Inauguration Music?

[KarlMarx]

Is this the piece discussed?:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/Ma-Friends

Carolus back in the barrack

[Alex C]

There's a reason that football marching bands don't include violins...

Actually, in the 1970's, one company designed an amplifier-and-speaker for strings which could fit into a shako so that the strings could, at last, march.

It didn't catch on.

Can you imagine wheeling basses around the field? They'd probably end up in the pit.

[sloan]

There's a reason that football marching bands don't include violins...

Actually, in the 1970's, one company designed an amplifier-and-speaker for strings which could fit into a shako so that the strings could, at last, march.

It didn't catch on.

Can you imagine wheeling basses around the field? They'd probably end up in the pit.

Let's not forget Woody Allen and his cello...

[windshieldbug]

[sloan]

When the President wants something on his special day he gets it.

Without trying to turn the discussion to politics...isn't this what gets Presidents in trouble in the first place?

Response #1 should have been: "that's not a good idea, and here's why..."

Response #2 might have been: "we could design and build a transparent box that they can sit in and be warm and dry"

The *last* response should be: "we'll have to make believe - but we can probably fake it so well that no one will notice".

Notice that, in the end, the President did NOT get what he wanted. He wanted to hear this piece presented at the Inauguration; what he got was bow-syncing to a recording. With a carefully silenced piano and soap instead of rosin on the bows (question: how was the clarinet silenced?)

Question: did the President know that the performance was faked? That is, was he one of the deceivers, or one of the deceived? What did he know and when did he know it? [do these questions sound familiar?]

Moving back to the more general issue: when the listener is actually hearing sounds coming from speakers far removed from the performer, does it really matter where (and when?) the performers are? What are the key components of a "live performance" that we value? What differentiates Milli Vanilli from Jessica Simpson from Yo Yo Ma?

And...what about that Yo Yo Ma claim that "this is standard practice with the Marine Band"? Have there been instances in the past when the MB lip-synced a performance? When? Where? Why?

Was Aretha's hat faked, too?

Maybe we could get the quartet over to the White House to repeat the performance, just as Justice Roberts did with the oath?

[Dean E]

There's a reason that football marching bands don't include violins...

Actually, in the 1970's, one company designed an amplifier-and-speaker for strings which could fit into a shako so that the strings could, at last, march.

It didn't catch on.

Can you imagine wheeling basses around the field? They'd probably end up in the pit.

Why not simply use instruments like the military's phony funeral bugles, that play taps electronically?

This reminds me of when Luciano Pavarotti got himself into deep trouble several times by lip-synching concert. Some have called such deception a "musical felony."

[Tuba Guy]

This reminds me of when Luciano Pavarotti got himself into deep trouble several times by lip-synching concert. Some have called such deception a "musical felony."

Couldn't that be the difference between why it's bad when Pavorotti and Brittney Spears do it but not necissarily when the quartet at the inauguration did it? I mean, we are different in that we would watch the inauguration and actually want to hear the people playing, while the general population of America wouldn't necissarily be as interested. In a case where people actually pay specifically to see the musicians, then it is sorta ripping them off.
Of course, this is implying that musicians should only play well when performing for money, which isn't necissarily true, but...yeah.

[Rick Denney]

Yo-Yo Ma said (on NPR today) that they soaped instead of rosined the bows so no sound was made. The piano keyboard was de-coupled from the hammer mechanisms, as well.

That was the answer I was seeking. Thanks.

Rick "who can play mock tuba with anyone" Denney

[Cameron Gates]

(question: how was the clarinet silenced?)

That is a good question. Let's find out and silence them all.

Also, it is standard practice to record the ceremony. I imagine this is done for emergency purposes only. It is not standard practice to use the tape.

We go so far as to have several marches nicknamed "frozen horns" that are nothing more than harmonized bugel calls. On President Clinton's 2nd we played those on the parade due to the fact that while marching we could not constantly keep warm air moving in the instruments (it was colder on that day than this year). Doing the best one can under pretty extreme conditions is all anyone can ask for.

[sloan]

Doing the best one can under pretty extreme conditions is all anyone can ask for.

I agree completely; I mean no disrespect to performers who are doing their best. My quibbles are with those who make the decisions - especially those who fail to plan adequately for entirely predictable circumstances.

If anything, I'm making a "Caesar's wife" argument: once you open the door to passing off recordings as "live", you open the door for for people to start assuming that it's taped every time someone performs very well in difficult circumstances. Look at this thread and consider the posts of the form "I couldn't believe they played so well under those circumstances. It was marvelous. I was inspired." Next time, will people say "It sounded too good, it must have been faked. I wish I had the technology to fake MY performances."

My (still nagging) question for USMB folk is: has there been an occasion when the "emergency" tape was used WITH THE INTENTION OF DECEIVING THE AUDIENCE? Perhaps the answer is Classified.

A possible analogy is the use of stand-ins in live theater. Almost always, substitutions are announced to the audience. Some patrons grumble when the substitution slip appears in the Playbill - would it be better to simply make the substitution without an announcement? Does it matter if the make-up is so extreme that it's unlikely anyone will notice? What's the proper reaction from an audience member who finds out about the substitution AFTER the fact?

Almost everyone (even those physically present) was watching the quartet at the Inauguration on a big TV screen. Why not play a video of the quartet playing at the recording session to accompany the recording? The players could still sit on their nice stage, and take a bow at the end.

[eupher61]

They actually were playing. It just wasn't mic'd. The PA and broadcasts had the recording.

[sloan]

They actually were playing. It just wasn't mic'd. The PA and broadcasts had the recording.

