re: Are orchestral conductors full of shite?

Most orchestras give many different concerts a year, meaning they spend easily less than month rehearsing the same piece (which can be well over an hour long in some cases), probably closer to a couple of weeks for most works (some of the bigger symphonies a little more).

And yes, musicians learn the piece well during that time and often times have performed or practiced the piece before, but they also need to remember all the comments the conductor tells them or any other notes/reminders for themselves/their section. Orchestras will have guest conductors conduct fairly frequently, and how they want a piece to be played can vary quite a bit from other conductors. Many instruments will have extended periods of rests where they might not play for 200+ measures, so having indications of where they are in the piece is helpful so they can come in at the right place. They also are expected to perform at an incredibly high level of precision, so having the sheet music on stage provides extra security in what can be a fairly high-pressure environment.

Marching band is similar in some aspects. In many colleges, bands will learn different shows for given weeks. They usually only start the new shows about a week and a half before they perform them (at least, this was the norm for Tigerband). Keep in mind that the vast majority of these students aren’t music majors. They’re people who just enjoy music and are there to have fun, and they have other priorities above band, so expecting them to memorize all the music for a new show/stand tune very quickly isn’t always realistic.