Getting to know classical music: Why orchestras need conductors
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Regular concert-goers at the Alexander Skryabin Memorial Museum know the Skola Crew group very well. Before performing classical pieces, these musicians always give a short lecture on how to listen to what they will play.
Mos.ru continues to post a series of materials in which Alexandra Stefanova, a pianist and member of the Skola Crew, helps us understand classical music and everything related to performing it.
Can orchestras play without a conductor?
Alexandra Stefanova: A great responsibility lies on conductors. They make sure that all 80-90 (and maybe more) musicians in the orchestra play in the right rhythm and understand when each of them joins in.
If the orchestra is large, a musician sitting in the right-hand corner mostly likely cannot hear what his colleague in the left-hand corner is playing. It is physically impossible to tell when a distant instrument starts playing. Musicians can hear only those sitting near them. Without a conductor, it is very easy to make mistakes. Musicians need someone who will signal when to start playing.
However, there was an orchestra without a conductor, called Persimfans (First Symphony Ensemble), in the USSR in 1922-1932. Musicians in that orchestra sat in a circle to see each other and during rehearsals agreed how to play. By the way, that orchestra was reborn thanks to Pyotr Aidu’s efforts. He says that it is not quite an exact copy of that orchestra, but the musicians continue the traditions of the 1920s. Once or twice a year the orchestra plays various programmes for the public. It will perform at the Zaryadye Concert Hall on 25 November.
Does the conductor’s full score contain the parts of all the instruments?
Alexandra Stefanova: Yes, it does. The conductor can see everything in it. It contains all the parts and the skeleton of the whole piece. If pianists, for example, express themselves and the composer’s ideas by only playing the piano, a conductor plays all the orchestra instruments at once, we can say.
Why can the same musical pieces sound different when conducted by different conductors?
Alexandra Stefanova: Conductors’ goal is to get the composer’s message across to the audience. Conductors should take into consideration the time period when musical pieces were written. For example, if it is Baroque, the violins should sound softer, as in the past they were strung differently. Still, it is everyone’s personal opinion whether to follow this rule or not. This is why different conductors have different interpretations of the same symphonies. Sometimes they even choose different tempos. A conductor can understand musical pieces differently to his colleagues and use his personal experience, which affects the performance.
How did they do without conductors in the past?
Alexandra Stefanova: The conductor’s profession came about relatively recently, in the early 19th century. Before that, one of the musicians led the orchestra, usually a violinist (the most experienced one). He counted bars with his bow or just by nodding his head. Sometimes a cembalist or a cellist was in control. But music developed, the material became more complicated, and musicians could not conduct and play at the same time anymore.
If we go even farther back into the past, in Ancient Greek theatre the coryphaeus was the head of a choir. He wore sandals with iron soles, and he beat out the time with them.
Did conductors always use a baton?
Alexandra Stefanova: No. The baton as we know it appeared in the 19th century. Before that, conductors used a battuta. It was a wand or a stick for beating out the time. By the way, a battuta caused the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, the creator of French opera and the court composer of King Louis XIV. Beating out the time when Te Deum was performed on the occasion of the king’s recovery after a serious illness in 1687, Lully injured his foot with the battuta’s sharp tip. Blood poisoning resulted, and the composer died soon after that.
Rolled sheet music was also used for this purpose or other objects or just hands.
Today it is every conductor’s choice whether to use a baton or not. Valery Gergiev, for example, prefers to hold a toothpick.