Surely each of us, watching the play of a large orchestra, more than once paid attention to strange man, standing with his back to the audience and frantically waving his arms in front of the musicians.
What is his role?
The role of the conductor cannot be overestimated. He is the director of the orchestra. Even the word diriger itself is translated from French and means “to direct, manage.”
Imagine there are about a hundred people in the orchestra. Each of them is a true professional in his field, a virtuoso and a magnificent musician. And everyone has their own opinion about how this or that fragment of a piece of music should be played: it’s quiet here, it’s louder here, there’s a sharp accent in this place, but now a little faster, then a smooth slowdown, etc....
But the trouble is that as many people, as you know, have so many opinions. And chaos begins, because a hundred people cannot agree: everyone will give a lot of arguments in favor of their interpretation and will be right in their own way. This is where the conductor comes to the rescue!
He brings the musicians together, forcing them to strictly perform the nuances that he establishes.
In this way, disagreements are eliminated, and the orchestra begins to play harmoniously, in the same direction.
Naturally, not everyone is suitable for the role of such a “music director.” This must be a very educated person, with a keen understanding and feeling for music.
Conductor Valery Gergiev.
Howconducting, an independent type of musical performance, developed in the first half of the 19th century, but even on Egyptian and Assyrian bas-reliefs there are images of a man with a baton in his hand, leading a group of musicians. IN ancient Greek theater The luminary led the choir, beating out the rhythm with his foot, shod in a sandal with an iron sole. At the same time, already in Ancient Greece control of the choir was widespread using the so-called cheironomy, which then passed into the practice of church performance in medieval Europe; This type of conducting involved a system of conditioned movements of the hands and fingers, with the help of which the conductor indicated the tempo, meter, rhythm to the singers, reproduced the contours of the melody - its movement up or down, etc.
With the complication of polyphony and the development of orchestral playing, a clear rhythmic organization of the ensemble of performers became increasingly necessary, and the method of conducting with the help of a battuta, a stick made from various materials, including gold, which served to beat the beat.
The battuta was originally a fairly massive cane; the director of the orchestra beat the beat, hitting it on the floor - such conducting was both noisy and unsafe: J. B. Lully, while conducting with the tip of a cane, inflicted a wound on himself, which turned out to be fatal. However, already in the 17th century there were less noisy methods of conducting; Thus, in an ensemble, the performance could be led by one of its members, most often a violinist, who would count the time by striking the bow or nodding his head.
With the advent of the general bass system in the 17th century, the duties of the conductor passed to the musician who performed the general bass part on the harpsichord or organ; he determined the tempo by a series of chords, but could also give instructions with his eyes, nods of the head, gestures, or even, as for example J. S. Bach, humming a melody or tapping the rhythm with his foot. In the 18th century, the practice of double and triple conducting spread when performing complex vocal and instrumental works: for example, in opera, the harpsichordist controlled the singers, and the accompanist controlled the orchestra; the third leader could be the first cellist, who played the bass voice in operatic recitatives, or the choirmaster.
Development and complication symphonic music, the gradual expansion of the composition of the orchestra already at the end of the 18th century required the release of the conductor from participation in the ensemble; the conducting accompanist again gave up his place to the person standing in front of the orchestra. IN early XIX century, a small wooden stick appeared in the conductor’s hand.
Over the centuries, composers general rule they performed their own works: composing music was the responsibility of the bandmaster, cantor, and, in other cases, the organist; The gradual transformation of conducting into a profession began in last decades XVIII century, when composers appeared who regularly performed other people's works. The practice of performing other people's works in the second half of the 18th century spread to opera houses.
