The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation....Well, hell, they knew it was going to be January. If these candyass classicists can't play in the cold, they should have hired some musicians who can.
***
So we were listening to recorded music when the clock hit noon, the constitutional moment for the President to be sworn in! Then, he was sworn in and that might have been fake and there was a second of that too.
IN THE COMMENTS: Gahrie said:
It was real before it was fake, and after all isn't that all that really matters?Jason said:
... [A]fter the campaign the president ran, can we really be surprised?
This is amazing. Just yesterday I heard the music show on NPR praising the musicians for their amazing skill "people are still talking about it." God I hate them. You think they're giving you useful information and it turns out to be junkhdhouse said:
between Ma and Perlman they are using about 5million in instruments that do not like cold. unlike Mr. Bush, they "fake it" for a reason.I'm fine with them keeping their precious objects out of the cold, but let them keep their precious bodies off the stage. And, yeah, they are different from Bush. Bush was President, and as such, he had to perform, whether the circumstances challenged the limits of his capacity or not. They did not have an obligation. They received an invitation do something they knew they couldn't do, and they accepted it knowing it exceeded their capacity and they would fake it.
Paul Zrimsek said:
Folks, give it up for Milli Violinni!Simon said:
Still, look on the bright side: Obama hadn't been inaugurated yet, so they sneaked it in under the wire before the trickery was over.LOL. Very funny! I knew those words would come back to bite me. Let it be known that I am on trickery alert.
Leland said:
Fake but accurate.Bearing said:
It's not that they didn't play in the cold. It's that they faked playing in the cold. That's just cheesy.And — considering that $170 million was being spent on the big show — project holograms of them outdoors.
We can give the new president his own super-secure Blackberry, but we can't put four musicians in a heated tent with cameras?
Palladian said:
It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.
Posts
97 comments:
That does it!
* stomps foot *
* storms off *
}}} SLAM {{{
* returns *
I forgot. I didn't listen in the first place -- not to the musicians nor to the oath. Nor to the oath do over, which wasn't even televised, nor to the reportage on the do over. Nor to anything really because it all seems so incredibly unreasonably protracted.
It was too cold to play! But they shouldn't have faked it.
They couldn't have not faked it. You can't play instruments like those in sub-freezing weather. It's just not possible. A string player's fingers have to be extraordinarily nimble. They'd stop working. A reed player uses spit to get his sound. The reed would stiffen and not make the intended noises.
They should've put the players indoors and broadcast the music live out to the mall. But what the hell. It's all showbiz. You think Madonna is actually singing up there on stage?
The music was totally inappropriate anyway, since it was based on "Simple Gifts". That song has they lyrics:
"'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be"? That sounds like the sort of thing a master tells an uppity slave to me.
"'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be"? Oh, yeah, that encourages achievement.
How about "To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd"? What kind of sentiment is that for America? The whole point of the United States of America is that we don't bow. Bowing's what Canada, the country for the Americans who didn't rebel against George III, is about.
Going to do a variation on an existing song for the inauguration? Pick something with American themes and values, John Williams.
Way to start the new administration off on the right note! Faking it from the beginning. From the article: "The Marine Band and choruses, which performed throughout the ceremony, did not use a recording, she said." Well, of course not.
I've played outdoors on colder days than that, for a lot longer. It was not fun, and the music suffered some from it. But the fakery is a continuation of the campaign theme, and an augury for the future.
They didn't fake it, Ann. They played all right, but what we heard was a recording. Still, you got more than your monies worth of a tremendous performance.
As a lifelong professional (currently part-time musician, let me please instruct you, Professor:
John Stodder has it right (above).
And you are NOT a musician, so who exactly are you to question how it was done? Who am I to question how you write your law review articles, eh?
Dude, it's a Potemkin Village administration. Everything is for show.
Hey..their intentions were in the right place!
They were only thinking of you!
It was real before it was fake, and after all isn'tthat all that really matters?
As stated above, after the campaign the president ran, can we really be surprised?
Next you are going to tell me you expect the president to actually keep the promises he made!
Okay with me. I wondered at the time how in the world the instuments could manage in that weather.
