OT/MISC Inauguration Quartet Played to Taped Music

fruit loop

fruit loop

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28808317/

Their performance was live — but music wasn't

Classical music heard by millions at chilly inauguration was pre-recorded

Jan. 20: Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill perform a pre-recorded musical selection as Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
Did the inaugural musicians pull a 'Milli Vanilli'?
Jan. 23: In this edition of the News You Can't Use, MSNBC's Willie Geist offers his take on the decision to perform a pre-recorded musical selection at the swearing-in of President Obama.
MSNBC

updated 4:51 a.m. ET, Fri., Jan. 23, 2009
WASHINGTON - Whether you loved or hated the classical music played at President Barack Obama's inauguration, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier unless you were sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision a day before Tuesday's inauguration after a sound check to use a previously recorded audio tape for the broadcast of the ceremonies.

Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the weather was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune.

"They were very insistent on playing live until it became clear that it would be too cold," said Florman in a telephone interview Thursday night.

People sitting nearby could hear the musicians play "Air and Simple Gifts", written for the inauguration by John Williams, but their instruments were not amplified.

"It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way," Perlman told the New York Times, which first reported that the music was taped on its Web site Thursday. "This occasion's got to be perfect. You can't have any slip-ups."

The Marine Band, the youth choruses and the Navy Band Sea Chanters performed live, Florman said, although Aretha Franklin was accompanied by taped music and voices.

'This isn't Milli Vanilli'

Florman said all the acts "laid down tape" before Tuesday's inauguration. When they did their sound checks on Monday, all but the quartet made the decision to have their live performances broadcast.

The temperature hovered around 30 for the ceremony on the Capitol steps, too cold for McGill's clarinet, Ma's cello or Perlman's violin to offer true pitch. But the cold played havoc with the piano, which can't hold tune below 55 degrees for more than two hours, Florman said. The group played at 11:43 a.m., and guests seated near them could hear them as well as the tape made two days earlier. Guests seated farther away, the crowds that thronged the National Mall, and the millions who watched around the world heard the taped version of Williams' piece.

"This isn't Milli Vanilli," Florman insisted, referring to the late 1980s group stripped of a Grammy for lip-syncing. "They had to perform in such cold weather, the instruments couldn't possibly be in tune. They were able to play in sync with the tape. It's not unusual."
 
denfoote

denfoote

Inactive
"This isn't Milli Vanilli," Florman insisted, referring to the late 1980s group stripped of a Grammy for lip-syncing. "They had to perform in such cold weather, the instruments couldn't possibly be in tune. They were able to play in sync with the tape. It's not unusual."
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The article is also right about the tuning!!!

A classical stringed instrument's tune is temperature sensitive.
 
Cascadians

Cascadians

Leska Emerald Adams
I was surprised they were even out there in that weather. I spent my childhood playing in orchestras and instruments cannot handle cold weather or very hot weather. The wood and strings are not stable.

Itzhak Perlman, one of the greatest violinists to ever grace planet earth, uses extraordinarily expensive and rare violins. I cannot imagine he used the usual on Inauguration day, nor any of the other 3 musicians.

I used to use my lesser violin for any outdoor performances, and eventually simply refused to go outdoors. It was Tucson, way too hot and dry, and then the PacNW, way too moist and cold :)

It's not hard to play along with a recording you've recently made, especially when you know the piece well. The Copeland music is orchestral originally and most Americans in music performance have performed it. The arrangement was a little scattered though.

One of the points was seeing a disabled, asian, black, and woman perform when just a couple decades ago you would have seen only white establishment men perform for such an occasion. The world has come a long way in recognizing diversity.

Itzhak Perlman is a little sloppy, especially when compared to Heifetz, but can draw a tone and romanticism out of the violin that nobody else can.

I enjoyed the performance. They were brave.
 
Giblin

Giblin

Veteran Member
Cascadians, I agree. I have a guitar just for parties and outside. 2 of our family are organists and temp and humidity can really play havoc. We had a special organ concert that was delayed 15 while an organ tuner fixed some pipes after a change in weather.
 
