Yo-Yo Ma On Recorded Music At Inauguration
Ha, I SO called this one! I knew watching the inauguration Tuesday that there was no way in 20 degree, windy weather that they could be playing that perfectly. They pre-recorded the music on Sunday and then played along to it, with some tricks applied to their instruments to keep them silent. Rather clever, really.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99816993
Apparently some people are miffed that they did this, but I totally understand, having played many years of piccolo in marching band, and more recently a wooden stringed instrument. When it gets cold enough - like at the end of football season in November - wind instruments will just quit on you. I have many memories of standing in a corner of the stadium with my section members blowing hot air into our flutes and piccolos to get them working again, which must have been an odd (and probably slightly inappropriate looking) sight to the casual passerby. With my koto, even a temperature change of a few degrees will drastically affect tuning. There is no way Yo-Yo Ma and co. could have kept their instruments in tune sitting outside in those temperatures. That they could perform such a flawlessly synced pantomime to their own recording speaks to their abilities as professionals. Besides, they were actually playing, just no sound was coming out ;)
Sometimes it's fun being a former band geek ;) NPR <3!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99816993
Click to viewApparently some people are miffed that they did this, but I totally understand, having played many years of piccolo in marching band, and more recently a wooden stringed instrument. When it gets cold enough - like at the end of football season in November - wind instruments will just quit on you. I have many memories of standing in a corner of the stadium with my section members blowing hot air into our flutes and piccolos to get them working again, which must have been an odd (and probably slightly inappropriate looking) sight to the casual passerby. With my koto, even a temperature change of a few degrees will drastically affect tuning. There is no way Yo-Yo Ma and co. could have kept their instruments in tune sitting outside in those temperatures. That they could perform such a flawlessly synced pantomime to their own recording speaks to their abilities as professionals. Besides, they were actually playing, just no sound was coming out ;)
Sometimes it's fun being a former band geek ;) NPR <3!