 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bcl1dso
Date: 2009-01-23 01:38
I understand why they did it, just alittle disappointing. Anthony McGill still sounded incredible!
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2009-01-23 02:22
Well, it's easy enough to "fake" clarinet playing, I guess, but what did the other three do, I wonder? It would have been very obvious if their bows had not actually been on the strings. Do they just play and count on being basically inaudible without microphones? They'd still be risking broken strings or corks popping out of their bows. Wouldn't stop the music, but it would look really odd. Or maybe they just clean all the rosin off their bows so they slide over the strings without grabbing them?
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2009-01-23 02:25
What is wvwn more disapointing is the sad excuse from the committee “No one’s trying to fool anybody. This isn’t a matter of Milli Vanilli,”
Yet there have microphone set up around the instruments as if this were broadcasted live.
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: Koo Young Chung
Date: 2009-01-23 02:28
When you spend $150 M on the inauguration ceremony,I think someone should have figured out how to do it live(real one).
For example you could have build a clear enclosure with temp inside 70 degrees.
I'm very disappointed.
I don't see anything different from Milli Vanilli's lip sync.
It is even worse.No matter how you package it it is still deceit.
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Author: Aprilyn
Date: 2009-01-23 02:39
Does anyone know what the barrel and bell that Anthony McGill is using? (can be seen from about 02:00 )
Aprilyn
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2009-01-23 02:39
kdk wrote: "Well, it's easy enough to "fake" clarinet playing, I guess, but what did the other three do, I wonder?"
They didn't fake playing. They played. People directly around them could hear them live. Everyone else heard the recording, which was made in case a string popped or the piano seized up or the clarinet cracked.
The second paragraph of the story says: "But what millions on the mall heard was a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along."
Post Edited (2009-01-23 02:46)
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2009-01-23 02:51
aprilyn,
This is from a previous post:
Author: Morrie Backun (---.client.stsn.net - ISP in United States)
Date: 2009-01-18 12:26
"Anthony does play on Leblanc by Backun Legacy B Flat and A Clarinets, Backun Moba model Cocobolo Bells and Barrels (as well as Backun Fatboy's for some things) and a Backun Mouthpiece."
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Author: marshall
Date: 2009-01-23 03:55
when I first heard that it was pre-recorded...I figured it was probably because McGill was playing on a $6k clarinet.
I wish I could afford to risk cracking a $6k clarinet...thenagain, he probably made enough money off of that to, at the very least, replace it.
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2009-01-23 04:26
Lol.
Compared to the cost of the other musicians' no. 1 instruments, the cost of Anthony McGill's clarinet is a drop in the bucket. (Yo-Yo Ma normally plays a $2 million cello. Don't know what he used on inauguration day though it wasn't the carbon fiber instrument he said he would use if the weather was bad.) Itzhak Perlman plays a Stradivarius and a Guarneri. The annual insurance premium on their instruments probably dwarfs the cost of McGill's clarinet.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2009-01-23 17:32
The strings were good quality new instruments, according to the NYT.
richard smith
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Author: Geirskogul
Date: 2009-01-23 17:54
Personally, I don't care if it was mostly pre-recorded. They played, and they played hard. At least the recording was OF THEM, and millions of people got to hear it instead of flubbing it up trying to do it live. There's no way doing it live would have worked to any great degree, and what if the weather was bad?
They looked like they had fun, and I got to hear some beautiful music. What's the problem?
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Author: Koo Young Chung
Date: 2009-01-23 20:36
With the Chicago Tribune interview today,McGill says how cold it was...etc
as if it was a 'live' performance.
Wasn't he aware that they played the recorded piece on PA system?
Or just pretending as if nobody knows anything?
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2009-01-23 21:11
re: Chicago Tribune interview with Anthony McGill.
I see no conflict. It was cold. He was outside. He played live, at the inaugural grandstand. But TV viewers and those on the Mall heard the recording. He was aware the recording was being played because he and the other musicians were wearing ear pieces so they could be in sync with the recording.
