It has come to my attention that something I know about may not be something you know about.
The other day, Donna sent this link to all of us on the MAL backchannel. It's a video depicting the motion-captured movements of Alan Gilbert, the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, as he conducts a Stravinsky chorale. It does a great job of showing what a conductor is actually doing up on that podium, especially at the point when it juxtaposes the conductor's movements with the respective volumes and positions in in the orchestra.
This video sparked a conversation in which many of the MAL contributors admitted that they had always wondered how a conductor's movements correlated with the sounds produced by the orchestra. I've been a musician since the tender age of 12; since then, I've thoroughly forgotten that a conductor could even be something that someone would be puzzled by (much less interested in).
Judging from my small 'Lab sample size, I will extrapolate to assume that many of our readers are curious about the man in front of the orchestra as well. Without further ado, here is a basic primer on the art of conducting.
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