I have noticed that, in a concert, the conductor moves in advance: sometimes, they move all of a sudden, and the musicians start playing louder only a little time after.
I wonder why this is so: as an amateur musician, I think I would get very distracted and confused if someone were doing movements out of sync while I'm playing.
Are there different conducting styles? Do some conductors move in an exactly synchronized fashion?
Addendum: I understand that musicians should be told in advance what to do, sure! But taking the example of a fortissimo, obviously the musicians have rehearsed the music before and know that the fortissimo is coming. Besides, I guess that when reading the score, every musician reads a bit in advance! I think of this question as of an alternative:
- either the conductor moves out of sync, and this is disturbing because what the musicians play does not agree with the movements that the conductor does at the same time and might, for example, cause the musicians not to play simultaneously;
- either the conductor moves in an exact synchronization with the music and the musicians adapt themselves almost instantaneously, which may be hard, but the information that the conductor communicates is already known by them.
Edit: I have little experience of playing in a small band, and I remember that the conductor used to help us playing in time by doing upwards moves, preparing the downwards move on which we should all be synchronized. To me, it is nothing at all like interpreting with your hands the whole piece one beat ahead; it is playing exactly on time but with a gesture style that is « predictable ». I hope this was clear from my question.
A lot of answers here are pretty good, I don’t know which one to choose. I would like to thank everyone here!
