Category: Let's talk
Broadway producers are trying to replace live music with recordings at all broadway shows. This is outrageous and something needs to be done about it fast! This is awful for all involved. Please sign the petition at:
http://www.savelivemusiconbroadway.com
if you feel the same. Audience members attend live musical theatre to hear live music and see live actors perform! Say no to canned music today!
I stand firmly in support of my fellow musicians in this uncalled for struggle, because I know what happens when live music is replaced by recordings. Please stand with us. You can watch this video for more information:
http://youtu.be/yaUmh3VV-ek
Stand with the American Federation of Musicians and all broadway musicians and let these money hungry producers know what you want!
I want cheaper tickets. If we have to pay several dozen musicians for every performance, it would make sense that we would use pre-recorded music for the shows. Plus, it cuts down on mistakes and mishaps. I really don't see a problem here.
Then why don't you just sit at home and watch tv then? And what about recorded actors too? It sounds like you need to be told where the movie theater is.
I totally agree with Savannah on this issue! Personally, when I go to a broadway show I don't mind the mistakes and mishaps it is something different and it can make the show!
For example, I saw the musical Rent and during the song, "Over the moon," there was a mistake and the audience laughed and clapped.
Broadway FTW! I'll sign this and pass it onto my friend who is a fellow broadway fan. :)
See, there is a difference between an actor making a mistake, and a musician making a mistake. The orchestra is in the orchestra pit, they aren't seen, they aren't a spectacle; we're talking musicals here, not opera. So if a musician makes a mistake, it throws the actors off, and that does not impress the audience.
If an actor slips and falls, he can get back up, act like it was on purpose, the audience chuckles and goes on. If a musician messes up, or worse, a section messes up because of a musician, the entire musical is thrown off. Its a lot harder to act like you meant for everybody to be off time, than it is for one actor to act like he meant to slip and fall.
Plus, you can't argue with the economics of it. Lets face it, musicals, even on broadway, are not as popular as they once were. Sure, you've got big names like Wicked, or "The book Of morman" which is making its rush right now, but they don't pull in people like they once did. So the producers and the backers have to make money somewhere, its a lot cheaper to hire an orchestra for one day, have them record everything perfectly, then play pre-recorded music at the actual musical.
If they do this, they might just be able to produce more musicals, giving more work for the musicians. That means they can do more of what they love, which is playing music; and it will be different music, not just the same songs every night.
as for me wanting recorded actors, I have nothing against the movies, I like being able to pause things when I want to get a drink. I don't think anyone at the boston pops got pissed off when they only had to play the sound track to Harry Potter or Star Wars once and it was done. You think they wanted to be there on set playing for every take? If you do, I highly doubt your really a musician.
The basic fact of the matter is, it makes sense, and it doesn't interfere with the audience's experience of the musical. They still have the exact same music, played by an orchestra; it just happens to come through speakers. You just don't like it because your a musician.
I have to wonder though, if this pisses you off, do you get angry about people having recordings of glen gould playing bach? Would you have no recorded music because it means that every musical piece ever produced won't be performed directly by a live musician? Would you have us go back to the days when only courts could hire musicians to entertain them every day, and some people went entire lifetimes without ever hearing anything more musical than a person singing hymns in church?
the ability to record music is a staple of the industry, even the classical music industry. I fail to see what the big problem with using it to its fullest advantage is.
So say your job was a lightbulb maker, would you want a robot to do it? I don't think so, and if we didn't like playing the same pieces over and over again, then we wouldn't join a broadway pit orchestra.
I highly doubt that anyone has ever joined the pit just so they can play the same pieces over and over again. I'm pretty sure the reason that people join the pit orchestras is that little thing called needing a job. Granted, there might be a few cases where they genuinely wanted to play the same piece over and over again, but I am relatively sure that it is not the vast majority.
As per your analogy, it is inaccurate. If a robot made lightbulbs, it would start from scratch, there would be no model needed. Let me give you an accurate analogy. Lets say your a sculpter, and lets, for the sake of ego, make you a really really good sculpter. So, your a sculpter, now you could sit around all day every day with a chisel and carve each statue out of marble. You might finish one every year or so, if your really fast with that chisel.
But what you could do, is take some wax, and make a model of a sculpture. Its still a sculpture that you made, its just in wax. Then, you have a student with a lot of talent with a chisel reproduce it in stone while you go work with wax to make another sculpture. This way, you could finish one sculpture in a week maybe.
Now, the question is, did my analogy actually happen? Why yes it did. all the great artists, and all the great musicians, (save motzart who never made copies), used students to make copies of their music or sculptures, while they went off and made more. Very very rarely did they ever do the actual sculpting themselves.
Heck yeah if we find a robot that can change light bulbs more reliably than a human, we should employ a robot like that, lus there are some highly paid programming jobs.