It has not been established for certain who was the first, disregarding decency, to turn his back to the audience, facing the orchestra, G. Berlioz or R. Wagner, but in the art of orchestra management this was a historical turn that ensured full creative contact between the conductor and the orchestra artists. Gradually, conducting turned into an independent profession, not related to composing: managing a growing orchestra and interpreting increasingly complex compositions required special skills and special talent, which was also different from the talent of an instrumental musician. “Conducting,” wrote Felix Weingartner, “requires not only the ability to fully understand and feel a musical artistic creation, but also a special technical dexterity of the hands, it is difficult to describe and can hardly be learned... This specific ability is often in no way connected - with general musical talent. It happens that some genius is deprived of this ability, and a mediocre musician is endowed with it.”
The first professional conductor (who was not a composer) can be considered Nikolai Rubinstein, who from the early 60s of the 19th century was a permanent conductor symphony concerts in Moscow, toured as a conductor in St. Petersburg and other cities, and was the first performer in Russia of many works by both Russian and foreign composers.
Feeling like a co-creator of the work being performed, the romantic conductor sometimes did not stop before making certain changes to the score, primarily concerning instrumentation (some corrections made by the romantics to the late works of L. van Beethoven are still accepted by conductors), especially since he did not see much sin in deviating, at one’s discretion, from the tempos indicated in the score, etc. This was considered justified, since not all the great composers of the past were fluent in orchestration, and Beethoven, it was assumed, was deaf and prevented from clearly imagining the sound combination. Very often, the composers themselves, after the first listening, made corrections to the orchestration of their works, but not everyone had the opportunity to hear them.
Conductor Evgeny Svetlanov. Overture to the opera "William Tell".
Conductor intrusions into scores gradually became a thing of the past, but for a long time the desire to adapt the works of long-gone composers to the perception of modern audiences remained: to “romanticize” the works of the pre-Romantic era, to perform music XVIII century full staff symphony orchestra of the 20th century... All this at the beginning of the 20th century caused an “anti-romantic” reaction in musical and near-musical circles). A significant phenomenon in musical performance of the second half of the 20th century was the “authenticist” movement. The indisputable merit of this direction is the development stylistic features music of the 16th-18th centuries - those features that romantic conductors were more or less inclined to neglect.
Expressive conducting by Teodor Currentzis.
Many people do not understand why an orchestra needs a conductor if all the musicians have sheet music.
When did the orchestra have a conductor?
Communities of musicians playing this or that music have been known since ancient times, and, of course, these ensembles often had their own formal or informal leaders.
On Egyptian bas-reliefs there are images of a man with a staff in his hand, who leads the musicians, and in Ancient Greece, choir leaders (luminaries) beat out the rhythm using a special sandal with an iron heel.
And the larger the orchestras became (in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance they were called chapels, the word “orchestra” spread later), the more complex the practice of orchestral playing, the more necessary the figure of a traffic controller turned out to be - a person who beats the rhythm and makes sure that everyone plays coordinatedly and entered on time. Previously, this was done using a massive “battuta” cane, which was struck on the floor - the earliest images of this process date back to the 15th century.
It was quite a difficult matter and not always safe - great French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) injured his leg with the tip of such a cane and died of gangrene.
It was the composers who performed their own music with the chapels who were often the first conductors. They could beat out a rhythm with their feet or wave a sheet of music like Bach. Often this function was performed by harpsichordists or first violinists, who gave signals by swinging the bow.
It happened that there were several conductors - in the opera, the choirmaster could control the singers, and the accompanist could control the orchestra. It is important that almost always the conductor was also a musician - he sang or played.
The accompanists played the first violin part and gave signals to the other musicians with their eyes and head nods, or, interrupting the game, tapped the rhythm with a bow.
How did they get the baton in their hands?
Matter of chance. In essence, the stick was a replacement for the already familiar bow or music scroll.
Conductors began using the baton at the beginning of the 19th century and, judging by the descriptions, these batons were at first quite weighty. It was the 19th century that became the century of the birth of conductors as a separate profession - they finally separated from orchestras, took up exclusively conducting, stood on special elevations and, what was especially unusual, turned their backs to the public.
