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A good conductor: Provides musical leadership Unifies the ensemble in the musical moment Decides on the how of music that cannot be communicated in the score Communicates to the ensemble non-verbally At the top level of your question, indeed, there exist ensembles that perform without a conductor. These ensembles are often heavily rehearsed, and quite ...

You ask "if most things are known in advance"---but who made those advance decisions? A conductor's role begins long before the actual performance, even before rehearsals begin. S/he makes decisions such as what tempo "Allegra ma non troppo" really means, how loud forte really is, how to coordinate one hundred people to play rubato together, how to balance ...

Yes. High-paid studio musicians are all expected to sight read perfectly on the first read. There are even programs to illustrate and develop the skill for younger musicians. Many movie soundtracks are recordings of first-time sight reading.

Band is a very imprecise term. Many swing bands contain stringed instruments (Double Bass obviously or Bass Guitar) and some have contained string sections. Pop bands can contain almost anything. Orchestras can contain almost anything as well, but pretty much but tend to be Strings Woodwinds Brass Percussion In symphonic situations. Philharmonics tend ...

from my bookmarks: http://www.sheetmusictrade.com/ http://imslp.org/wiki http://icking-music-archive.org/index.php http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/ http://www.mfiles.co.uk/sheet-music.htm http://www.bh2000.net/score/ http://www.rowy.net/sheet_music.html http://www.free-scores.com/index_uk.php3 plus in French: http://www.lespartitions.info/gratuites/index.php ...

Small ensembles in the pop and folk idiom can all go by the term of band; this answer will focus on what are referred to as "large ensembles." In the jazz context, the name of orchestra was historically applied in order to give credence to groups that would otherwise have been marginalized by the cultural mainstream and racism. That term has now been ...

It is often a matter of tradition inside the orchestra that becomes out of control for conductors. When they create their own orchestra they have the pleasure to decide this for themselves. The conservatism from musicians has several reasons: Some Orchestra have a concert hall with a large organ which is tuned for this frequency Wind players usually ...

Essentially your intuition is correct--there must be differences for the publisher to have found it necessary to print a new set of music. In the cases you mentioned, the music was originally written for the ballet; subsequently the composer went back and made some editorial decisions to allow the piece to stand on its own without a dance company. This may ...

Even if I would not take the late Karajan as a reference for this, you are right, the first time of each bars of a Wiener Waltzer is almost always played short, usually the leading voice is even slighter in advance than the bass when the melody is written on 3 quarter notes. This can be approximated as removing 1/6th of the first time and adding it in ...

From my experience as a band musician, I can say that most of the importance of the conductor is during rehearsing. A well rehearsed orchestra composed of good musicians can play without a conductor in case of necessity, but without him they would probably never be able to successfully rehearse a piece of music. An orchestra is a very complex organism and ...

This seems to be shorthand for the number of instruments it's written for - unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a standard, and each publisher uses it's own notation. According to Wikipedia, the strings notation 2.1.2.1.1 means 2 first violins 1 second violin 2 violas 1 cello 1 double bass

The slash symbol through the stem of a note is called a "tremolo" notation, and signals that the same pitch or chord is to be repeated at a certain rate. In your example, it is a shorthand for eighth notes. The half note signifies the length of time the notes will fill (in this case two beats). The stem plus the dots shows the division. Here is a good ...

Since I have been studying and living in Austria as a South African music student I have had several opportunities to play waltzes in orchestras. Especially New Years concerts consist of a couple of famous Viennese Waltzes and since the first time I had to play one of these, I have also been fascinated by this interesting rhythmical appearance. Being both ...

When the concert master (first chair violinist) comes on stage, it is their job to tune the orchestra. The concert master plays a concert A for the orchestra. The sounds you then hear are those of each instrument tuning to the A given by the concert master. Since each string instrument (violin, viola, cello, and double bass) has four strings, they must tune ...