I don't see the problem either. I do, when the musicians are the focus of the show, i.e. a concert, but when it is a musical with more focus on the actors and the singing, then pre-recorded music makes perfect sense.
If there are fewer opportunties on braodway, do something else, classical music, rock, pop, concerts .. there's plenty gigs out there for someone who is good.
If I'm gonna go to a Broadway production I want live music, not recorded. Just like if I go to a concert I don't! want to hear Autotune.
I agree with Savannah and BryanP22. I don't want to pay good money to go to a live performance of a musical, only to find out that part of it was not live.
Why is it any different if an orchestra plays the same songs over and over than, say, insert your favorite band here doing the same thing? I'm sure they get tired of playing their songs too, but they do it. They book tours all over the world and spend much of their lives doing so. They must love it or they would leave the industry. It's been done before, and it surely will be done again. Let me see if I can think of a good example. OK, how about Steven Tyler? Aerosmith has been around for over 30 years, and yet they still tour. Do you think he ever gets tired of playing their biggest hits? Probably. But he's still going at it, even though he could easily retire. There are plenty of other classic rock bands who are still out there today, although most have sporadic touring schedules due to their age. I used Aerosmith as my prime example because they're one of the more active touring ggroups. So are the Rolling Stones. So would you go to a concert only to face an impassive wall of audio equipment rather than the musicians themselves? Now, if you're saying it's less special because you're blind, and you can't see them anyway, that would be your opinion. But I personally would never pay, let's say, $100 to go somewhere and listen to some giant speakers blasting out my favorite songs. That's what I have a stereo for at my house.
but a rock band, who is a single entity, is not a musical. If you go to an orchestra, the orchestra is the entity. In a musical, the actors are the entity, not the musicians. you don't even see the musicians, no one, not even the sighted people, they're below the level of the stage, in a six foot pit.
Oh, and if you think everything was live in every musical you've ever seen, your sorely mistaken. Ever been to a musical where they had some echo off stage, or a noise off stage, guess what, it was pre-recorded. Even the rock bands use pre-recorded stuff all the time, there are just certain things you can't do live, at least not without bending time and space; which I'm pretty sure we still haven't figured out how to do.
From the standpoint of a musician, which I am, you hate playing the same song over and over and over again. That's why in orchestras, they play a piece a few times, then move on to something else. In musicals, you don't get to do that.
If your in a live rock band, which I've also been in, you switch it up so your not playing the same song at the same time over and over again, and you change the song around a little. You might stop in the middle of the song and chat with the audience, like bowling for soup does, or have the audience sing a little so you can take a break.
You still haven't addressed the fact that it makes economic sense though. Pay less for musicians, sells tickets cheaper. Basic economic principles.
Actually not all musicians hate playing the same pieces over and over. I have pieces that I really enjoy playing and that never get old.
Yes, but I'm relatively sure that you chose those pieces. I have pieces I love too, but one does not get to pick what one plays when one is in an orchestra; you play what your told. If your lucky enough to have a piece that you love and it is one of those picked, good for you, but that is rare. You are told to play a piece, and you play it, that is how it usually works.
Still, I remind you, you have not addressed the fact that it makes economic sense.
Well, I guess we won't be sure if it makes since until it happens and people either stop going or continue like they are, or go more.
If it does negatively effect the attendance rate, I'm sure you will have live musicians in the seats faster than you can string a fiddle. so what are you complaining about?
In a musical, the actors and musicians are both part of the entity. That's why it's a musical and not a different kind of theatre.
The implications are actually further reaching than just broadway. When automatically playing instruments, such as the player piano came into existence, fewer people actually learned how to play instruments, and instead became consumers of instruments. As "canned" music becomes favorable to people, fewer people will learn the craft of playing music, thus making the few live players out there an elite society, which it already is becoming. Sampling has done some of this, as producers no longer need to hire an orchestra for their string sessions, but just one guy and a great library of orchestral samples. The feel isn't there, but every note is intonated perfectly, quantized, and cookie cutter. That's modern music for ya, emotionless, tuned, quantized, and it all sounds the same. Why? Music is a consumer activity now, not something that's performed by the masses. Of course I'm for live music on broadway! I'm a musician!
as a musician, shouldn't you be more for people enjoying music? Granted, there is no live orchestra in front of them playing it, but what is the difference; there was an orchestra somewhere who made that recording. Would you condemn a bach lover because they play his concertos through headphones, rather than having to go to a great hall to listen to them? We should be happy people still want to go to musicals at all, and experience that culture. What does it matter if its pre-recorded or live, people are still enthralled, and that is why we pour our hearts and souls into our music, whether its through a microphone and a disc or not.
Of course I'm happy listening to prerecorded music, and glad they make it, but if I'm going to a broadway show, I wanna hear it live, from the acoustics of the instruments to the room! There's just something about hearing it live that makes it special. If there wasn't, then there wouldn't be concerts.