Girl Talk

[gwen]

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 8:02 PM,  <manny at garfieldartworks.com> wrote:
> They don't put the entire orchestra on billboards and bus
> stop ads, they put the face of the conductor, who is the face of the
> orchestra, even though he does not perform on an instrument, nor create or
> perform his original music. The conductor, unless he is conducting his own
> music, has nothing to do with the performance of original music creations
> (and neither do the symphony players), only with the reinterpretation of
> others' works, like the 18th century equivalent of a DJ.

Er, yes and no.

First of all, all good conductors have written their own music, and
it's circulated.  It's the equivalent of a potential professor showing
his credentials by showing his portfolio of published essays, a
conductor doesn't get to be one until he's proven he can write works
that others appreciate.  Modern DJs do not have that requirement.

Another difference is that music on a page is usually written to be
interpreted.  Modern DJs take music that is already recorded and mix
it up; it was already interpreted before being reinterpreted through
montage.  The conductor pulls interpretation out of the raw text of
the music.

A further difference not touched here is that the conductor is a
manager of people; not just the orchestra, but many of the matters off
stage.  But even just managing the orchestra can be like herding cats
at times.  This is something a modern DJ does not have to deal with.

By the way, I might also point out that all of this shows why a
conductor is more than just a celebrity face.  If hiring a conductor
were all about celebrity, we'd have had one A-hole I will not name as
our conductor... fortunately we didn't; I'd really rather not have our
conductors throw chairs at the first violinist at every rehearsel no
matter how famous they are.  Instead, we hired someone who could
manage the orchestra professionally, and contribute a tremendous
amount of talent back into the organization both on and off stage.

-- 
Gwendolyn R. Schmidt