I don't know about strings, but I've played brass instruments in that kind of weather. You can't go too lo9ng between songs since the instruments go flat as they cool down.
Band instruments work in the cold; string instruments, and pianos, do not, in that their tunings quickly go way out.
It's a metaphor.
They needed to go with a high school or college marching band, who could play in that kind of weather. Not some sissy classicists. Our civilization is crumbling before our very eyes. They are the change we have been waiting for.
I know you can't pass up a chance to say candyass, even if the only ass revealed in the process is you!
The strings could break in such cold. THAT is why they used a recording. Gawd you're an idiot.
Great planning job, inauguration committee members. Strings in January? Dumb idea.
What's wrong with using the Marine Band? They'd play, for damn sure.
Poor planning. They didn't know it was going to be cold?
No one listens to classical music live anyway - that's what CD's are for. But these classical musicians are celebrities and that is why they were there. Of course of the many thousands of super talented classical musicians the only two the public will know are Yo-Yo Ma and Izack Perelman. They were there for show and show only whether they were playing live or not.
What Steven finds odd about "Simple gifts" was entirely in tune with the Ashton Kutcher/Demi Moore video pledging to be a servant to our president.
This is amazing. Just yesterday I heard the music show on NPR praising the musicians for their amazing skill "people are still talking about it." God I hate them. You think they're giving you useful information and it turns out to be junk. (When responding to viewer mail, their news program refused to give an estimate on the cost of the inaguration. The gave a partial list and advised listeners to add it themselves with "pencil and paper.")
between Ma and Perlman they are using about 5million in instruments that do not like cold. unlike Mr. Bush, they "fake it" for a reason.
this isn't american idol or brittany lipsinking. lighten up.
Donna B. said...
It was too cold to play! But they shouldn't have faked it.'
BUT Donna, you yourself said it was too cold to play....make up your mind.
When Joe Lowery intones:"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around',when yellow will be mellow,. when the red man can get ahead, and when white will embrace what is right.
That's music enough for my ears.
Who needs a gaggle of cello players when you've got classics like this?
hdhouse -- they should have noted that it was a recording because it was too damned cold to play those instruments outdoors.
What does this say about the respect the "powers that be" have for the common sense of the average American?
After having invested $1000s in my high school age daughter's violin, I knew they weren't playing in that temperature.
There's nothing wrong with the truth.
Folks, give it up for Milli Violinni!
I blame Algore. He's in charge of stopping our delicious Global Warming and now he's gone too far. He needs to let our expensive Greenhouse Gases work like the UN computers say they will. This is worse than FEMA goes to Katrina. Algore obviously does not care about musicians or music critics. How do you fire the UN? Do they come up for election every 2 or 4 years? It must be in our Constitution somewhere next to the Oath of office for the World Ruler.
So the gummint is faking the fiddling while Rome burns.
While "The total cost of the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States will likely top $150 million by the time the galas and and streamers and porta-pots are all cleaned up."
This is happening:
"U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, suggesting the banking system is “effectively insolvent,” said New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic crisis.'
Insolvent.
Effing insolvent Christ.
The Milli Vanilli Presidency.
Folks, we have arrived,....
shoulda read:
Insolvent.
Effing insolvent .
Christ.
No, Christ is not insolvent.
Remember. Jesus saves.
If these string folks couldn't play in theweather, they should have had some brass intead.
Wynton Marsallis is a reasonably well known trumpet player.
I like strings as much as the next guy, but I don't see the point of having people play live if you're going to have to go all Ashley Simpson on us.
Victoria has it right: it points to a potemkin village of an administration. Still, look on the bright side: Obama hadn't been inaugurated yet, so they sneaked it in under the wire before the trickery was over.
"If these string folks couldn't play in theweather, they should have had some brass intead."
In that kind of weather it would take brass balls to play strings.
Fake but accurate.
traditionalguy says: I blame Algore. The planning committee probably listened to him, extrapolated, and figured it would 60 degrees outside.
Why didn't they just get some musicians who could play in the cold? Springsteen played out there just a couple of days ago, and he sure wasn't faking it. I could tell because his electric guitar was plugged in and everything.
