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See Conductor for other possible uses of the word. Conductor can mean different things in different contexts: In science and engineering, a conductor is material which contains movable electric charges in which an electric current can be produced. ...
 A conductor's score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles often have conductors. Download high resolution version (1557x927, 153 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Sheet music Conducting Categories: GFDL images ...
Download high resolution version (1557x927, 153 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Sheet music Conducting Categories: GFDL images ...
Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Distionary, with definitions, pronunciations, examples...
Jump to: navigation, search Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Orchestra at City Hall (Edmonton). ...
A choir or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. ...
A musical ensemble is, by definition, a group of three or more musicians who gather to perform music. ...
A conductor resident with an orchestra (as opposed to a guest conductor) who has involvement with the artistic direction of an orchestra or opera company is sometimes known as a musical director, or nowadays by the German word Kapellmeister. Respected senior conductors (like senior instrumentalists) are sometimes referred to by the Italian word Maestro ("master"). Jump to: navigation, search The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera refers to an European art form consisting of a dramatic stage performance set to music. ...
A Kapellmeister is nowadays the director or conductor of an orchestra or choir. ...
A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...
History of conducting
An early form of conducting is cheironomy, the use of hand gestures to indicate melodic shape. This has been practiced at least as far back as the middle ages. In the Christian church, the person giving these symbols held a staff to signify his role, and it seems that as music became more rhythmically involved, the staff was moved up and down to indicate the beat, acting as an early form of baton. Tomb painting depicting ancient Egyptian cheironomy. ...
Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary In music, a melody is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord. ...
The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
Jump to: navigation, search As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ...
Rhythm (Greek Ïυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ...
Baton is the name of one of two leaders of the Illyrian uprising against the Romans in Pannonia in 6 AD. The term baton refers to any of several types of cylindrical or tapered instruments composed of a wide variety of materials, and of differing functions: A baton (billy, billy...
From around the 17th century other devices to indicate the passing of time were used. Rolled up sheets of paper, smaller sticks and unadorned hands are all shown being used in contemporary pictures. The large staff remained in use at the Paris Opera, and was responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully - he hit his foot with the staff while conducting, and the wound became gangrenous. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Exterior of the Palais Garnier. ...
Jean-Baptiste Lully, originally Giovanni Battista Lulli (November 28, 1632–March 22, 1687), was an Italian-born French composer, who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. ...
Gangrene is necrosis and subsequent decay of body tissues caused by infection or thrombosis or lack of blood flow. ...
In instrumental music, a single performer usually acted as the conductor. This could be the principal violinist, who used his bow as a baton, or a lutenist who would move the neck of his instrument in time with the beat. It was also common to conduct from the harpsichord in pieces which had a basso continuo part. In opera performances there were sometimes two conductors - one at the keyboard in charge of the singers, and the principal violinist in charge of the orchestra. Jump to: navigation, search The violin is a stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ...
In music, a bow is a device pulled across the strings of a string instrument in order to make them vibrate and emit sound. ...
Jump to: navigation, search The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Harpsichord in Flemish style; for more info, click the image. ...
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervallic content (the intervals which make up a sonority), later chords, in relation to a bass note. ...
By the early 19th century, music had become sufficiently complex that it was desirable to have one person dedicated to conducting, not having to concern himself with performing as well. Accordingly, the baton became more common - this had the added advantage of being easier to see than bare hands or rolled-up paper by the orchestra, which was at this time expanding in size. Among the earliest notable conductors were Louis Spohr, Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn, all of them also composers. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Self-portrait of Spohr as a young man. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy at the age of thirty Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known simply as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was a German composer of the early Romantic period. ...
 A modern wooden conducting baton Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner were also conductors, and they wrote two of the earliest essays dedicated to the subject. Wagner was largely responsible for shaping the conductor's role as somebody who imposes his own view of a piece onto the performance rather than somebody who is simply responsible for ensuring entries are made at the right time and that there is a unified beat. A wooden conducting baton. ...
A wooden conducting baton. ...
Portrait of Berlioz by Signol, 1832 Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803–March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for the Symphonie fantastique, first performed in 1830, and for his Grande Messe des morts Requiem of 1837, with its tremendous resources that include four antiphonal brass choirs. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 in Leipzig – February 13, 1883 in Venice) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his groundbreaking symphonic-operas (or music dramas). His compositions are notable for their continuous contrapuntal texture, rich harmonies...
Conducting technique Since conducting is essentially a means of communicating 'real-time' instructions from the conductor to the performers, the only golden rule of conducting technique is that it should be clear and easy to follow. Aside from this, there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to conduct 'correctly', and a wide variety of different conducting styles exists.
There is a particular distinction between orchestral conducting and choral conducting. Orchestral conductors typically (though not always) use a baton, and giving a clear beat to the players is central. Choral conductors rarely use a baton, and although the beat is an important part of choral conducting, conductors tend to concentrate on musical expression and shape, making their movements appear more abstract. Baton is the name of one of two leaders of the Illyrian uprising against the Romans in Pannonia in 6 AD. The term baton refers to any of several types of cylindrical or tapered instruments composed of a wide variety of materials, and of differing functions: A baton (billy, billy...
Despite this wide variety of styles, a number of standard conventions have developed.