My understanding, based on the NPR interview with Yo Yo Ma and CNN coverage discussing the disabling of the piano, is that this is incorrect. According these sources, the piano keys were completely de-coupled from the hammers, and the string players had soap on their bows. Yo Yo Ma said that someone standing in their midst would have heard the recording coming over their monitors.

Source: NPR and CNN. I wasn't there.

[David Richoux]

Tom Holtz (tubist with the Marine Band) apparently posted some comments about the Inauguration performance on his Facebook page ( I have not seen them - I don't have an account there) but he did write to me about how cold it was! Several frozen valves, cold horn, feet & fingers, etc.

But they did it live!

(they did have a pre-recorded performance as a back-up, but it was not used.)

[Tom Holtz]

I suppose that some might feel cheated after believing for a whole day they'd heard Itzhak and Yo-Yo live, only to find out they'd gone to tape because of the weather. I don't. It's not like they can't play anymore, and they used a recording from twenty years ago to cover their tracks. They recorded it the day before Inauguration. It's not like they had to get ringers to come in and play the chart because Yo-Yo is a nice guy but he doesn't have the chops.

They could have had the piano tuned in a wind-chill near zero degrees at sunrise, and then hoped for the best with letting the piano sit in the sun and wind and cold for about six hours before playing a note. Good luck with that. The smallest section in the Marine Band on Inauguration day was the three bassoons. We had six tubas out there. If something goes wrong, big deal. Plenty of horses to cover it up. Those four in the quartet would be left hanging. Anyone know how old Itzhak is? At least twenty years older than me, and I know what my fingers felt like that morning. They could barely render a Sousa march. His need to do a hell of a lot more.

With the inherent cold weather pitch problems alone, there is no way they could have made that chart work. NO WAY. Beyond that, well, I know what I sounded like close up. If I'd had a mic on my bell, no backup, and you'd heard me swinging in the breeze, Sean would have yanked the "professional" tag off my account an hour after the gig. I had a section taking care of me when a valve froze or an airball was launched. The members of the quartet were not afforded that luxury. Their chances of a musical performance in those conditions, at a level acceptable for an event of that magnitude, were exactly ZERO.

I'm proud that we got to play at the ceremony. I'm proud that I get to tell the grandkids that I played at this Inauguration. I feel bad for the quartet that they had to suck it up, be professionals, and use the tape. I admire them for the effort of bringing the instruments out and putting on a show, and for their candor over the last couple of days. They did the best they could under pretty extreme conditions.

[Dan Schultz]

I watched the inauguration from start to finish. The music was wonderful. My hat's off to everyone who took part in it.

[Mojo workin']

Cameron and Tom, my admiration goes out to you for even attempting to play that day. Your twig and berries must have been the size of toothpicks and raisins, especially with 25 lbs. of brass sitting in your lap. I would imagine the parade may have been a little easier, as atleast you are moving and generating more body heat when walking.
I'm sure most of the players on this board who were watching must have been thinking about what a murderous gig it was for the band. That is one of the few reasons I'm glad the band didn't take me when I auditioned.

[Dean E]

This reminds me of when Luciano Pavarotti got himself into deep trouble several times by lip-synching a concert. Some have called such deception a "musical felony."

Couldn't that be the difference between why it's bad when Pavorotti and Brittney Spears do it but not necissarily when the quartet at the inauguration did it? I mean, we are different in that we would watch the inauguration and actually want to hear the people playing, while the general population of America wouldn't necissarily be as interested. In a case where people actually pay specifically to see the musicians, then it is sorta ripping them off. . . .

We DID pay with our taxes, unless some defense contractors paid sponsorship fees, in which case we'll pay later during their contracts.

What was the compelling urgency that made the performers go through the charade?

I would have preferred honesty by the producers and performers, by announcing that the performance was prerecorded and explaining that strings and woodwinds do not perform well in cold weather. Instead, I cannot remove from my mind the visage of Mr. Ma bowing furiously with an enormous smile on his face.

[Rick Denney]

With the inherent cold weather pitch problems alone, there is no way they could have made that chart work. NO WAY.

Tom, I doubt anyone would offer the slightest challenge to this. The question is not why they would not perform live in such conditions, but rather why they would be asked to pretend to perform live in such conditions. There were many alternatives that didn't require that small deception:

1. Not perform music that requires strings and piano on an outdoor winter concert. I can't think of any reason, save the desire of famous musicians to give tribute, for that performance.

2. Have the ensemble perform indoors, perhaps inside the Capitol, and have it televised and amplified to the crowd and to the viewers at home.

3. Play the recording as a recording, and then allow the performers to take a bow.

4. Put them in a climate-controlled glass box on stage, and let them perform.

In a television variety show or during the Superbowl half-time, nobody cares. That is intended to be entertainment, and there really isn't an expectation of honesty and transparency (except in the play of the game itself, or in the identity of who made the recording, etc.). In this case, though, it was intended to be a tribute to the process of democratically changing power, and it was an official government function. That seems to me to impose a tougher standard of transparency.

It's a small thing in this case, but morally there's little to distinguish this little subterfuge from, say, faking the moon landing, which many people think we did. Why would they think that? Because they don't believe in the honesty and transparency of their government. What if it turned out that the president had recorded his speech, and was lip-syncing to it, passing it off as live? It's possible that the live speech would be utterly indistinguishable from the recorded one, but what does it say about our willingness to hide truth? And if that's okay, what about recording the oath? Where do you draw the line?

Rick "thinking Aretha Franklin would have sounded a LOT better singing indoors" Denney

[windshieldbug]

Didn't Aretha Franklin sing at the moon landing?

[TubaRay]

Didn't Aretha Franklin sing at the moon landing?

If she didn't, it's too bad she didn't.