A semi-pro violinist I know was wondering how they could have played in that cold. I'm a guitarist who's played outside gigs in the cold and it's hell! In ten minutes you can't even feel your fingers.
Don't hold it against them. Ashley Simpson might be a no-talent fraud, but top-notch musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman are don't have to prove anything to anybody.
http://VocalMinority.typepad.com
The Jewish Republican's Web Sanctuary
This isn't poor planning--the fact that they had the recording to play todemonstrates good planning all round. It was made the week before the inauguration specifically for the cold weather. The Utah Symphony did the same thing for the 2002 Olympic opening ceremonies (playing a piece also written by Williams).
I'm with Christy, here. It's ok with me - I has actually thought that that's what was going on. These were world class musicians, with very high standards, wanting to offer their best. They provided a beautiful arrangement in some very unusual conditions.
This does explain why I thought it sounded an awful lot like a movie soundtrack, though.
It's not that they didn't play in the cold. It's that they faked playing in the cold. That's just cheesy.
We can give the new president his own super-secure Blackberry, but we can't put four musicians in a heated tent with cameras?
We can't put them indoors?
We can't simply say on the air: This is a recording?
That would be too distracting.
Fakery is beautiful and appropriate for the occasion. Reality is distracting. I'm probably reading too much into this.
Why do they have music at these things anyway?
Oh and by the way, they certainly could have had some hip hop.... those hip hop / rap mutts sound like morons playing in sub freezing weather under the best of circumstances.
The fact that they had a backup recording if it was too cold to play live was common knowledge and reported by Variety a week before the inauguration. It wasn't like those involved were hiding it.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998645.html?categoryId=16&cs=1
It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.
But overrated cheese-ball classical musicians have faked it before. Pavarotti anyone?
"The Utah Symphony did the same thing for the 2002 Olympic opening ceremonies (playing a piece also written by Williams)"
It seems perfectly fitting that musicians always simulate playing his work, since Williams is a simulated composer to start with.
"The fact that they had a backup recording if it was too cold to play live was common knowledge and reported by Variety a week before the inauguration. It wasn't like those involved were hiding it."
Then why pretend at all? Why not just play the recording? You think we didn't know they were faking it? You think we're dumb enough to think that Yo-Yo would bring his Montagnana cello out in the freezing cold and saw away on it? Again, it's not the "crime" but the cover-up that makes it cheesy.
Ann,
Your post reminded me of a very interesting article the Washington Post did on Joshua bell. They put him incognito in a DC metro to busk. What do you think happened? I blogged about this with a trackback to this post.
Thanks!
Steven,
The song is a Shaker hymn and the references are about God, not politicians.
The cost of the instruments doesn't matter. They can use ordinary instruments.
But the staying-in-tune problem doesn't go away.
If there's more than one tuning adjustment, you're in trouble.
The Shakers were a reverent group who thought long and hard about their place in the universe. They did good work, too. For both I admire them.
As for the rest, well, fake music, phony swearing in, no Bible at the second swearing in, and what do you know - an empty suit is now president. Phony is as phony does.
A good ole military band would have been the way to go, but then again we know what Democrats think about all things military.
Great planning job, inauguration committee members. Strings in January? Dumb idea.
Seriously! This just shows how out of touch with reality the Obama administration and lackeys are. Not only just with the weather but also with the realities of life in general.
As a musician (guitar) I would never take my instrument outside in such weather. The wood could freeze, crack and permanently affect the acoustic qualities of the body of the instrument.
Yo-Yo probably also used a fake (substitute) cello as well.
There's a great think piece about the Yo Yo Ma faking:
http://secondguessmedia.com/2009/01/23/no-no-ma/
What Chip Ahoy said - didn't watch
What John Stoddard said seconded by Host with the Most - freezing both of human extremities and priceless instruments**
What vbspurs said - performance art - expensive and protracted; bread and circuses but first circuses with $ trillion(s) of bread to come.
**As coffers apparently overflowing with money no barrier, could have erected a 100' LCD screen with Dolby Surround Sound with performers tucked warmly inside a concert hall.