Cascadians

Cascadians

Leska Emerald Adams
Ah, just as I suspected:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/a...bl&ex=1232859600&en=1be6139a60b561c0&ei=5087

" .... Along with admiration for the musicians’ yeoman work in the cold, questions had swirled in the classical music world about whether Mr. Ma and Mr. Perlman would use their valuable cello and violin in the subfreezing weather. Both used modern instruments. Mr. Ma said he had considered using a hardy carbon-fiber cello, but rejected the idea to avoid distracting viewers with its unorthodox appearance. .... "

No way they would have taken their Strads out in that.
 
denfoote

denfoote

Inactive
Goyim are morons!!

I find it a disturbing commentary on our dull witted pop culture that the article compared classical musicians like Itzak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to Milli Vanilli!!!
 
N

Nuthatch

Inactive
I was stunned to see them playing at all outside, even with modern instruments.

I liked the music very much and found it fitting to the moment. What gifts all those artists have.
 
Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
Pantomime.

How fitting for this Administration of Bread(maybe) and Circuses(or at least Super Sundays).

I am embarrassed for those musicians.
~~~

"It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way," Perlman told the New York Times,
which first reported that the music was taped on its Web site Thursday.

"This occasion's got to be perfect. You can't have any slip-ups."

Edited to comment: Well, excepting for the Oath of Office...
perhaps THAT ought have had a few more 'dress rehearsals'?
 
Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
denfoote said:
Goyim are morons!!
I find it a disturbing commentary on our dull witted pop culture
that the article compared classical musicians like Itzak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to Milli Vanilli!!!
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Ummm... "Goyim"?!?

The reference was to the lip-syncing aspect of the 'performance'.

Entirely appropriate, IMO.
 
sandra

sandra

Inactive
I also had a very strong feeling that they were playing to recorded music... I play an acoutic bass (doghouse) and it would be impossible to keep it tuned in weather like that. It was great music, but would have been impossible to present it played live as it could have been at an indoor function.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
denfoote... in case you didn't understand the reference, it was SOLELY because of the huge flap a few years back when Milli Vanilli (a group I wouldn't recognize if I saw or heard them) got caught basically faking ALL their music. They were apparently chosen for their "star quality" (read: looks) and didn't have enough musical talent to be trusted to play anything.

NO ONE is comparing those incredible musicians to the pop group... they were just clarifiying that it wasn't a "faked" performance.

Summerthyme
 
Zulu Cowboy

Zulu Cowboy

Keep It Real...
Milli Vanilli couldn't sing...they had other people do the singing, and they just lip synced to it. The classical musicians actually recorded THEIR performance...

Milli Vanilli was plagarism...the inauguration was just a case of expedience, because of the cold temperatures.

There's a BIG difference, between the two.

Zulu Cowboy
 
A

AnnCats

Inactive
Sigh.

No, it was not pantomime - they WERE playing and you could have heard them playing if you were right by the stage.

The rest of the world heard what was recorded a couple of days before.

Pantomime is when you DON'T play or sing and just make the movements, okay?

Embarassed for the musicians? For what? Thinking about their irreplacable instruments and not subjecting them to the cold and planning ahead so the crowd wasn't cheated of the wonderful music?

I'm embarrassed for you being so clueless and actually posting in public to let us all know!

Kronos said:
Pantomime.

How fitting for this Administration of Bread(maybe) and Circuses(or at least Super Sundays).

I am embarrassed for those musicians.
~~~

"It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way," Perlman told the New York Times,
which first reported that the music was taped on its Web site Thursday.

"This occasion's got to be perfect. You can't have any slip-ups."

Edited to comment: Well, excepting for the Oath of Office...
perhaps THAT ought have had a few more 'dress rehearsals'?
Click to expand...
 
