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The moments of our lives are increasingly PhotoShop-ped, auto-tuned, plasticized, genetically modified, and quality-controlled to the point they are not real any more. And it's especially sad to me that it has become so difficult for others to experience real music today.
I want to applaud Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conductor Bramwell Tovey for refusing to record music for the Olympics' opening ceremonies -- not that he's against the Olympics -- it's because Vanoc plans to use that recording in the opening ceremonies and have a smaller orchestra pretend to play the music that the VSO records.
Not only that, but they were going to get some other person to pretend to conduct the musicians that Tovey would have conducted for the recording. How insulting!
"My participation at the opening ceremonies was dependent upon my agreeing that music I recorded would be mimed by another individual and I regarded that as fraudulent and withdrew," Tovey told The Vancouver Sun.
The excuses
According to Vanoc, here's the reason why they plan to use musicians pretending to play the music: "For international televised live spectacles of this size and scope, it is standard practice to pre-record the musical segments to ensure the integrity and security of the broadcast transmission."
Where is the "integrity" in hiring people to pretend to play music? And what does "security of the broadcast transmission" even mean? It's a load of bumf.
"Quality control" should not apply to art
Of course none of this is new. Many big concerts these days are mimed -- including concerts by many of the pop stars of today.
But I feel that this is applying the McDonald's business model to music performance. McDonald's is famous for being able to reproduce their product in restaurants around the world and have it taste the same. Similarly, Vanoc and many concert producers are so fearful that someone might make a mistake in a live performance and therefore it is too great a risk.
So we must control the process, the argument goes, because if the music doesn't sound exactly like it does on the CD, then people will be disappointed. Call it "quality control" if you like but applying too much quality control can end up with a rather distasteful result (the music and the hamburgers).
Really, what's the worst thing that could happen if they had musicians performing real music live? Someone might hit a wrong note; maybe one of the microphones will get bumped. But on the positive side, you might create a truly wonderful performance that inspires people. Would the millions of viewers around the world mind? Would they even notice?
Music is an art, and music performance is part of that. We can feel so much more in the music when we see it performed for real. They will never be able to create that with a bunch of mimes pretending to play music.
Yang Peiyi
Last year, the Beijing Olympic officials were embarrassed when people found out that the cute little girl with straight teeth in the opening ceremonies was not actually the girl who could sing. Officials thought that Yang Peiyi's teeth were too crooked and she didn't have a cute enough face so they got some other girl to lip sync to a recording.
who cares about her teeth?! It was her lovely voice that mattered. And what could have been a beautiful moment became artistically dull and embarrassing.
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