The first to do this was either Hector Berlioz or Richard Wagner - it is not known for certain who took the lead. For the incredibly expanded and complicated symphony orchestra of the 19th century, the number of participants in which could number in the hundreds, a special human regulator was vitally necessary - he no longer had the opportunity to play something in parallel with conducting.
The figure of the conductor, of course, was also a product of the romantic tradition - only in it could the black silhouette of a lone genius rise above the crowd organically exist, who with one movement of his hand controls the incredible mass of sound and emotions of the listeners.
That is, a conductor is needed primarily to set the correct rhythm?
At a minimum, setting a rhythm and signaling who is stepping in at what point is really important.
The musicians themselves, of course, can follow what is happening from the notes, count the bars and listen to their colleagues, but this is not always easy, and in a large symphony orchestra the musicians simply cannot hear all the parts. However, the conductor’s tasks, of course, are not limited to this: he is responsible for all parameters of the performance, for ensuring that everything is united by a single tempo and mood.
And for the interpretation - after all, the same composition can be played in completely different ways. At different speeds, placing different accents, interpreting the moods of the units differently, paying different attention to the parties.
This is what the conductor does during rehearsals, analyzing, sometimes very meticulously, the scores with the musicians until he is satisfied with the sound and general meaning essays.
This is especially important when the tradition of performance is interrupted - the works of many great composers of the 17th and 18th centuries were not performed for a long time, and we can only guess how they sounded during their lifetime.
If contemporary composer can go through the entire score with the conductor, explaining exactly how his composition should be performed (although even here the conductor has the right to vote and free will), and, say, in Vienna there are still living musicians who studied with people who played the waltzes of Johann Strauss under the direction of Strauss himself, then there is no clear answer to the question “How to correctly play the works of Bach, Vivaldi or Lully.”
The notes of that time are extremely sparse in their explanations, and many details not indicated in the notes, but obvious to the musicians of that time, may be lost to us forever. In this case, it is impossible to simply “play the notes”: the problem of deciphering a baroque score is akin to a complex musicological detective story.
It is enough to read any book to be convinced of this - in fact, he says that you need to study all the known sources of that time, and then, simultaneously taking into account and ignoring what is written in the notes, try to understand not the letter, but the spirit of the work.
“Only one who finds the composer’s intention in the notes and plays these notes in accordance with it will be faithful to the work in the true sense of the word. If a composer writes a whole note, meaning a sixteenth note, then the one who plays the sixteenth note, and not the one who plays the whole note, will remain faithful not to the notes, but to the work.”
Harnoncourt writes.
That is, the sound of the same composition depends on who is conducting?
Exactly. Two different conductors can perform the same symphony very similarly (though never identically), or they can perform it completely differently.
Here is a very eloquent video from the Arzamas project: what happens to Beethoven’s famous “Ta-ta-ta-ta” in the hands of the world’s main conductors.
Another example: the same work by Bach, conducted by Karl Richter:
And Nicolas Harnoncourt:
Are conductors always terrible tyrants?
Not necessary. But this work is not easy and responsible, and cannot be done without some pressure and determination, and in the relationship between the conductor and the orchestra it is not difficult to see a metaphor for the relationship between the ruler and the crowd (Fellini’s “Orchestra Rehearsal” is built almost entirely on it).
In the 20th century, many conductors did not escape the temptation to manage their orchestras by relying on dictatorship, pressure and an atmosphere of fear. The great conductors of the century - Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini - were people with whom musicians remember working with sacred horror.
Have you guys ever wondered: why do we need a conductor in an orchestra? There is a man standing in front of the orchestra with his back to the audience, waving his arms, but not playing anything. Do musicians need it? It turns out that it is needed. And a lot depends on how and what the conductor shows with his baton.
Imagine runners at the start line. They prepared to take off and rush forward... And suddenly, instead of shooting, they shout: “Well, come on, run or something!” How do you think runners on such a “team” will be able to break away from the start at the same time?
So consider that we have clarified the first responsibility of the conductor. An orchestra, which sometimes has more than a hundred people, needs a clear command so that everyone can start playing at the same time. But unlike the runners, who will reach the finish line one after another, the orchestra members must finish the music all together - again at the conductor’s sign.