CTFIREBATTCHIEF

CTFIREBATTCHIEF

Has No Life - Lives on TB


I had wondered, when I watched them playing, what effect the cold would have on their instruments. I didn't think that they would bring out fragile violins and such, in such cold dry weather. They did sound good though and ya know what. It doesn't bother me if it was pre-recorded, we've a lot more worrisome stuff to think about now.
 
tiger13

tiger13

Veteran Member
I mean...it's Washington DC on Jan 20th for christ sake??!!, where they expecting because Obie got elected the sun would shine and temps would be a balmy 80 degrees? If this is as good as they can plan for known conditions, how the hell are they going to deal with unexpected circumstances??
AND WHY WASTE THE MONEY WHEN THEY CAN,AND DID USE A RECORDING!

idiots one and all
 
Z28Camaro6D9

Z28Camaro6D9

Veteran Member
I have played many outdoor shows myself up here in the Pacific Northwest and can tell you that instruments going out of tune is not the only issue. Even at 40 degrees F. my fingers have trouble playing the correct parts, so imagine what effect 20 degrees F. would have on the left hands of the string players and both hands of the pianist !

Eventually your fingers warm up after 20 minutes or so, but in the case of the inauguration concert the segment was finished by then. (I'm always jealous of the drummer during these cold outdoor shows !)

At an outdoor Emerson, Lake, and Palmer concert many years ago in Eastern WA, Keith Emerson was flubbing his rather intricate piano/keyboard parts during the first several pieces. Years later in an interview he mentioned how the cold winds whipping up from the Columbia River Gorge affected his playing at that show.
 
Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
AnnCats said:
Sigh.

No, it was not pantomime - they WERE playing and you could have heard them playing if you were right by the stage.

The rest of the world heard what was recorded a couple of days before.

Pantomime is when you DON'T play or sing and just make the movements, okay?

Embarassed for the musicians? For what?
Thinking about their irreplacable instruments and not subjecting them to the cold
and planning ahead so the crowd wasn't cheated of the wonderful music?

I'm embarrassed for you being so clueless and actually posting in public to let us all know!
Click to expand...


Pantomime. What a ruckus they would have been making, else, by accounts.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_and_Simple_Gifts

Although it appeared that the piece was being performed live, it was in fact pantomimed
while a recording made two days previously was fed to the television pool and speakers.

Yo-Yo Ma told NPR's All Things Considered
that the piano keys had been decoupled from the hammers,
and the bows of the stringed instruments had been soaped to silence them.
 
R

Richard

TB Fanatic
Aretha Franklin, this music is worse than Beethoven's and what were the blacks composing two hundred years ago
 
A

AnnCats

Inactive
Kronos said:
Pantomime. What a ruckus they would have been making, else, by accounts.

Oh for pete's sake, you've never played a string instrument, have you?

It's not like the human voice, where you can open you mouth and play that you are making a sound without actually doing it.

A stringed instrument is stroked with the bow - the bow touches the strings, a sound is made. The fingers hit the string, a sound it made - no pantomime- NOT touching the strings with the bow or fingers, is possible.

Watch the video, the bows are touching the strings, the music is being played, but the recording is being used for those not close enough to HEAR what the bow and strings are accomplishing.

Please stop depending on wiki or other silly sources instead of asking someone who has seen the video AND who plays a stringed instrument.:boohoo:
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Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
AnnCats said:
Kronos said:
Pantomime. What a ruckus they would have been making, else, by accounts.

Oh for pete's sake, you've never played a string instrument, have you?

It's not like the human voice,
where you can open you mouth and play that you are making a sound without actually doing it.

A stringed instrument is stroked with the bow -

the bow touches the strings, a sound is made.
The fingers hit the string, a sound it made - no pantomime-
NOT touching the strings with the bow or fingers, is possible.

Watch the video, the bows are touching the strings, the music is being played,
but the recording is being used for those not close enough to HEAR what the bow and strings are accomplishing.

Please stop depending on wiki or other silly sources
instead of asking someone who has seen the video AND who plays a stringed instrument.:boohoo:
Click to expand...

Doubt Yo-Yo-Ma's own admission, to NPR (a searchable reference), do ya?
The bows were soaped TO SILENCE THEM.

You actually SAW THE VIDEO? Wow, makes you a sure expert on reality... not.

What sort of sound do you suppose they may have been making, then, having eschewed carbon fiber instruments?

Seriously. Rub a couple of those stringed-instrument-playing grey cells together and consider the question.

