Klarinet Archive - Posting 001129.txt from 2003/06

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Electronic Acoustical Performance (Warning: Only Marginally On-topic)
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 09:27:55 -0400

Warning: the following rant is about music performance, not limited to
clarinet.

Bill,

Your tag-line, which has been at the bottom of your posts for as long as I
can remember, came to mind last month as I listened to our high school jazz
band perform at its final concert of the school year. Thus, you've inspired
the following ("If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO
LOUD!"), although I am clearly not complaining to or about you in any way.

I was sitting as a member of the audience about 2/3 of the way back in 775
seat auditorium. I found the sound of the entire band, which was heavily
miked and very strongly amplified by a hired audio engineer, grating at best
and actually painful at the loud places where the brass opened up. I left my
seat a few minutes into the concert, went backstage and listened to the rest
of the concert from the wing (as "lead teacher for music" in my district, no
one kept me off the stage - Rank Has Its Privileges) and thoroughly enjoyed
it. Because I was then behind the speakers I heard mostly acoustical sound
and very little of the electronic noise everyone else out front was hearing.
When I mentioned it to the band director (after duly praising the
performance I felt only he and I probably heard) he seemed surprised at my
reaction - that's the way ALL jazz band performances are done in our area.
Our assistant superintendent, himself a former music supervisor and at an
even earlier time the jazz band director, actually told me afterward that he
thought the balance was fine and had no problem at all with the audio.

When I go to hear/see Broadway shows in Philadelphia theaters, a similar
effect takes place (more acutely, in my experience, than in theaters in New
York) - everything is so heavily miked that it is sometimes painful. The
result, besides my discomfort, is that words get muddled and the orchestra,
although practically hidden in a covered pit, often overpowers the singers
because it too is amplified and no one but the engineer (who must not enjoy
singing) actually hears the result or has the power to change it.

Last night I went to one of several Philadelphia Orchestra concerts my wife
and I attend each season. Not a single performer was amplified, including a
wonderful sounding soprano and two different pianists as well as a
Mozart-sized orchestra, and I could hear every note. That's what a live
performance should be like (unless it's a performance of inherently
electronic instruments or an outdoor concert where nothing would be heard
acoustically more than a few feet from the stage).

My bottom line is this question for anyone who cares to comment: Why should
I go to (and pay for) a live performance of what should be (at one time WAS)
acoustical music if all I am permitted to hear is an electronic effect that
is simply a bigger, louder version of the stereo equipment I have in my
living room? At least in my living room MY fingers are on the volume
control.

Just venting - I feel better!

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Hausmann [mailto:bhausmann1@-----.net]
> Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2003 8:21 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] Martin Powell's CD
>
>
> At 02:02 AM 6/29/2003 -0400, NoName4882 wrote:
> >Thank you to those of who you responded and clarified my original
> >statement. You were correct in asserting that I was only insisting that
> >the list was not an adequate reflection of universal acclaim.
> NOTHING more....
>
> Thank you very much for your clarification. I , for one, now understand
> what you meant to say much better. Sorry for tempest in a teapot.
>
>
> Bill Hausmann
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/