Wednesday, February 09, 2011

On Conducting

At some point in my life, I wanted to be a conductor.

For myself, one of the more difficult things about wanting to be a conductor was enduring the constant question of what a conductor actually did on stage. I was always kind of lousy describing it, because it's really one of those things that you have to experience, either as a performer or as a conductor, to understand.

At this stage, I would probably say that the role of the conductor is to negotiate some kind of coherent performance between the musicians before them. However, there's a great article in The Morning News right now that does a much better job than I, in part because instead of describing it, the author actually stands in front of an orchestra and conducts it. Moreover, he's an amateur, with the blessings that this status can bestow, like an open mind.

It's a wonderful read, in part because the author, unlike many of the people who asked me that question back in the day, is prepared to consider the possibility that the conductor actually does something. That's a refreshing change!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

My name is Geoff and I represent www.ClassicalConnect.com, a virtual concert hall and the biggest searchable collection of classical music on the Internet.

All our performances are either uploaded by professional musicians or sent to us by those who own legal rights for those performances. We feature over 2000 performances of classical music masterpieces and that number is constantly growing.

I came across your site and thought you might be interested in either exchanging links, or finding some other mutually beneficial opportunities. I am open to your suggestions and look forward to your reply.


Best Regards,
Business Development
www.ClassicalConnect.com
gwgegen@gmail.com