The US Army stations a band at nearby Fort Myer for such occasions. http://www.usarmyband.com/
They are pretty damn good too.
They play rain or shine, cold or heat.
Yo Yo Ma has the coolest name ever, but wouldn't it be more fitting for a female rap artist. It just seems as incongruous on a cello player as Pablo Casals in lederhosen.
I couldn't get a reliable video feed to watch it live, so it was all recorded as far as I am concerned. I watched Jozin z Bazin instead.
I'm possibly the only person in the world with access to a TV and free time at the Golden Moment who didn't watch the inauguration - a sick kid is my rationalization but sheer boredom was my reason. I kind of regret it now, from a historical standpoint.
I didn't know Perlman and Yo Yo Ma played (or "appeared to play") until last night at choir practice, when the whole lot of 'em (and our choir's really good too, and musically sophisticated, and many members and both directors love and follow the world of classical music) were rhapsodizing about Yo Yo Ma's performance, quite specifically "in the cold." They hypothesized heaters the audience couldn't see as well as the brass balls aforementioned. None of them knew it was prerecorded, nor ventured to suggest it might've been.
That said, I throw in with all those who say it only makes sense to prerecord if you're going to use inappropriate instruments for the setting, but then to pretend to play them is just... lame.
The point of using million dollar instruments in the cold is crap. They were broadcast on an outdoor sound system to tens of thousands on the Mall. The accoustics would render the effect of top of the line instruments moot even on a warm day. Suck it up, get some hand warmers, use a middle of the line instrument and honor America and the new president by actually playing.
It's not like it was 5 below either.
As the LawProf on Volokh Conspiracy said...
For One Glorious Minute after 12 noon:
Acting President Condoleezza Rice!!!
The poem was a fake too, but we figured that out right away.
"Well, hell, they knew it was going to be January. If these candyass classicists can't play in the cold, they should have hired some musicians who can."
Is there ANYTHING you people don't bitch about?
Good lord...after eight years of major fuck-ups...THIS is what you discuss???
*And maybe they were hoping it would be warmer...or the decision was made on the spot...that ever enter your pea-brains?
They could have put a roof over their booth. The stand is heated for the VIPs.
The Marine Band wore gloves. The flutist had cut the finger tips off of hers.
Is this musical justice?
Is this an orchestra I see before me, or is it an orchestra of the mind?
Cold winter venues have always been part of classical music; think Christmas concerts at Austrian cathedrals. Not many years ago I attended a winter all-Vivaldi concert by a string orchestra at the Medieval (and unheated) Sainte Chapelle in Paris. The players wore their usual attire and we the audience wore everything we owned.
$150 million dollars and they couldn't radiate heat up from under the stage? This IS the United States of America, technical innovators of the world.
Either that or put them inside and let them play there, like others have suggested.
The point of using million dollar instruments in the cold is crap.
No it isn't. The cold would damage the instruments just by being subjected to the temperature changes.
If they really wanted the stringed instruments to play they could have had them live inside a heated room with decent acoustics and broadcast it on a jumbo tron or something like what they use at football games.
Instead they chose to fake it and pretend to be playing live.
How lame. How insulting.
"Is there ANYTHING you people don't bitch about?"
Still the king of the Self Mocking Irony. Impressive.
DBQ
You misunderstand and I should have worded it better. The use of such instruments with a massive, temporary outdoor sound system is a waste of the instrument. Use a middle of the road one if you are worryied about cold damage. Claiming that they would be damaged is simply an EXCUSE so these prima donnas don't have worry about making a mistake in front of the world.
If they really wanted to play on that venue then they would have found a way. They simply didn't want to.
You Tube
Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman Perform at Barack Obama's Inauguration Celebration
Are they actually playing simultaneous with the recording or merely finger syncing?
The article says 'tone for tone' which means to me musical sounds were emanating.
Instead of 'faked' how about 'enhanced'?
