Jack Gaffney, Nederland. A conductor’s job is to wave their arms around, make funny faces and yell at the orchestra, right? Well, sort of… Their real purpose is musical leadership. It is the conductor’s responsibility to craft the direction, emotion and continuity of a classical performance.

Can’t the musicians just play in time together? This is much easier for a four-person rock band. Consider an orchestra with 80 - 100 musicians spread over a stage almost one hundred feet wide. At this distance, the speed of sound is slow enough to make it nearly impossible for the orchestra to stay together by listening alone. Instead, the conductor keeps the orchestra in time by visualizing the beats with the motion of their baton.

Conductors are artists. Symphonic music swells and breathes and builds and recedes. The conductor is in charge of making these decisions and leading the orchestra through all the tempo, dynamic and emotional adjustments necessary for the music to have a powerful impact on the audience.

Orchestral compositions are beasts, a labyrinth of details. Conductors study the scores obsessively, until they have the part of every instrument nearly memorized. It’s a tremendous amount of work. Through this internalization, they are ready to lead the ensemble through the composition.

Conductors must keep the ensemble unified in technique, passion and musical direction. Some of the strategies that conductors use are very practical, such as beat patterns and displaying the emotion of the music with their body and expression. Other strategies are more psychological and rehearsal-oriented. It is a conductor’s job to inspire the musicians to do their very best in practice and performance. A conductor can accomplish this by promoting intrinsic motivation in the performers and building a sense of community within the ensemble.

In this sense, conducting is not just leading an ensemble through music, but it also involves the practice of being a music teacher. Whether it’s a high school band, or the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, conducting is music education. Through insight and artistic leadership, the conductor helps the members of the ensemble grow as musicians and performers.

So yes, a conductor may wave their arms around with vivid expressions on their face. But it’s all about invoking certain sounds and emotions in the ensemble’s performance. A conductor’s embodiment of the music directly translates into the audience’s sonic experience.

Jack Gaffney is a local musician and piano teacher. He can be reached at JackGaffney.com.

(Originally published in the April 29, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)