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A New Politics: Yo Yo Ma Cello syncs Inauguration Music

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by rocketsjudoka, Jan 23, 2009.

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  1. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    More ammo for Basso and Big Texxx.. :p

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28808317

    Their performance was live — but music wasn't
    Classical music heard by millions at chilly inauguration was pre-recorded

    updated 3:51 a.m. CT, Fri., Jan. 23, 2009
    WASHINGTON - Whether you loved or hated the classical music played at President Barack Obama's inauguration, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier unless you were sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers.

    Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision a day before Tuesday's inauguration after a sound check to use a previously recorded audio tape for the broadcast of the ceremonies.

    Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the weather was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune.

    They were very insistent on playing live until it became clear that it would be too cold," said Florman in a telephone interview Thursday night.

    'You can't have any slip-ups'
    People sitting nearby could hear the musicians play "Air and Simple Gifts", written for the inauguration by John Williams, but their instruments were not amplified.

    "It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way," Perlman told the New York Times, which first reported that the music was taped on its Web site Thursday. "This occasion's got to be perfect. You can't have any slip-ups."

    The Marine Band, the youth choruses and the Navy Band Sea Chanters performed live, Florman said, although Aretha Franklin was accompanied by taped music and voices.

    'This isn't Milli Vanilli'
    Florman said all the acts "laid down tape" before Tuesday's inauguration. When they did their sound checks on Monday, all but the quartet made the decision to have their live performances broadcast.

    The temperature hovered around 30 for the ceremony on the Capitol steps, too cold for McGill's clarinet, Ma's cello or Perlman's violin to offer true pitch. But the cold played havoc with the piano, which can't hold tune below 55 degrees for more than two hours, Florman said. The group played at 11:43 a.m., and guests seated near them could hear them as well as the tape made two days earlier. Guests seated farther away, the crowds that thronged the National Mall, and the millions who watched around the world heard the taped version of Williams' piece.

    "This isn't Milli Vanilli," Florman insisted, referring to the late 1980s group stripped of a Grammy for lip-syncing. "They had to perform in such cold weather, the instruments couldn't possibly be in tune. They were able to play in sync with the tape. It's not unusual."
     
    #1 rocketsjudoka, Jan 23, 2009
  2. weslinder

    weslinder Member

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    The truth is, Yo Yo Ma didn't really play the music. Someone else did:

    [​IMG]

    She was just too ugly to spoil the beautiful inauguration ceremony.
     
    #2 weslinder, Jan 23, 2009
  3. yeo

    yeo Member

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    Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriella Montero and Anthony McGill were all performing, yet you choose to single out Ma.

    If I remember crrectly, you said you were Asian. Some self-loathing perhaps? Topic for discussion when you visit your shrink next time.
     
    #3 yeo, Jan 23, 2009
  4. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    D&D whitewashing?
     
    #4 moestavern19, Jan 23, 2009
  5. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    Normally I would agree to certain extent that the OP can be seen somewhat "self-loathing," but in this case I don't think so. He's simply poking fun at basso and bigtexxx, who are perceived most likely to pick a bone with anything related to Obama. I can see he took more pride in the cellist than other artists, hence the "singling out Ma," because of the ethnicity closeness.

    However, I don't recall either basso or bigtexxx made any fuss about lip syncing in the Olympics. The OP missed intended target, who are mainly on the left wacko side, with one or two exceptions perhaps, such as some libertarian-Palin hybrid breed.
     
    #5 wnes, Jan 23, 2009
  6. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    Yep I'm totally a self-loathing Asian. :p
     
    #6 rocketsjudoka, Jan 23, 2009
  7. basso

    basso Member
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    i thought obama was more vanilli than milli...;)

    i sympathize to some extent- when I was a kid, my dad used to make me (cello) and my sister (violin) join him (viola) on rounds of christmas carols at his friends' houses. We’d load up into the van, with the heat on high, then run to the front door and set up, ring the bell, and play. It was murder trying to keep the damn instruments in tune, running from one temp to the next extreme.

    But in this case, if everyone was in place for a while, you’d think the instruments would’ve acclimated themselves. or they could’ve spent some of those millions of dollars on space heaters or something.
     
    #7 basso, Jan 23, 2009
  8. FFz

    FFz Member

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    dude said yo yo ma cause no one knows the other old guys.
     
    #8 FFz, Jan 23, 2009
  9. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member

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    ^ Also if anyone bothered to click the link the picture they show is Yo Yo Ma.
     
    #9 rocketsjudoka, Jan 23, 2009
  10. Cannonball

    Cannonball Member

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    As a musician, I sympathize. Playing in extreme cold or hot weather wrecks intonation. There was a very good possibility of McGill's clarinet cracking if he had blown warm air though it.

    I've met members of the DC military bands (the cream of the crop) and they absolutely dread inauguration day. Even the guys who play nothing but jazz or rock full time have to march in the parade. A good chunk of the music is written so the brass players don't even have to move their fingers should the moisture inside the horn freeze causing the valves to stick.
     
    #10 Cannonball, Jan 23, 2009
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