 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-03-11 18:54
Congratulations to John Moses and all the musicians. You stood up for what's right, and live music is safe for now. Eternal vigilance is the price of the arts, as well as liberty.
Now that the strike is settled, I'd like to follow up on something HAT said:
that "all Broadway musicals are now run through a mixing board." The same theme was taken up by a story in today's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/11/arts/theater/11PURI.html .
Oklahoma was of course written for an unamplified orchestra, and unamplified voices. John Raitt and the other original cast members had enough voice to be heard over the orchestra, and orchestra members were used to playing soft enough to let the voices dominate.
John -- How does today's Oklahoma orchestra compare with the original? In a reproduction of an old show, do you feel it necessary to mic the orchestra (even if the singers need it)? It's one thing to have amplified music for shows that were written for it (for example, A Chorus Line), but the original sound of Oklahoma didn't use that.
We're both old enough to remember unamplified Broadway. If the Oklahoma orchestra goes through a mixing board, is it amplified, or just "shaped" (strings reverbed to sound like a larger section; extra percussion traps added)? If it's amplified, how close can we get to the original?
Ken Shaw
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2003-03-11 23:46
When Mel Brooks was young, his parents took him to Broadway shows. He recently said even in the last row of the balcony, Ethel Merman still sounded too loud. 
It is impossible for me to believe that any sort of sweetening can make a small ensemble sound like a large orchestra, just as no electronic wizardry can make a vocal quartet sound like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Louder, yes. Distorted, yes. Reverberated, yes. Altered pitch, yes. Genuinely sound like more instruments, no. Anyone who claims that can be done is relying upon a tin-eared audience. Eventide (among others) can supply some amazing gear, but nothing to do that.
Regards,
John
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