Here is a short section from a new book that I am preparing.  
  
The need for coordination in a complex economy makes calls for a   
cooperative organization of production seem hopelessly utopian. A common   
example is a production of symphonic music where a conductor prevents   
the musicians from creating a cacophony of sounds. Even Karl Marx   
suggested the necessity of a conductor:  
  
##In all labour where many individuals cooperate, the interconnection   
and unity of the process is necessarily represented in a governing will,   
and in functions that concern not the detailed work but rather the   
workplace and its activity as a whole, as with the conductor of an   
orchestra. [Marx 1981, p. 507]  
  
Surprisingly, conductors were a fairly new innovation at the time Marx   
was writing. Previously, a conductor wielding a baton did not lead the   
orchestra. Instead, musicians themselves, usually the first violinist,   
took on that responsibility while they were performing. Bach, Mozart,   
Beethoven all conducted their own works -- often from the keyboard.  
  
According to Urs Frauchiger, previously director of Bern's music   
conservatory, the composer Carl Maria von Weber was the first to serve   
as a conductor standing in from of the musicians in a performance at   
Dresden in 1817. Later, Ludwig Spohr conducted a performance and Felix   
Mendelssohn soon followed. At the time, another famous composer, Robert   
Schumann, protested that the conductor's baton contradicted republican   
principles.  
  
Within a short time, republican principles were soon forgotten and the   
conductor became a central figure in symphonic productions (Frauchiger   
1982, pp. 69 ff). The development of Romanticism in the late 19th   
century made music more complex, reinforcing the perceived need for a   
conductor.  
  
Leon Fleisher, a renowned pianist and conductor, advocates a return to   
the earlier tradition. _The Economist_ reported on Fliesher's experience   
working with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra during a rehearsal of   
Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. At the time, Fleisher exclaimed: "This   
part is always screwed up with a conductor, but we've played it   
perfectly twice. This is proof that conductors should just sit down"   
(Anon. 2006).  
  
The article cites Eric Bartlett, a cellist with both Orpheus and the New   
York Philharmonic Orchestra, who described the lower level of individual   
intensity in the latter organization: "If even a great conductor is   
empowered to make all the important decisions musicians start to play in   
a more passive way. Orpheus has removed a barrier between the audience   
and the music, the conductor himself." The article concludes: "So why   
aren't there more conductor-less orchestras? Star conductors sell more   
tickets than co-operatives."  
  
So perhaps, the power of the conductor is just a case of markets   
triumphing over art. It certainly would not be the first instance of   
such an outcome. I don't pretend to be an expert on music, but   
Fleischer's experience with the Orpheus Orchestra suggests that forms of   
organization that we take for granted may not be the best way of   
organizing society.  
  
Michael Perelman