Klarinet Archive - Posting 000247.txt from 1999/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Orchestral karaoke (was: [kl] Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 1999 12:36:32 -0400

At 09:52 AM 10/8/1999 -0700, Kevin Fay wrote:
>There is more than one "modern" recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
>with the composer playing the solo part. It's actually an orchestra
>following a player piano, whose roll was "punched" by the composer. (Or in
>this case, de-composer!)
>
>Does this strike anyone else as really, really weird?

Yeah, but this type of thing bothers me less than a fully modern "karaoke"
performance, because it's a way of learning something from an historically
important performance not otherwise available. When the performer is long
dead and high-quality recordings don't exist, the piano roll actually isn't a
bad substitute, as long as it's possible to determine the correct playing
speed -- sometimes a tricky proposition, I gather! On the whole, however,
I'd rather have a re-mastered piano roll recording of solo music, not
something pasted together with a modern orchestra. That really is pretty
weird.

Sooner or later, some mail-order maven will come up with a mutation of "Music
Minus One" where we can custom-order a CD with our choice of soloist. Some
big company will hire a good rent-an-orch like the London Philharmonic to
record a series of concertos (no doubt including the Mozart clarinet
concerto), without soloists. Then the company will make studio recordings of
the solo parts to all these concertos, with as many soloists as they can sign
up. Then the engineers will nip and tuck and speed thing up and slow things
down wherever necessary so that each solo fits the generic orchestra
recording. Want a Mozart concerto with Clarinetist A playing the first
movement, Clarinetist B playing the second movement and Clarinetist C playing
the third movement? No problem. Want the third movement faster? The second
movement slower? The whole thing at a@-----.
Lots cheaper than hiring a whole orchestra every time just to get a different
clarinetist. Come to think of it, we don't need all those clarinetists,
either. Just record one, then speed him up and slow him down and tweak the
tone quality and so forth until he sounds like four or five different ones,
at least. More rubato? Less? Just ask. Four custom modifications
*absolutely free* with your first order.
;-)

All together now, sing to the tune of the old Burger King jingle: "Have it
your way, at CD Thing!"

Lelia
(No it's not a serious suggestion. Yog forbid. But just wait: Now that
it's possible, some propeller-head will think it's a neat idea.)

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