Inaugural Recordings

I heard a story that really got under my skin today. I'm honestly not sure exactly why it got to me so badly, or why I should care, but it did and I do. So please bear with my rantings and maybe I can figure it out for myself.

For those of us who watch the Inauguration last Tuesday (Jan 20, 2009), Right before President Obama's Oath of Office was a wonderful quartet composed by John Williams. On top of that, it was performed by some really outstanding artists, including Cello Virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma. I enjoyed the piece as it used a variation on one of my favorite themes (Simple Gifts, and old Shaker song).

Well, the story came out today that the version we heard had actually been recorded earlier in a studio, and that the quartet had rigged their instruments to play silently. The logic was that it was much to cold to be able to keep their instruments in tune.

This is where I have to call BS. I play for a Pep Band. We play at a Hockey Game. You know, that sport played on several thousand gallons of frozen water. And We don't get that badly out of tune. My instrument is shorter than my forearm and about as big around is a pencil, and I still keep it close to in tune!

I suppose the other part that bothered me is all the musicians were happy to essentially commit the sin of lip syncing. Singers have been all but executed for such a sin, but it's fine for us?

The reason they were happy to do so is because they viewed this performance as "too big to fail" (to borrow the words from the Bush Administration). But I say by recording ahead of time, they cheapened the experience. I happen to take the stance of Nina Perlove of the Real Flute project ( www.realfluteproject.com ). Music is meant to be an expression of art, and art is to be and expression of Humanity. And humans are an exclusively imperfect. With practice we can guarantee that we'll get a piece right 99.9% of the time, but sometimes we'll get careless and goof. These are as much a part of the art we do as is the flawless performances.

If flutes as a personality type (which I remind everyone I qualify as) are guilty of anything, it's our persistent habit of overachieving. We. have. to. be. perfect. Period. So for someone as practiced and talented as Miss Perlove to come out and say that it's perfectly alright, if not a bit preferred to be slightly imperfect, that my friends is quiet a statement. I really look up to her as a musician.

So to have such a blatantly opposite opinion come from some one else I look up to as a musician really does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe that's what is really bothering me. That it goes against the very understanding I have of what it is to be a musician. I don't know, right now I think I'm going back to being a computer expert. Stuff makes sense there.