Girl you know it's true
I've been wrapped up in all matter of political goings-on, as well as trying to learn a pile of music (yep, I'm conducting a Ben Folds show at the Mann) for the next few weeks.
But I came across some more scandalous Olympic news that has been making its rounds. (Of course the Olympic "miming" scandal began with the adorable girl who "sang" in the opening ceremonies - she was lip synching for a child who was deemed less telegenic.)
It's not so uncommon to have "canned" music - in fact, one comes to expect a certain amount of lip synching in any highly-produced TV broadcast (this from last year's MTV Video Music Awards, the disastrous comeback attempt of a pre-rehab Britney Spears). The pop world has certainly had its share of lip synching scandals. But it's far more unusual for an orchestra to be caught in this position.
It's an embarrassment for the Sydney Symphony, no doubt, and prerecorded music can be a sensitive sensitive topic. I am a strong advocate of live music - because, really, there's nothing like the excitement that it can generate - but I'm not so troubled by pre-recorded tracks for extraordinary circumstances (like an audience of billions, telecast in real time). That is, I wouldn't be so troubled if it were simply a matter of an orchestra pre-recording itself and then presenting that recording as part of a televised "performance". What distresses me is the fact that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recorded parts of the "performance" - and that the MSO's work was passed of as Sydney's, which just seems awfully shady. Any thoughts?
But I came across some more scandalous Olympic news that has been making its rounds. (Of course the Olympic "miming" scandal began with the adorable girl who "sang" in the opening ceremonies - she was lip synching for a child who was deemed less telegenic.)
It's not so uncommon to have "canned" music - in fact, one comes to expect a certain amount of lip synching in any highly-produced TV broadcast (this from last year's MTV Video Music Awards, the disastrous comeback attempt of a pre-rehab Britney Spears). The pop world has certainly had its share of lip synching scandals. But it's far more unusual for an orchestra to be caught in this position.
It's an embarrassment for the Sydney Symphony, no doubt, and prerecorded music can be a sensitive sensitive topic. I am a strong advocate of live music - because, really, there's nothing like the excitement that it can generate - but I'm not so troubled by pre-recorded tracks for extraordinary circumstances (like an audience of billions, telecast in real time). That is, I wouldn't be so troubled if it were simply a matter of an orchestra pre-recording itself and then presenting that recording as part of a televised "performance". What distresses me is the fact that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recorded parts of the "performance" - and that the MSO's work was passed of as Sydney's, which just seems awfully shady. Any thoughts?
Labels: music and technology, the business of music, the media
posted by Sarah at
10:59 AM
6 Comments:
isn't that basically musical plagiarism?
Oh, those Aussies. I had never heard of an orchestra pre-recording a performance and essentially "lip-synching" during the live performance, much less using another orchestra's performance instead of their own. That's no better than using a CD piped through the PA system. Wouldn't the Melbourne band have some money coming to them for the use of their performance?
I'm assuming the MSO had an agreement worked out before this all went down - it would be hard to imagine that they didn't receive payment for their part in the recording.
I wonder about the "miming" part, too; although it seems an odd thing to do (isn't that the whole point of having professional musicians - so that they can perform publicly at a consistently high level?), I'm assuming it's been done before. If anyone out there has a previous example of orchestra lip-synching, let me know...
I forsee a rise in the popularity of air-violining. Maybe even violin-kareoke.
Several years ago, the Boston Pops played at the Super Bowl... I think it was just after 9/11. Trombonist Doug Yeo had a long discussion on his website about the fact that they mimed a prerecorded track for that event.
http://www.yeodoug.com/articles/superbowl/pops_patriots.html
Bill in Dallas
Thanks for that, Bill, an interesting read.
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