Klarinet Archive - Posting 000680.txt from 2003/06

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <patricia@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reording Technology issues (was RE: [kl] Vibrato on the
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 22:40:08 -0400

Benjamin Maas wrote:

>In this case it really depends on the label and even more importantly who
>the producer is... Face it, people demand perfection on their recordings.
>Classical music has become as produced as the next. That said, there are
>still a very large number of performers and producers out there that demand
>minimal editing. There are examples of classical music where there are
>thousands of edits, but there are plenty of recordings with just a few. I
>have personally made both.
>
>
><snip of edifying post>
>
>Glen Gould stopped performing in public because he didn't want to deal with
>the pressure of having to play up to the level of recordings. As we are
>human it just isn't possible. As long as there has been tape, there has
>been editing in recordings...
>
All too true, Benjamin. And to be honest, I think that pressure is more
created artificially by the bleed-over if you will, of influence from
pop music (to use the term in its broadest sense) than anything else, in
some ways. IMO, it would seem the listening public is under the
impression that humans SHOULD perform as automatons, simply because they
don't understand the difference between performance and product.

A recording, no matter how well it is crafter by the engineer who has
worked on it, has a great deal more in common with a painting or
sculpture than with a live performance of a musician or an acting
troupe. It is basically a moment - or a selection of moments that have
been "frozen in time" in the manner that the engineer finds most
particularly pleasing - with input from the actual performer varying
from a great deal to none at all. Yet it is still a static product.
There is no growth or change, no dynamic - it is a finished product.

Contrary to this, a live performance takes place in time, and that
phenomenon even differs from the recording or videotaping of said
performance because the live performance occurs over time - something we
cannot forsee, or work around (unless someone here has been re-reading
Jules Verne lately! ;-) It is this very occurrence over time which
creates the unpredictability of a live performance - because we cannot
see the ultimate results of the actions in front of us - we do not see
any true finished "product", more like we arrive at the end of a journey
together.

Thanks for your enlightened comments on sound engineering for us who
know little. Though you are a professional in the field, you explain
the concepts well to those of us who need to learn a lot more (such as me)

Patricia Smith

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