The Conductor Igor Stravinsky Analysis

Conductors are seen as the leader of an orchestra or band and are given most if not all the credit for the music played. For such a simple task that consists of counting the beats, showing the mood for the music, and giving people cues to enter, conductors are as good as their orchestra or band, not by their talent. In this passage by Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky discusses that the work the conductor puts in is negligible to the work the orchestra it self and that concerts should be about the complex qualities of the music played instead of how the conductor impacts the performance.

Stravinsky, who is a composer, explains that conductors play a role that is un-necessary and that the credit they are given is extremely higher that what they should be getting compared to the orchestra/ band who are actually playing the music. This is exemplified not only by his eloquence, but also his ability to characterize his ideas through imagery. In this statement “The successful conductor can be an incomplete musician, but he must be a complete angler. His first skill has to be power politics” and “the conductor is encouraged to impose a purely egotistical, false, and arbitrary authority… accorded a position out of all proportion to his real value in the musical.” Both of these statements exemplifies the way he phrases his words which also

strengthens his point that conductors are not worthy of the praise they are given.

When he states that a successful conductor can be an incomplete musician and that he relies on and is encouraged to engage the audience to set a fake sense of leadership, this shows how much

Stravinsky believes that conductors should be denounced by stating they are incomplete and that they are fake. Also when he claims that “Great” conductors, like “great” actors, are unable to play anything but themselves” adds an element that they are reliant that everyone else does everything he wants them to do. The aspect that conductors has to assert a fake authority, incomplete in the same thing they are “controlling,” and also how much they depend on the orchestra it self all shows how dependent conductors are, and how under appreciated and under praised the orchestra/bands are.
Next, Stravinsky states “incidence of ego disease is naturally high to begin with, and I hardly need add that the disease grows like a tropical weed under the sun of a pandering public,” his use of imagery shows how egotistical conductors are by saying that conductors have an “ego disease.” Along with the disease his analogy that this disease grows uncontrollably like a tropical weed in public shows how much conductors like to flaunt themselves to tell the audience “look at me” instead of “listen to the complexity and emotional value of the music” which the audience is actually here for. To further explain this Stravinsky also says, “The film-actor type of conductor will act out a life of Napoleon… expression of noble sufferings… dances the victory ball.” This depicts a picture that conductors unnecessarily act out in outrageous ways to show themselves off instead of the orchestra of which he is suppose to show off and “lead.”
In his final sentence he says “If you are unable to listen to the music, you watch the corybantic, and if you are able, you had better not go to the concert.” Which adds to the fact that the concert is for the music, not for the conductors movements and how they act. All in all Stravinsky tries to show us as consumers that concerts are for the music and should always be for the music not the conductors, and that the conductors should not be given all of the credit for the orchestras work.