It's going to be fun watching Michael for the next four years having to defend everything Obama after years of ripping President Bush for everything under the sun to include contributing to global warming simply by converting oxygen into carbon dioxide through breathing.
how did the Russians ever get those balalaikas to work for the poor folks in the winter?
"Let me hear your balalaika's ringing out come and keep your comrade warm"
"help us work for that day when ... white will embrace what is right"
How effin' insulting can you get. Let us pray for that day when black men aren't pimpin' and robbin' folks, or that day when Jews pay a decent wage or that day when the red man puts down his bottle or ...
News flash for Joe Lowery and Lars Porsena: if it weren't for a whole lot of white already embracing what is right the black would still be in back, the brown would still be beaten down, the yellow would still be mellow working on the rails and the only good red would be dead.
Yo Yo Ma - world's greatest air cellist. OH YEAH!!!
"Let us pray for that day when black men aren't pimpin' and robbin' folks, or that day when Jews pay a decent wage or that day when the red man puts down his bottle or"
Dude. Really? Not only is that factually inaccurate, it's offensive. Plenty of black men and Jews and Indians NOT engaging in that behavior. Joe Lowery is in his 80's and is a giant in the civil rights movement back in the day where it could get your head shot off. The man has earned the right to say pretty much what he wants to.
"Is there ANYTHING you people don't bitch about?
Good lord...after eight years of major fuck-ups...THIS is what you discuss???"
Get used to it . . . we plan to speak truth to power every day - LOL
Oh, they say they had to because it was so cold.
I'm surprised they didn't blame it on the rain.
broadcast it on a jumbo tron
There was a TV present, but it was hooked up to an Xbox running Violin Hero 3.
About the valuable antique instruments, it's right in the article:
"questions had swirled in the classical music world about whether Mr. Ma and Mr. Perlman would use their valuable cello and violin in the subfreezing weather. Both used modern instruments. Mr. Ma said he had considered using a hardy carbon-fiber cello, but rejected the idea to avoid distracting viewers with its unorthodox appearance."
They hypothesized heaters the audience couldn't see
Nah, those outdoor heaters are major offenders against Gaia in the climate change department. Look for them to be taxed soon.
As for instrument damage: they now make stringed instruments from carbon fiber, which would not be damaged by cold. The strings might still go out of tune, I suppose.
(Ever watch "How It's Made" on the Discovery Science channel? They showed a carbon-fiber cello being made once. Great nerd show. Actually, a great show to show people who think that objects they purchase just appear from somewhere. Would be a lot more useful classroom material than, say, propaganda like "An Inconvenient Truth.")
Hector, good find! I don't think that black instruments would be THAT distracting........
Shouldn't he be Mr. Yo?
True story...I saw Yo Yo Ma dancing at a gay bar in Boston one time.
I was yelling at all my friends, "look there is yo yo ma dancing...alone".
Mike B
"Is there ANYTHING you people don't bitch about?"
OK, you're right. Can't we all get along? How 'bout we say
"Music Accomplished"?
Section 9
"For One Glorious Minute after 12 noon: Acting President Condoleezza Rice!!!"
Sorry, even the theoretical Moot Court discussers had to recant & acknowledge that Joe had been sworn in as VP when the clock struck noon.
Chuck B: can we say that "the poem pre-empted poetry"?
Shouldn't he be Mr. Yo?
No, he's reversed the Asian name order for our convenience (I would assume).
Hey, he's shown with a carbon-fiber cello at the Wiki link!
I am not outing Yo Yo Ma. I think he was just out raving one night.
He was alone and didn't hook up, at least I don't think he did.
No one wants to picture Yo Yo Ma's hog.
that yo yos always on mamamamamamama mind!
That's a point I wanted to make too bearbee. They didn't fake a single note--they played, and anyone within earshot would've heard their actual sound.
"Strings in January? Dumb idea."
"Then why pretend at all? Why not just play the recording?"
Because clearly, Obama wanted classical music present at his inauguration--not just another military band performance--and that presence was to be delivered by two of classical music's most outgoing ambassadors (Ma and Perlman, who, it should be noted were the ones that recruited Williams and the rest of the ensemble upon being asked by the committee). He reached out to Ma and Perlman to make tangible his commitment to the arts. It's a unique thing to hear a classical quartet outside, in January, on the steps of the Capitol in front of 2 million people, and if you want to make that happen, as Obama did, then this is what you have to do.
