Conductor’s Trade from Orchestral Player’s Perspective
Conductor’s Trade from Orchestral Player’s Perspective

Summary/Abstract: Although the basic conducting patterns have little changed in the two- century history of orchestral conducting, there does not exist any acknowledged system of conducting which could be universally taught to orchestral players. The institutionalised conducting education covers less than half of this two-hundred- year time span, and it has been traditionally sanctioned that a Maestro may be the autodidactic, using his own intuitive - more or less efficient - technique of conducting. The players, too, are supposed to respond intuitively to the set of gestures and signs, even though they discuss this collaboration in terms of ‘understanding’ conductor’s intention. Conductors’ education comprises little if any experience or knowledge of efficient verbal communicating with an orchestra. They are taught how to explore and make music, while rehearsing much involves dealing with people, both individually and as the assembly, in a particular given space and the limited time frames. Therefore, the two orchestral paradoxes are that orchestral players are not familiarised with the theory of conductor’s gestures while conductors’ training is little concerned with people factor in this profession. One impossible without another, orchestral player and conductor are educated in astonishing separation.

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