I thought you meant bus conductor...

I thought train!

Haha maybe an orchestral conductor on a bus. Keeping everyone's winter coughs and sneezes in time!

I, too, have always thought it looks a ridiculous job and thought "how hard can it be" (and like you am not at all musical so have always assumed there is more to it than meets the eye).

BUT I have never considered the career progression. You have certainly given me something new to ponder....

I just don’t get it. I watch the conductor in my DCs band and am mesmerised by him. No idea what he is there for as no one playing really watches him apart from me

Thing is, when you are in the moment and concentrating on everything coming together - and anticipating everything that happened in rehearsals - you don't think about how you look. And you don't give a shit, either.

It's a bit like that shiz about a marathon being the last 26.2 miles of the hundreds of training miles that no one thinks about.

If you’ve ever seen a group try and play without a conductor and then with it’s quite amusing, they keep the whole thing together!

Ooh! I've just remembered I learnt the basics of conducting when I did music at school.

I, too, have always thought it looks a ridiculous job and thought "how hard can it be

This is my point: it is the conductor's job to rehearse their ensemble, whatever it is, so that they produce the sound they do in a performance. This may be done over hours of rehearsals, for which the conductor is responsible.

Is he/she mainly just 'for how' then? I agree they're totally mesmerising. Surely a musical Mumnetter will come along and inform us.
Why is it usually a man? Is the baton incredibly heavy? Could the orchestra not cover you for 6 months mat leave? Does a penis help you keep time?

It's all a musical mystery, honestly.

Are you sure they’re not watching him pink, or does it just look like they aren’t.

Most of the job is in the rehearsals.The waving the arms about in publi bit is the endgame.
Of the conductors I know (a fair few), some have studied conducting, worked as assistants before getting their own gigs, some have been singers, then chorus master, then conductor.

The baton is not heavy and there are some fab female conductors out there.

Did you know you have to have a Masters in conducting on your CV to even make the initial pile for job applications...

Aaaah - so they are like the coach for a team whose role is more cheerleading and keeping time by the time it gets to the final performance? Not meant pejoratively, of course.

Are you a conductor thebitch ?

I'd love to see a female conductor. I wonder if the 'style' is any different?

A masters in conducting? I'm never going to be able to get that in time for next year's Proms. Musical talent should be easy to come by over the next 6-12 months though, right?

OMG it’s not in random movements! It depends if you are playing in 2/2, 4/4 etc as to the direction of the conductors baton. He will be telling sections when to come in, get louder, get quieter and so on and so.

As someone who has played in both the woodwind and brass sections of an orchestra- if you didn’t have that guy flapping his hands, the orchestra would be all over the place!

When you play, you understand his ‘flapping’ it’s like another language 😊

They are like a coach for a sports team.
They cultivate talent , rehearse for months and then, unlike a coach, are a crucial part of the performance, keeping everything and everyone together.

Oh I type so slowly. Mega cross posts!

@WineIsMyCarb of sorts. Not a paid one.

It isn't just about keeping time and getting them to play the right notes when they are supposed to (though this is obviously important and with a non-pro group can take longer than you'd like), but trying to elicit the mood/atmosphere/sound of the group and get them to play as a group rather than a bunch of individuals performing (see pp who says no one watches ).

It’s a giant job. They’re cueing every single note, they’ve interpreted the entirety of a symphony before anyone even gets into the rehearsal room, they are the advocates of the orchestra. Also, they’ve come from being brilliant musicians and will have postgraduate degrees in music.

The person I know who does it is from an Oxford organ scholar background.

Found a vid of my favouritest conductor in the world rehearsing a group of school orchestras. And he's made me love him even more by taking the rehearsal in German (he's Scouse).

In rehearsal: Simon Rattle conducts 6 Berlin school orchestras

They’re usually musicians first and then take a wider interest in arranging and conducting music. The arm waving is a specific pattern that denotes the rhythm and tempo of the music and indicates to the musicians when they should come in. All of the musicians will have their eye on the conductor the whole time. He also leads the rehearsals and listens to the different parts, corrects mistakes etc.

The language of flapping eh Isobel ?
This is genuinely making my Proms watching more enjoyable, thank you.

This singer is in front of the conductor, what if she gallops on with Somewhere Over the Rainbow double time?!

Anyone remember this? I can't believe it was over a decade ago, now!
www.theguardian.com/music/2008/aug/12/classicalmusicandopera.television