And for every person who thinks less of Obama and the musicians for the decisions they made, I'd wager there are a dozen more who, had the performers been absent and replaced purely by recording, would be lamenting how nice it would've been to at least see Ma and Perlman on stage playing their instruments, even if they were playing along to the backup recording.
*And maybe they were hoping it would be warmer...or the decision was made on the spot...that ever enter your pea-brains?
Well, no, because both of those ideas are stupid. It is ALWAYS cold in January in DC and the decision was not made on the spot since they prerecorded the music.
I just think they should have chosen someone who could play outside, like a marine band or a trumpet player/other brass musicians. Drums. Whatever.
So, really...this is the whole Obama presidency. Fakery smoke and mirrors? Nothing real or solid?
Obama seems like he is the Prince of the Air. Nothing is real.
"No one wants to picture Yo Yo Ma's hog."
"Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor in 1977 and has two children, Nicholas and Emily. They currently reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts."
Appears Jill would disagree with you.
"Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman faked it."
I'll have what they're having.
Zrimsek beat me to it but...they should've just played Guitar Hero!
The business about potential damage to the instruments is real, but overdone. No one expects a string player doing an outdoor gig to use his best instrument; that's why all of us have what are known as "picnic fiddles." All the same, Gabriela Montero was sitting out there in the cold at what appears from the photos to be a Steinway. If they were genuinely concerned about possible damage to the piano, wouldn't that have been a cheaper instrument? (Of course, maybe it's a specially-designed "Steinway" decal applied to a Kawai -- or maybe the instrument was acually a hollow mockup with no strings in it. Who's to know?)
Doubtless the real worry was that it wouldn't sound good played at that temperature. True enough! Even when you have the luxury of a heater and fingerless gloves, it's really difficult to play well in freezing-temperature air. Why they wanted the quartet to mime doing so anyway is the real question.
I think the real question is-- if you were sitting at the sound board when it was time to punch in the recorded performance, what would you have substituted? I'm thinking maybe THIS.
Yo Yo was just getting down that night dancing to Junior Vasquez.
Oh those were the days.
Junior was famous for taping one of Madonna's voicemail messages and making it into a song. Needless to say Madge was pissed another spoke with Junior again. Junior's career never rebounded.
The message and song was,
"Hello Junior, it's Madonna, are you there" and it was sampled to high heaven.
The correct lyrics of the song are:
Madonna on Junior's answering machine:
"Hello Junior, It's Madonna, are you there...call me in Miami"
And then junior saying, "If Madonna calls tell her I am not here".
Well as you can imagine that did it for Junior's career. He never rebounded and she destroyed him. God love her.
Joe Biden said
"Stand up, Itzhak, stand up! let 'em see ya,"
A second or two passed awkwardly....
"God love ya, what am I talking about?" Biden asked himself. "You can tell I'm new."
About the Steinway piano: players of smaller instruments bring their own instruments to the job. A piano is (almost) always supplied by the owner of the venue. So that most likely was a government-owned or rented Steinway. And really, with trillions flying in all directions, what does the price of a Steinway matter?
"Not only is that factually inaccurate, it's offensive."
Jeff, thanks for reinforcing my point. It is offensive, just as the insinuation that just being white makes you opposed to what is right.
"Joe Lowery is in his 80's and is a giant in the civil rights movement back in the day where it could get your head shot off."
As such I would expect him to remember the numerous white folks that marched and, yes, died, along side he and his black compatriots. I would expect him to recognize and remember that a peacefull non-violent movement against the oppression of a majority never succeeds without a large number of that majority agreeing with the movement's goals.
"The man has earned the right to say pretty much what he wants to."
Everyone has the right to say what they want; no one has the right to be right or agreed with simply by who they are or what their experiences have been.
The election of a person of color, the peaceful passing of the country's highest office to a minority, is a victory for all Americans over bigottry and racism, not a victory of blacks over whites.
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