Conductors...what's the point of them?

Рет қаралды 18,691

Жыл бұрын

Essential performers of the classical repertoire, or egotistical monsters incapable of making any actual music?
Let's investigate...
If you wish to buy me a coffee, that would be appreciated:
www.buymeacoffee.com/classicalmk
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Mark Wigglesworth's book "The Silent Musician" is an excellent guide to conducting...www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Music...
And Wagner: www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Condu...
The clip of Toscanini going ballistic: • Toscanini and the bass

Пікірлер: 56

@Lalune350z 4 ай бұрын

I was at a Bach concert and the orchestra and the singers did not look at the conductor once, but that dude was going crazy with his hands. Not sure why he was there but I guess he must have been important.

@jacquesracine9571 Жыл бұрын

Loved that video. And your humour.

@andrewsinkinson2785 Ай бұрын

Light travels faster than sound. There. Solved. Visual cue all working together regardless of distance

@diegomontilva6039 8 ай бұрын

Really well done video, deserves more views

@germanchris4440 3 ай бұрын

No, it doesn't. It needs, if it deserves any attention at all, more of the serious, sober judgement that is being lost in today's unculture, especially on KZfaq. This is just typical cheap popular crap for total dumbing down and superficialisation.

@soyeux27 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this excellent video ! BTW, can you tell us the name of the rock song at the end of the video?

@enjoyclassicalmusic6006 Жыл бұрын

My original track was Roll Over Beethoven...I actually just grabbed that from youtube's free use music.

@classicalperformances8777 Жыл бұрын

thanks for adding one female conductor( Lydia Tar) to this entertaining spoof🙂that's not at all a nightmare I had once the movie was announced

@eyolfos Ай бұрын

A couple of brilliant points and one-liners here. The notion of the conductor as the storyteller is my main takeaway, and the punchline that ends the video is actually hilarious. No spoilers here - watch it till the end!

@ZoltanLehr 3 ай бұрын

Think about it this way. Contractors are like supervisors if everyone in the team does as they supposed to then they are not needed but some people just can't be left to their own devices

@prototropo Жыл бұрын

George Szell changed my life.

@paules3437 Ай бұрын

It would have been helpful to examine the strange phenomenon of conductors with bizarre baton technique, who just wave their baton about, or, worse, like Gergiev, who just wiggles his hands. Also, conductors love to "shape" the musical phrase physically, as if waving their hands somehow actually changes the sound. At such moments, they are giving music " a local habitation and a name," as Shakespeare said, but no amount of gesturing can actually change the sound emanating from the orchestra... unless they're conducting with a baton from Harry Potter's favorite wand shop.

@georgealderson4424 2 ай бұрын

More entertaining than I had expected but less informative than I had hoped! I would like to have known the names of all the conductors featured if only for curiosity. However thank you for your work and I hope you will continue making more videos.

@slizzardshroomer9666 2 ай бұрын

This video is intended to answer a more focused question.

@maksimivanov5417 Жыл бұрын

The explanation still seems incomplete as it doesn't really cover why some pieces, like Mozart's piano concertos, are still successfully performed without a conductor these days, meanwhile most of other performances do use the conductor. OK, one could say later compositions (say, Rachmaninoff's concertos) are probably too complex and require too large orchestras to be played without a conductor, but why do we see this inconsistency around concertos by Mozart or Haydn or their predecessors?..

@franckfranciszek Жыл бұрын

because classical era composers wrote their piano concertos solely for them to play in public concerts. Beethoven too, wrote his five piano concertos to display his virtuosity and if im correct, conducted the orchestra by himself

@alvodin6197 8 ай бұрын

It's because it's an ideology to think it's "impossible" without a Conductor. It's pure nonsense. It's like those people who turn pages of pieces they KNOW how to play from memory. They want to Impress people by pretending like they're sight reading. And with the conductor, we pretend like we need a boss, in order to function. This is part of western ideology. We actually don't think we can function without having some dude telling us what is and wrong.

@yodorob Жыл бұрын

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York is conductor-less and seems to do just fine, with the musicians themselves defining the score.

@alvodin6197 8 ай бұрын

It's because they know how to practice together. People who think it's impossible are the same tools who turn pages on sheet music that they KNOW from memory. It's somehow impressive to pretend like waving hand, sight reading some difficult music, is to Westerners more impressive than just knowing how to play something from memory. We are obsessed with abstractions and symbols.

@anthonymalone9987 Жыл бұрын

First! But also how is a upbow different from a downbow and what does that mean for the orchestra?

@crichardson1893 Жыл бұрын

String player here. Down bow is when you pull the bow across the string in a motion that opens your elbow (moving your hand away from the instrument), up bow is the opposite, closing your elbow. What does it mean? Usually it’s just phrasing, ie “it’s easier to play this passage with this bowing”, but sometimes composers will specify bowings for effect. Hope this helps

@countluke2334 Жыл бұрын

Do you have conductors you like more than others, even favourites? Now that Karajan is probably not among them (any more)?