But the responsibilities of the conductor are not limited to this. You know that in the same piece of music there are both loud and quiet parts. And now the orchestra plays this piece. One musician will begin to play quietly a little earlier than necessary; others will think that they need to play more quietly, on the contrary, later; and the third will completely forget where to play more quietly... Can you imagine what kind of confusion it will be?
And here again the commander-conductor comes to the fore. It is by his signal that all musicians, no matter how many there are, can simultaneously play “quietly” or “loudly.” This is another responsibility of the conductor.
You know different musical pieces. For example, a march - the music is always loud, clear, cheerful. The music of the lullaby is completely different - quiet, gentle, soothing. Now imagine that it is not the mother who sings this lullaby, but an orchestra of a hundred people playing! All musicians know that they must play quietly, but it is very difficult to do this without someone else’s observation, and here, it turns out, there is a great need for a conductor who does not play himself, but listens, evaluates from the outside how the orchestra sounds, and shows who needs it. playing a little louder, or playing a little quieter, “evens out” the sonority of the orchestra. This is his third duty.
There is also a fourth. If we do morning exercises to the music and under the guidance of the coach, he counts us: “one, two, three” so that we don’t lose the tempo. Why does the drum thunder when they march in formation? In order for everyone to keep up, in an even formation. Otherwise, one will go a little faster, the other will lag behind. It’s music that organizes everyone.
Now imagine that the orchestra is playing a waltz. Some of the musicians hurried a little, others slowed down the tempo. And if the musicians do not have a conductor in front of their eyes, then very soon they will stop playing together and “go their separate ways.” The conductor will not allow this. He always makes sure that the musicians keep the right tempo, so as not to drag out the waltz like a funeral procession, or, conversely, not to end it with a frantic gallop.
But this is not the end of the conductor’s responsibilities.
The music played by the orchestra must be performed well, as they say, “with soul.” But every person feels and understands music in their own way. Even the same song is sung differently by different artists, each with their own “expression”. But when there are many musicians in an orchestra, one person is needed so that, according to his will, everyone plays with the same “expression” dictated by him - a conductor is needed. Only by his sign will it be possible to slow down somewhere, and somewhere, on the contrary, to speed up the tempo so that the music sounds more expressive. And it turns out that the music is, as it were, performed by one conductor on one huge instrument into which dozens of others have merged, performing it in his own way, the way he feels it.
That is why, listening to the same piece of music performed by the same orchestra, but controlled by different conductors, we notice something new every time.
Let's take as an example the conductor's first gesture when he gives the beginning of the piece. For one it is a mean, strict gesture with the hand, for the other it is only a barely noticeable movement of two fingers; the third has a wide gesture with both hands. This distinction may seem somewhat mechanical on paper. But look at the hands of the conductors and their faces! Here the language of gestures, the expression of the eyes turn out to be the most accessible, most intelligible and understandable, despite the fact that conductors may belong to different nationalities, speak in different languages. And this language is understandable not only to any performer, any musician. He can say a lot, simply human things, to the listener who is carefully watching the conductor, feeling along with the conductor.
How does the conductor talk to the orchestra? Gestures: movements of the baton (which conductors have been using for about 200 years), movements of the hands, just fingers. And he himself does not stand still: he rhythmically sways, bends, does various movements head. Even the face and eyes help his work - and here expressions can be varied indefinitely.
The conductor cannot speak, because, firstly, it will distract the musicians and listeners from the music, and secondly, he would often have to simply shout in loud places so that the musicians can hear. Imagine such a picture!
Conductors can be compared to mute people, who are also explained by hand gestures and facial expressions. The conductor is doomed to complete silence, and the more eloquent his gestures and facial expressions become.
“But how,” you ask, “do orchestras play without a conductor?”
