The Listening Service

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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

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Music: Classical

An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service

Rethink music with The Listening Service. Tom Service presents a journey of imagination and insight, exploring how music works

The Listening Service: What's the Point of the Conductor?

How Do You Make a National Anthem?

What's the Point of the Conductor?

BBC Radio 3 - The Listening Service, What's the Point of the Conductor?

Tom Service explores the role of the conductor.

Tom Service explores the role of the conductor. Is it to do with their ego, clothes, ability to beat time or their emotional outpouring onstage, or is it something else entirely?

The Listening Service had a question from a listener: 

"When I see the musicians playing, they seem to be looking at their sheet music, not the conductor. Can an orchestra not function perfectly well without a conductor? If I'm intensely moved by a piece of orchestral music, is it not the musicians which moved me? Why must I applaud some arbitrary conductor, who never touched a single instrument throughout the entire performance?"

Tom Service rises to the challenge and looks at the role of the conductor - is it all about their ego, their clothes, their ability to beat time or their emotional outpouring onstage - or it is something else entirely? Rethink music with The Listening Service.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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What's the Point of the Conductor?

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