@enjoyclassicalmusic6006 Жыл бұрын

I used to, now I'm much more democratic in my taste

@CatManDoom84 7 ай бұрын

I get it kinda, but for the most part no hah. If the maestro/conductor writes the music, sure. But i dont get whey they are on stage when most of, if not all the actual performers arent even looking at him. Its kinda like modern DJs. Yeah they made the songs, but there is little to no point of a person being on stage fiddling around with minor dials nobody knows what is being done while said song is being played.They can "tweak things" for sure live.But yeah. And i love EDM and classical music hah!

@trombonebestinstrument Жыл бұрын

bernstein is most certainly the master of mahler, not an ego monster

@franckfranciszek Жыл бұрын

most mahler conductors are not egoistic lmao what're you talking about?

@jkeogh12345678 2 ай бұрын

So drummers aren’t given this accolade l😂!

@user-qw5js 7 ай бұрын

I used to think they were pointless. Saw one earlier and decided i gotta look this up and now i know they're not 👍

@susanlandsman9572 6 ай бұрын

The conductor, as I understand it, also sets the tempo. I remember reading reviews of concerts where the conductor was said to have conducted the piece too slowly or vice versa, or there wasn't enough shading and so forth. Sometimes you would read , for example, that the brass overshadowed the strings. So the blame is put on the conductor and rightly so in many cases.

@slizzardshroomer9666 2 ай бұрын

Conductors are Coaches. Any Conductors claiming more than that is a fraud.

@user-mx4et6mn3u 19 күн бұрын

As a professional musician, I never watch a conductor.

@rellenoz 5 күн бұрын

so in other words you suck... got it!

@bruceweaver1518 Жыл бұрын

This documentary failed to show a clip of arguably the greatest conductor of The Twentieth Century: Sir Georg Solti. In the “Orchestra” series he goes into great detail of what his job is, why it is important, and his important role with the players. The Rock Music has got to go! Replace with Prokofiev “Romeo and Juliet.”

@Tolstoy111 Жыл бұрын

Solti's rep has severely faded since his death.

@user-wp4ju4hp5w 9 ай бұрын

Yes indeed. Solti s long collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is legendary

@poisonpotato1 2 ай бұрын

Theyre just wizards practicing casting spells with their wand you aint fooling me

@dannyeugenewaits9486 4 ай бұрын

😂😂😂😂 all a conductor/composer is..... a little monkey waving a stick in the air, hoping to draw attention to itself to receive more treats! Like the saying goes you can send a baboon to the moon but training it to return is impossible!! Thats my take on what they are!😅

@harringtonvo 6 ай бұрын

Still not buying it. The musicians are always focused on the sheet music… these dudes seem like glorified cheerleaders. Just sayin

@Lemurian.Quartz 3 ай бұрын

It’s always confused me, these people practice for many months for a performance together.. along with their sheet music.. if that dude wasn’t standing there waving his hands, you’re telling me they’d just freeze and have no idea wtf to do??😂

@aviatorsound914 2 ай бұрын

@@Lemurian.Quartz The job of the conductor is to bring out the musical interpretation. Yeah sure musicians can just study the music sheet without the conductor but the conductor is the one that united everybody on the same page otherwise everybody is going to be doing their own stuff. They also keep the tempo and conductor also show where they want certain things to be at. Y’all get the point.

@mustbecrazy6378 2 ай бұрын

I think it's wack as well.... Looks fun though.

@rellenoz 5 күн бұрын

the musicians know the music by heart. they aren't relying on the sheet. we're trained to watch the conductor with peripheral vision

@noorlight-sz7im 4 ай бұрын

Yeah, whatever

@kotse9129 7 ай бұрын

Conductors are USELESS. Musicians and choir members have memorized their parts...most of them don't even look at the conductors.

@theemeraldminecart5280 7 ай бұрын

Once I’ve memorized my music I’m constantly looking up at my conductor. I’m using their body language AND what I’m hearing to balance myself. I can’t hear the woodwinds well enough to tell if I’m loud or not but the conductor can.

@kotse9129 7 ай бұрын

@@theemeraldminecart5280 that's nice to hear. I do have just one question for you...what if the conductor's gesture suddenly becomes different (for whatever reason)...would you still follow his lead or would you stick with what you have memorized?

@Kazumadarkness 7 ай бұрын

@@kotse9129they mess up for sure

@kotse9129 7 ай бұрын

@@Kazumadarkness they'd mess up if they don't have a conductor?

@Kazumadarkness 7 ай бұрын

@@kotse9129 yea they won't play the wrong note tho just they might go too fast or too slow or too loud, a conductor just guides them how to play not what to play.