About conductors and erm...conduction

whether they have hair like christopher lloyd in back to the future.

lack of emotional responses and empathy to questions posed in a Voight-Kampff test.

Can't think of any conductors I've seen that have crazy scientist hair...will make sure to look next time.

If you look at how their hands move, you can tell what time signature the piece is in. PRETTY SWEET HUH

Lots of stuff, actually.

Almost all the conducted performances I see are of contemporary classical chamber music. in these cases, it's not a huge ensemble, and the conductor is there to help the players navigate difficult rhythms together, first and foremost.

I tend to notice if the conductor modifies his/her beat to coax expressive effects out of the ensemble, or if the beat remains precise and unvarying in one hand while the other takes care of shaping. I'll notice how smoothly the conductor manages page turns, whether cues are given with a clear preparatory gesture. Also just the general form and appearance -- some conductors have very "vertical" beat patterns (which I've always hated trying to follow as a performer), some conductors are immobile from the waist down while others (like Leonard Bernstein) dance around a bit. Baton versus bare hands is another obvious variable.

It was fun seeing Claire Heldrich conduct Elliott Carter's Double Concerto once -- there's a notorious passage in which the conductor needs to beat two different meters/tempos simultaneously.

thx, again - I'll have some of this stuff in mind for my next concert (which will prob have Elliott Carter in it, actually.)

Woah, people outside of New England play/listen to Elliott Carter????

haha a WHOLE WEEKEND of elliot carter concerts are being staged in London.

Thought Carter's located right in NYC? You're probably joking (and I don't even know that I understand his music myself) but he's surely been one of the biggest figures in American concert music for decades and known worldwide. Although I'll freely concede I didn't realize nearly how big he is for some people until I came to the States. (I actually didn't realize how important serialism still is for a lot of people. I wonder if it's generally considered more passé in Canada.)

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dan, there is a group on my school's facebook (social networking thing) called "I love Elliott Carter and Polyrhythmic Syncopation!!".

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"This group has 109 members at Rochester."