As a brassplayer, 442 on up seriously sucks. We are placed in the position of playing where the instrument doesn't resonate in the same way. Even 4 cents difference will render the slides too long even if the open instrument can be accomodated to a higher tuning frequency. Fie on brighter tuning!

Orchestras tune higher if they can get away with it because higher pitches sound more brilliant. This has led to inflation of standard pitch over time. There are, however, practical limits to how much inflation is possible, since audiences will cry foul if the result is closer to the next semitone up. Also, some instruments, such as pianos, can be damaged ...

Don't overlook your local library. I find that university libraries (especially when they have a music program) will have a lot more sheet music than you might think (if your library uses Library of Congress indexing, look under M). Many city public libraries carry orchestral and operatic scores as well (usually at the "main" or "downtown" branch).

As Reina pointed out, the slash is a kind of an abbreviated beam, indicating, that the note has to be played as repeated eigth notes (two slashes/beams would indicate 16th etc.). The dots are most likely the staccato dots for the resulting four eights, so nothing changes in comparison to the previous bars.

This method of notation is in fact short hand. It saves on space and time both for the person putting the information down, and for the person reading. It is true that there is no critically-accepted standard, but there are general guidelines that composers follow when they use that shorthand method; which I will outline below: Typically, dashes are used ...

Some musicians are content merely to play the notes on the music in front of them correctly, and are not curious to learn anything about the notes that other people in the ensemble also play, or how those notes affect each other. Other musicians want to know the "big picture" and understand how the composer has constructed the entire piece that the ensemble ...

To add to @cardian's list: http://www.classical-scores.com/free/ http://www.8notes.com/orchestra/ http://www.freesheets.org.uk/ http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/ http://musicaviva.com/fsmd/ Also: http://www.bandmusicpdf.org/ http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/briefe/doclist.php

Generally, the distinction is between a "military band" and a "symphony orchestra", historically the two most common types of large instrumental ensembles. The major difference between those two is that a military band has no stringed instruments (with the possible exception of double bass), instead replacing that area of the sonic space with additional ...

There are many reference books about conducting, some of them still being read despite dating from the early 20th century but your dream is just a dream. Conducting is as much apprenticeship as theory. And as many here have remarked, conducting schools and styles abound. You have to make a choice or let life make the choice for you. In the original version ...

There is a difference between a single slash and the several slashes for a tremolo. A half note with a slash through it in this case with the four dots underneath, is a shorthand meaning that you play four notes for each one written. So if you have half notes written and four dots then you play eighth notes.

Hints or tricks: as it was said by Mischa, drinking coffee and eating glucose (for example fruits- fruit salad is in my opinion the best to make concentration time longer) is something you should try. Some may try also some kind of special medicine for drivers. I would add fresh air- just open any window and breath deeply for a few seconds.

The reason for the unique sound quality of this is the layering of perfect intervals, essentially fifths. The string instruments, save for the double basses, have their strings tuned in fifths, that's what you mainly hear. Fifths are the canonical choice for comparison of different notes, since they are the secondmost pure interval after octaves, so you can ...

A deeper learning of music theory and analysis will give you a better understanding of the music and the part you play in the larger whole. However, this isn't necessary if you just want to enjoy playing! There are rules to writing music and orchestration that composers learn. This is really important in the early learning of someone who wants to write ...

It's interesting to note that before the standardization onto A=440 in the 1910-1930 period, orchestral woodwind and brass players had to own two sets of instruments, one of which could be tuned to the lower standard pitch, and one of which could be tuned to the higher standard pitch. That's the only way they could get work with different orchestras who ...

Speaking as a recovering percussionist and as a conductor, it is important to note that the methods used to talk descriptively about beat placement have two contradictory qualities: They come from a very modern and commercial worldview. I use the term commercial to refer specifically to the advent of electronic recording techniques and more specifically to ...

In the Viennese Waltz, the second beat is slightly anticipated. This is a particular characteristic of the Viennese Waltz. When conducting such waltzes, conductors generally only indicate each bar rather than each beat. The timing is roughly as if the beats are triplets with the second beat syncopated.