[zotjen]

When I was in the 9th grade, I took up the clarinet. Our teacher sat at the front of the class, waving his arms up and down as we played. I often wondered what for since I payed attention only to the notes on the page that I was supposed to be playing. Aside from the fact that our class was a pretty sorry bunch, I can look back now and realize what a terrible conductor he was. Other than attempting to teach us how to play the instruments, at no point did he ever teach us (or lead us) to play as a cohesive unit. When we did play, each student pretty much did their own thing.

To understand how important a conductor really is, you need to watch them. I attend a lot of performances (mostly opera). I won't name names, but one conductor I've seen routinely stands there waving his arms up and down with no rhyme or reason, leaving the orchestra to fend for themselves. During difficult passages things tend to get a little messy since no one is really guiding them.

To contrast that, sometime ago I was watching Classical Arts Showcase and they showed a segment where Toscanini was the conductor. I don't even remember what the piece was, but for most of the time the camera was only on him. It was fascinating to watch. He had such control over how the music was played, shaping every note. The music seemed to flow from him.

It should also be noted that in opera performances, the conductor also has the job of coordinating the singers with the orchestra. The orchestra's tempo must keep pace with that of the singers. If a singer speeds up or slows down at some point (e.g. to get through a difficult aria quickly or show off by holding notes longer than called for) the conductor must compensate for that by adjusting the orchestra's tempo. These types of things should be worked out during rehersal but of course live performances are always unpredictable.