Beat The beat of the music is typically indicated with the conductor's right hand, with or without a baton. The hand traces a shape in the air in every bar (measure) depending on the time signature. For music in simple quadruple time (four beats in a bar), the hand traces down-left-right-up. For music in simple triple time (three beats in a bar), the hand traces down-right-up. For music in simple duple time (two beats in a bar), the hand or baton traces down-up or down&right-up. Beating is striking more than once, in violence, beating a drum, etc. ...
Baton is the name of one of two leaders of the Illyrian uprising against the Romans in Pannonia in 6 AD. The term baton refers to any of several types of cylindrical or tapered instruments composed of a wide variety of materials, and of differing functions: A baton (billy, billy...
In musical notation, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. ...
Measure can mean: To perform a measurement. ...
The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim, crotchet, quaver, and so on) constitutes one beat. ...
The two most important movements are the downbeat, which indicates the first beat of the bar, and the upbeat, which indicates the last beat of the bar. The instant at which the beat occurs is called the ictus (plural: ictus or ictuses), usually indicated by a sudden (though not necessarily large) change in hand (or baton) motion. The gesture leading up to the ictus is called the preparation, and the conductor's principal responsibility is to provide a preparation which forecasts with certainty the exact moment of the coming ictus, so that all the players (or singers) can play simultaneously. The downbeat is the first beat of a measure in music. ...
Anacrusis in poetry is the lead-in syllables that precede the first full measure, while, similarly, in music, it is the note or notes (even a phrase) which precede the first downbeat in a group. ...
If the tempo is slow or slowing, or if the time signature is compound, a conductor will sometimes indicate 'subdivisions' of the beats. For instance, in a particularly slow quadruple time, the conductor may beat down-and-left-and-right-and-up-and, where each 'and' is marked with a movement to an intervening point in the shape that is traced in the air. In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ...
The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim, crotchet, quaver, and so on) constitutes one beat. ...
In music, compound metre or compound time is a time signature or meter in which each beat (or rather, portion, 1/2 or 1/3 of a measure) is divided into three parts, as opposed to two which is simple meter. ...
Some conductors use both hands to indicate the beat, with the hands to mirror each other's movements, though others view this as redundant and therefore to be avoided. In any case, the second hand is also used for turning pages in the sheet music, cueing the entrances of individual players or sections, and indicating other aspects of expression.
Tempo Changes to the speed of the music are indicated simply by changing the speed of the beat. To encourage a particular accelerando or rallentando, a conductor may use additional body language such as leaning forward or back, increasing eye contact, making circling motions with the hands, or introducing beat subdivisions. This article is about tempo in music. ...
This article is about tempo in music. ...
Dynamics Dynamics are indicated in two main ways. Firstly, the volume of the music can be communicated via the size of the conducting movements: the larger the shape, the louder the sound. Secondly, changes to volume can be signalled with the hand that is not being used to indicate the beat: an upward motion (usually palm-up) indicates a crescendo, a downward motion (usually palm-down) indicates a diminuendo. The former, changing the size of movements, often results in unintended tempo changes as well, that is, larger movements tend to slow down the tempo. Therefore, many conductors also change the tension of the hands, whereby the required change in size of movements is smaller. Loud dynamics would then correspond to strained muscles and rigid movements, while soft dynamics correspond to relaxed hands and soft movements. In music, dynamics refers to the volume or loudness of the sound or note, in particular to the range from soft (quiet) to loud. ...
In musical notation, crescendo means that the notes are gradually getting louder. ...
In musical notation, diminuendo indicates that the notes are gradually getting softer (quieter). ...
Volume can be fine-tuned using various intuitive signals: for instance, showing one's palm to the performers in a 'stop' gesture, leaning away from them or putting a finger to the lips can be used to demonstrate a decrease in volume. In choral conducting, wiggling the fingers of the right hand is also an accepted signal for 'sing much more quietly'.
All these signals can be combined with eye contact or pointing to particular sections or performers in order to adjust the overall balance of the various instruments or voices.
Entries Another important task for the conductor is indicating 'entries', i.e. moments when a new instrument or section joins the music. This is done either by pointing at the section at the appropriate time (though many orchestral players consider this poor etiquette) or by sudden eye contact combined with raised eyebrows. In the case of complex music where several parts enter simultaneously, the latter is obviously more practical.
Expression Other aspects of musical expression are communicated by various body language signals.
Staccato and legato can be differentiated by more or less 'spikey' movements. Phrasing is indicated by wide overhead arcs or by a smooth hand motion either forwards or side-to-side. A held note is often indicated by a hand held flat with palm up, and the end of a note is denoted by the closing of the palm, the pinching of finger and thumb, or by tracing a rapidly-twisted spiral with a finger or baton. In musical notation, staccato indicates that notes are sounded in a detached and distinctly separate manner with their lengths shortened; that is, a short silence should be between the notes, without affecting the rhythm. ...
In musical notation, legato indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. ...
Rules of thumb A good conductor aims to maintain eye contact with the ensemble as much as possible, encouraging eye contact in return and increasing the general dialogue between players/singers and conductor. Facial expressions are also important; all performers, but especially less experienced ones, respond well to encouraging expressions.
Further Reading - Norman Lebrecht, The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power, 2nd Rev&Up edition, Citadel Press 2001
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