The secret here is simple. It turns out that there is a conductor there, too, but we don’t notice him, because he sits and plays some instrument himself, and performs all his conducting duties in advance - at rehearsals. Such orchestras are usually performed by small musical works, and at rehearsals you can learn them so that you can then simply play by heart. And the command to begin is given by one of the orchestra members.
Now you can imagine what the role of the conductor is. This is the role of a person who bears enormous responsibility both to the composer whose work he performs, and to the orchestra, which completely trusts him, and to the listeners, who only through the conductor can get to know the work, love it, or remain indifferent.
Drawing by Yu. Lobachev.
The Škola crew is well known. Artists always precede the performance of classical compositions with a short lecture, during which they explain how to listen to what is about to be heard.
the site continues a series of materials in which pianist and Škola crew member Alexandra Stefanova helps to understand the classics and everything related to their performance.
Can an orchestra play without a conductor?
— The conductor has a tremendous responsibility. He needs all 80-90 people in the orchestra (and there may be more) to play in the correct rhythm, to understand who needs to step in and when.
If the orchestra is quite large, then the musician who, for example, sits in the right corner, most likely does not hear what his colleague in the left is playing. It is simply physically impossible to recognize when a distant instrument began to sound. The musician hears only the closest neighbors. Without a conductor, it would be easy to make a mistake - you need a person who will tell you when to start playing.
However, there was also an orchestra without a conductor - Persimfans (First Symphony Ensemble). It existed in the USSR from 1922 to 1932. The musicians sat in a circle so they could see each other, and agreed on who should play at rehearsals. This orchestra, by the way, resumed its existence thanks to the efforts of Peter Aidu. He admits that this is not an exact copy of that orchestra - the musicians continue the traditions that developed in the 20s of the twentieth century. Approximately once or twice a year, the orchestra presents various programs to the public. On November 25 he will perform at concert hall"Zaryadye".
Are all the instruments included in the conductor's score?
- Yes. With its help, the conductor sees everything. It contains all the instruments, the whole outline of the work. If a pianist, for example, expresses himself and the composer’s idea only through the piano, then the conductor, one might say, plays all the instruments of the orchestra at once.
Why can conductors sound the same piece differently?
— The conductor must convey to the viewer the idea that the composer put into the music. In this case, the conductor takes into account what era the work belongs to. For example, if it is Baroque, the violin should sound more muffled (it used to have different strings). But whether to follow this or not is, of course, everyone’s personal choice. This is why conductors succeed different interpretations the same symphonies. Sometimes they even sound at different speeds. The conductor can look at the work differently than his colleagues, use his personal experience, which affects the music.
How did you manage without a conductor before?
— The profession of a conductor appeared relatively recently, at the beginning of the 19th century. Previously, the orchestra was controlled by one of the musicians, most often a violinist (the most experienced one was chosen). He kept time by striking his bow or simply nodding his head. Sometimes the main role was played by a harpsichordist or cellist. But the music developed, the material became more complex, and the person simply did not have time to both direct and play at the same time.
If you look into an even more distant past, then, for example, in the ancient Greek theater the choir was led by a luminary. On his feet were sandals with iron soles, with the help of which he could comfortably beat out the rhythm.
Did conductors always use a baton?
- No. The conductor's baton in the form in which we know it today appeared in the 19th century. For some time before it, battuta was used. It could be a baton or a cane that served to beat time. By the way, it was the battuta that caused the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully, the creator of French opera and the king’s court composer Louis XIV. While beating out the rhythm during the performance of the Te Deum, written on the occasion of the king's recovery from a serious illness in 1687, Lully pierced his foot with the sharp tip of the battuta. Blood poisoning began, and the composer soon died.
They also used sheet music rolled into a tube, other objects, and conducted with their hands.
But whether or not to use a baton today is a personal matter for each conductor. Valery Gergiev, for example, prefers to hold a toothpick in his hands.