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Author: Marie from New York
Date: 2009-01-24 01:59
I was actually relieved to hear that they had made the sensible decision not to try to play in freezing temperatures. I heard Yo Yo Ma say on NPR that they had put soap on their bows so that they could play and still be almost silent. But the pianist had keys that were actually refusing to come back up. So the performance would have been quite compromised if they had done it live. The playing was wonderful...all of them. And I enjoyed the piece. It was very appropriate for the mass audience, very joyful, and very American-sounding. Lovely! For me it didn't detract from that to find out that they had recorded it the day before.
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2009-01-24 02:51
We all know they can play, it's not like they fake it. They are accomplished musicians. Is anyone here going to tell Perlman or Ma they can't play?
Nevertheless, it's disappointing, not very classy, and frankly, deceitful. I'd rather have seen, on a big screen, them playing from a warm location live or a video recording of the day before. Moving the fingers along a recording is cheating, no matter how accurately you do it and nicely you package it.
The military bands were out of tune, but they were *there*. Roberts messed up the words but he was *there*.
In the end I don't care what you tell me, when I heard they lip-synced, I was bummed and I bet you were too. Now we are just trying to empathize with them and find justifications, so that our idols stay on their pedestals.
--
Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: claaaaaarinet!!!!
Date: 2009-01-24 03:49
I agree with Sylvain. I was SO impressed with the 'live' performance that I later gushed to a number of people about it. I was gushing not so much because I loved the piece or anything, but because of the sheer professionalism of the performance. I even had one of those 'ah-ha!' moments where I was like, "If he can sound THAT good and that calm in the freezing cold in front of 100 million viewers, I have no excuse on stage in an audition." To learn now, after the fact, that it was over-dubbed is a disappointment. I fully understand the reasons behind it, but it definitely cheapens the whole thing. I don't blame McGill or the others - they just did what the producers told them and what was ultimately necessary given the weather conditions and the expectations of modern broadcasting. That's the other side of professionalism, I suppose. Still.... props to the band.
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Author: Marie from New York
Date: 2009-01-24 13:00
According to Yo Yo Ma, it is common practice for the MIlitary bands to use pre-recorded music at outdoor events where the weather is exteme. Don't know how that would work, practically -speaking, but it would be interesting to know if it really happens.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-01-24 15:06
Yes, Marie is correct, Military bands do that when the weather is really bad. It was 18 degrees then according to CNN. They said that the people around them heard the live playing but the broadcast was pre-recorded. They also said the the piano would not keep it's pitch below 55 degrees, I don't think the other instruments would either. I often perform chamber music, the BSO Music by Candlelight Series, in a church that is less than ideal, especially in the winter. I know how difficult it is to stay in tune when it's just a little cold, I cant imagine it below freezing. I was surprised to see McGill playing his good instrument. Maybe it should have been announced that it was pre-recorded but it would have still sounded the same it did, and they sounded great. It was a great day for America, and perhaps the world too, so I'm willing to accept it as is. ESP www.peabody.jhu.edu/457
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2009-01-24 15:06)
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Author: Sandy Tepper
Date: 2009-01-24 15:27
Yo Yo Ma did an interview on NPR for 'All Things Considered' yesterday. He actually said that if you were to stand in the middle of the quartet, you would hear the monitors and not the group. He said that the piano technician adjusted the piano so that the hammers were not hitting the strings. It became a silent piano. I'm sure there's a transcript from the interview somewhere.
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Author: Sandy Tepper
Date: 2009-01-24 15:30
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99816993
The interview is at the top of the page.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-01-24 21:06
Sandy, that means that CNN was wrong when they said that they actually did play and the people around them heard it live. My local news paper, the Baltimore Sun, said they did play live as CNN reported. Will we ever know the truth, and what's more important, does it really matter? I think not. Thanks for the up date. ESP
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2009-01-24 23:05)
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2009-01-24 21:12
A follow-up, in Saturday morning's NYT, re: Yo-Yo Ma's NPR interview:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/arts/music/24bands.html?_r=1&ref=music
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