Synthesizers invade Broadway
2010-07-29 11:49
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New York - While audiences at Broadway's West Side Story thrill to the on-stage drama, musicians in the orchestra pit are fighting a battle every bit as vicious as the Sharks-Jets rivalry.
This is gang warfare of a high-minded sort, pitting some of New York's best live musicians against a synthesizer they fear will usurp the job of playing Leonard Bernstein's pulsating score.
Sophisticated synthesizers and computer-manipulated recordings are increasingly taking over orchestras. Sounding almost like real players, while costing much less, they're especially popular with provincial or touring companies.
But until mid-July - when West Side Story's producers announced that a synthesizer was replacing three live violinists and two cellists, or half the orchestra's string section - staff violinist Paul Woodiel thought that at least the classics would be immune to the trend.
"It was the last straw for me," Woodiel told AFP.
"I was a student and a friend of Leonard Bernstein and it's almost certain he wouldn't have allowed this. This isn't dinner theatre, it's not Las Vegas. It's Broadway and Leonard Bernstein was the greatest American musician."
Inert, artificial
Woodiel's own job was spared, but he caused a stir through the tight-knit Broadway world with a New York Times piece denouncing the "inert, artificial" synthesizer invasion.
The producers did not respond to AFP requests to be interviewed.
Synthesizers have in fact been around for decades, notably in pop music. What's changing is the ability of the machines to enter the far more sophisticated domain of classical orchestras.
"The computer gives you so much more power now. There's ridiculous stuff," says Mike Levine, editor of Electronic Music Magazine.
There are computer programs able to read and play back music scores - a boon to composers who can now hear their work as they write - and software allowing conductors to control the tempo of the machine, in the same way that they direct live players.
"It has gotten very, very good with something like drums and bass and strings," Levine said. "With piano they can model almost anything."
Levine said the growing use of synthesizers is positive for basement bands and other music industry start-ups, but a menace to jobs in large, labour-intensive ensembles like orchestras.
"It's all about money and the producers want to make as much money as possible," Levine said. "They always did."