Ordinary people, far from classical music, do not always understand what exactly this man in a tuxedo is doing, waving his hands in front of the musicians trying to play their best. However, none orchestral concert it cannot be done without this participant. What does a conductor do, what is his role and why are listeners more willing to buy tickets if he is famous?
From Ancient Greece to the present day
Long before Toscanini, Furtwängler, von Karajan and Bernstein, their work was already carried out by Pherecydes of Patras, known in Ancient Greece as the “Pacemaker”. According to historical sources, as early as 709 BC. he controlled a group of eight hundred musicians with a golden baton, raising and lowering it and ensuring that the musicians "started at the same time" and "all could stick together."
The functions of the conductor have changed over the last thousand years. extra years, but this profession is still shrouded in a certain mystical aura. Indeed, it is surprising the ability of one person holding in his hand only wooden stick, ensure the coherent sound of sometimes hundreds of instruments.
How is it that the sounds pouring out as a result of this mysterious dance at the control panel sometimes cause sublime delight, seizing listeners who then cannot forget the feelings that gripped them for the rest of their lives?
This is the great mystery of art, and, thank God, it is impossible to completely unravel it.
In more down-to-earth analogies, a conductor is the musical equivalent of a sports team manager. It is never possible to assess exactly what he is doing, but it is always clear what result he is achieving. An orchestra, in principle, can do without a conductor, but in most cases they still prefer to play under his direction. So what exactly does he do? These are some of the many things a conductor does, consciously or unconsciously, at the podium.
Metronome Man
“The whole duty of a conductor lies in his ability to always indicate the correct tempo,” said Richard Wagner, who himself mastered this profession perfectly and was also a great composer. Typically used to control an orchestra right hand(with or without a stick), but other components also influence the flawless performance. The conductor cannot be replaced by a metronome (as beautifully illustrated in Fellini's allegorical film Orchestra Rehearsal), his actions mean much more.
Interpretation
The conductor's job is to bring the score to life. To do this, he uses his own understanding of the work as a tool and expresses it through an individual sign language. He, as it were, “sculpts” the musical line, emphasizes the nuances and individual musical elements, controlling the musicians, and, in fact, creates a lot anew. These processes are usually expressed with the left hand. While all conductors have some common gestures, most of the greatest have their own unique style. For example, Furtwängler at some moments spontaneously made rather strange movements. Valery Gergiev moved his fingers, expressing the character of the music; he himself explained this manner by the fact that he was a pianist.
Listening skills
“The best conductors make the best listeners,” says Tom Service, a journalist and author of the fascinating book “Music as Alchemy: Travels with Great Conductors and Their Orchestras.” They, like a lightning rod, take on the emotional load of the work and focus attention on its strongest aspects. It is important for a conductor to understand music more deeply ordinary people, and then express your own hyper-awareness by making it publicly available.
Dictatorship
“You must impose your will - not by force, but you must be able to convince people of the correctness of your point of view!” - said Pierre Boulez, the legendary composer and conductor. Although most conductors these days consider themselves democrats, this simply cannot be true. This does not mean that dictatorship cannot be avoided, but it is not easy. Boulez gives the example of Berlinsky philharmonic orchestra, calling it a group of individuals: “If the conductor does not give them a collective direction, then they will be deprived of a rudder and sails.”
Conductor-conductor
In many languages, the word “conductor” sounds like “conductor”. Well, there is something in common, because every listener perceives music with his ear, and looks at what the conductor is doing, and through this visual image there is a visual connection, a kind of bridge between our eyes and melodic sensations. Sometimes it’s simply impossible to take your eyes off the remote control; the sight is mesmerizing.
“Conducting is much more difficult than playing one instrument. You need to know the culture, calculate everything and project what you want to hear,” says Boulez.
What besides music?
Conductors need musical instinct, intuition and innate musicality, but beyond that they need to know a lot. They typically spend many hours preparing before taking a seat at the console. It is often academic in nature, covering the study of historical documents such as letters, specifications instruments of a certain period or biographical moments of the authors. Like all great mysteries, great music comes only from huge amount hard work.