Oh, and I have played cello, not that that shall modify your stance a whit, I'd wager.
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A

AnnCats

Inactive
Kronos said:
AnnCats said:
Doubt Yo-Yo-Ma's own admission, to NPR (a searchable reference), do ya?The bows were soaped TO SILENCE THEM.

Really?

If you've played cello I dare you to take your bow and soap the horsehair and then try to play or even look like you are playing without that bow going all over the place vbecause it's slipping.

Come on, think about it, actually think about how this would work if you really played cello. HOW you could possibly make that bow stay in contact with the strings without making a sound and how would you control it if it was slippery enough not to make a sound?

Someone was having fun, maybe even yo yo Mah, about the whole deal and I'm afraid you took the bait hook line and sinker and believed it.

About the video - you were actually in attendance and in the front rows - I'd love to know what you heard, because of course those poor few of us who weren't able to be right there had to rely on ( oh sad us) videos of what was played at the inauguration. So come on, share what you saw first hand, right there a few feet away from the musicians... were you close enough to smell the Dawn? Did you hear the whisper of the horsehair as it touched the mute strings? Did you hear the thump thump thump as the fingers hit the non-reverberating strings?

Or is Kronos slipping around reality like the cello bow?
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Click to expand...
 
Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
AnnCats said:
Kronos said:
AnnCats said:
Doubt Yo-Yo-Ma's own admission, to NPR (a searchable reference), do ya?The bows were soaped TO SILENCE THEM.

Really?

If you've played cello I dare you
to take your bow and soap the horsehair and then try to play or even look like you are playing
without that bow going all over the place vbecause it's slipping.

Come on, think about it, actually think about how this would work if you really played cello.

HOW you could possibly make that bow stay in contact with the strings without making a sound
and how would you control it if it was slippery enough not to make a sound?

Someone was having fun, maybe even yo yo Mah,
about the whole deal and I'm afraid you took the bait hook line and sinker and believed it.

About the video - you were actually in attendance and in the front rows
- I'd love to know what you heard, because of course those poor few of us who weren't able
to be right there had to rely on ( oh sad us) videos of what was played at the inauguration.

So come on, share what you saw first hand, right there a few feet away from the musicians...
were you close enough to smell the Dawn?
Did you hear the whisper of the horsehair as it touched the mute strings?
Did you hear the thump thump thump as the fingers hit the non-reverberating strings?

Or is Kronos slipping around reality like the cello bow?
Click to expand...

Annie...

I can not believe that cats would have aught to do with such a vinegar personality as you exhibit (Ya, I do think highly of felines)

Yeah, sweetums, it would slip.

Do attend your precious VIDEO and notice said effect.

Also, por favor, do please quote where I EVER EVEN IMPLIED that I was in the vicinity of said 'performance'!!!

What IS your personal stake in this, huh? GET A GRIP!

Oh, and just out of morbid curiosity, just what might be YOUR expertise as to string instruments?

Can you never reply without some gratuitous slam, pumpkins?

It has been a trial, resisting responding to your snarky bits.

With this most recent spew, you have meandered into the land of psychosis, IMO.

Sheesh!!!
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WildDaisy

WildDaisy

God has a plan, Trust it!
denfoote said:
I find it a disturbing commentary on our dull witted pop culture that the article compared classical musicians like Itzak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to Milli Vanilli!!!
Click to expand...

I find it even more disturbing that with all that is happening right now, that is both urgent and important in our country, we are spending time talking about whether Itzak Perlman pulled a milli vanilli.

I guess they served their purpose. Ignore that man behind the curtain, the all powerful Oz is about to speak.
 
Kronos

Kronos

Inactive
bethshaya said:
I find it even more disturbing
that with all that is happening right now, that is both urgent and important in our country,
we are spending time talking about whether Itzak Perlman pulled a milli vanilli.

I guess they served their purpose.
Ignore that man behind the curtain, the all powerful Oz is about to speak.
Click to expand...

You omitted denfoote's title to the bit you have chosen to quote.

It was: "Goyim are morons!!", with a frowny face.

This thread was started, and the topic was in re:
how a heretofore well-regarded group of musicians
have prostituted themselves for the Greater Glory of ... something or another.
 
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