The players/singers know what to do.
What is the purpose of someone standing up front flailing their arms around?
Also, are all conductors male?
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A symphony orchestra can have 100 odd players,16 1st violins, 16 2nd violins, 12 violas, 12 cellos, 8 double basses, 4 flutes ā¦ and so on, known as sections. Most of the time theyāre not all playing at once. When a section starts up theyāve got to be together as one, so timing is all important. By contrast, a pop group typically has say 4 sections, one player in each. If oneās half a second out, no one would notice and anyway heād soon fall into place, heās got a beat to follow.
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Iāll have to ask my friend up the road. Her son, who I do speak to when we meet in the road, is a conductor (heās very musical, it seems). I too have often wondered this.
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I think this will explain it.
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When I was in the orchestra, I just did my own thing, it seemed to work.
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Yeah but you can take the music in new directions, off on tangents, but the bloke next to you blowing the same trumpet must be in the same groove. Watch the conductor, when he looks at you, nods then then twitches the baton, blow.
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The Conductor said āGive that boy a Mars Barā must have been doing something right, against all the āPoshā kids 
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Obvious really.
If they travel by bus who would they give their fare to if they didnāt have a conductor?
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When was the last time you travelled by bus @Bruce.I do occasionally and I canāt remember the last time the driver took cash and as for a conductor, it must be at least 15yrs since Stagecoach had any of those 2 crew busses and maybe longer.
@Bretrick IMO the most important point is that the conductor actually conducts the piece. I/they decide of how the piece is to be played, at which temp and with which atmosphere, They are the master of everything unwritten on the sheet, and they also are the master of everything actually written on the sheet if they deem so to be necessary. Without a conductor to control how the piece sounds to the audience, the sound could be chaotic and nothing resembling what the composer had intended.
As for the female of the species, there are several I could name, but I doubt if you would recognise any of them. I will however, name one who IMO is the best to brandish her baton, the French conductor Ariane Matiakh. She features regularly on Classic FM Radio and below she directs the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.
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I borrowed a lot from the library,It was always the Berlin Philharmonic with Von Karajan.Iāve heard the same stuff since and it can sound so different with a different conductor.
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Exactly, thatās why an orchestra needs its own conductor.
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