Rhetorical Analysis Of Orchestra Conductors By Igor Stravinsky

Composer Igor Stravinsky wrote an essay about orchestra conductors and his point of view on them. To express his opinion, he used many rhetorical strategies to further explain his thoughts. First, Stravinsky uses aphorism to illustrate a common belief; taking the belief that, “if you are unable to listen to the music”(43-44), at a concert then you can watch the conductor, but “if you are able, you had better not go to the concert”(45), he explains that people often mistake, “the conductor's gestures for the music’s meanings”(33-34). This shows that he views conductors as unessential and visually distracting to the audience. He even goes as far as to use the word, “corybantics”(44), to describe how conductors move. Saying that the way orchestral conductors move is “wild” and “frenzied” is a rather uneducated observation. Yes, Stravinsky is a composer who wrote some amazing symphonies, but composers typically do not understand the ways of a conductor and the purpose of why they conduct in the way they do. Conductors get so absorbed in the crescendos and the beauty of the music that they release themselves and let the music control them. You have to contemplate the job and to a point even educate yourself on what the true role of a conductor is to form an opinion that is more realistic to the truth. The diction Stravinsky uses

This shows that he has observed the work and performance of a conductor, and views it as that they are made to be egotistical and in a way narcissistic. He continues to say that being the “titan of the podium” (23-24) is “very nearly the worst obstacle to genuine music-making” (24-25). With those few lines, Stravinsky clearly states that conductors are a huge obstacle to real music and that they are more of an inconvenience than a