this u tube clip seemed like something you might enjoy, I dig the old grandma rockin the drums but those black basso horns are perty wild too

The SECOND upgrade of John Adams’ music is already underway resulting in Kontakt banks (computer based software sampler for those who don’t know). Hardware samplers and synths of professional quality are no longer being made or used in quantity. So in only 15-20 years 2 upgrades have been required. If weighted keyboard controllers become a thing of the past, then we will really be in trouble. For now it’s enough of a set back that software samplers all have noticeable latency in them (delay).

The real question of how pieces age may lie in a different question, who pays for and performs upgrades? The composer (who in 2449AD will not be part of the picture), the publisher who gains little financially by updating a piece, or the poor orchestra manager/musician who just can’t find the old instruments and does the update on their own (if they can!) and as a gift to the music world posts the update to the internet for others.

My personal take is that music demanded enough will evolve to survive through sheer economic will power (I’m with Joe on this one), but tertiary music does run the risk of falling so far behind the current state of technology as to be unplayable. The question then becomes, should all music be written to be playable forever in the future? The difference being that we expect the instruments of the standard orchestra to continue to have a future so a traditionally written piece would inherently also have a future. I say no, why limit a composer’s freedom to enhance a piece’s lifespan? I’d rather a piece be played once in the composer’s ideal, than be repeatedly and eternally degraded due to a technical compromise.

As for synthesizers in general: I have to disagree a little with Galen (I think). There is a certain kind of keyboard player that I hate, it’s the one that turns to each player in the pit and says “I can do that too” flips to a trumpet patch and starts vomiting midi trumpet. Then they start playing up three octaves with a smirk that says, “but I’ll bet you can’t do this!” I think we can all agree to hate or at least discourage midi anythings that try to imitate real instruments, as good as Yamaha has gotten at mimicking a grand piano, I don’t think the Hamburg D’s of the world need to worry about job security. I agree that every year the mimicking gets better, but there are over a million ways to play a quarter note, and that variety is the foundation of player and musical expression, which will either never be achievable by electronics, or, if it is, why would I want to listen to an electronic representation of something I could otherwise hear for real? (Then again, why is buying virtual furniture so popular in “The SIMS” games?) So I will here agree with Chris, at the very best, it’s a little embarrassing. I am not referring to rare instruments that are difficult to find in good working order, I’m talking the clarinets and oboes of the world. Low is the day when passing ruffians can say “Ni” to poor old women, and low is the day that I have to listen to a violin concerto on a keyboard instead of a Strad. I remember watching Avenue Q for the first time and thinking the orchestra sounded pretty dull and uninteresting. At the end of the show they panned through the pit to show trap set, a sax player and two or three keyboard players. I’m sure the producers thought they were saving tons of money… A single sample may perfectly reproduce the sound of the actual instrument, but the subtle changes from striking a drum in a slightly different spot, or strength etc are what keep music alive. We’ve all seen the “drum machines have no soul” which is the reaction to this fact.

I think most of us agree that a synthesized sound is fine when it is uniquely electronic. With regards to the synth tom in question- John Adams confirms that the sampled toms in Klinghoffer are for their specific sound quality which can not be achieved by an actual tom. “If you listen to the opening of Omar’s aria in Act II of Klinghoffer, you’ll hear those deep booming drum sounds that are the product of electronic manipulation.” That manipulation is the same heavy compression we hear everyday in pop music. Take the first two bars of Green Day’s Insomniac album, and then show me a drum set that sounds like that. Of course there isn’t one. And yes, I did just compare John Adams to Green Day. Here we’ll say it is a logistical simplification to put the processed sound in a sampler, rather than to employ a remote percussion room with conductor video monitor, microphones to EQ, compression, and ultimate amplification into the performance space.

We may be in trouble if a composer “digs the sound of the toms on their Casio” but there are myriad things a composer could like that would mean we are all in trouble. At the same time there is some AWESOME music that has been written out of original Nintendo and Gameboy sounds. Nixon in China will forever be an 80’s opera because of the synth patches, but along with Sellars’ cutout Airforce One and the “Chinese” makeup , those keyboard patches fit right in as “aesthetics of the day” or something like that. Is time stamping a piece by using an 808 any different than how we now perceive a harpsichord as specific to a part of the musical timeline?

To Marc et al regarding future productions of Klinghoffer: attempts to navigate (sorry, it just came out that way!) are being made. Juilliard recently did a production you can read about here: http://tinyurl.com/n4v6gr

And I can say that there are currently plans for an American opera company to produce Klinghoffer in 2011.

As a closing note, I have to agree 100% that any art that causes a protest or outrage is worth checking out. We are bombarded by bubblegum pop because people don’t want to think on their way to and from work. If somebody hates something, then they have been forced to think, an activity grossly lacking in our society. I completely promote anything that encourages or requires a reaction, induces discussion etc. even if the conclusion is offense and disgust.

If I were a composer, I would only be writing for a synth tom because I love a synth tom. It would not be for reasons of “logistical practicality.”

A) “I’m totally in love with this almglocken sample” = Yay! Use it. I’ll come to the concert.
B) “Synth percussion is so close to real percussion now that I might as well just put that tom roll sound on the keyboard player’s high D#” = ok, it might be fine! It’s probably kind of embarrassing!

If, for instance, the fine establishment was littered with plugs, then it would be full-up with fine young cannibals like ourselves drinking frappucinos all day and scaring away the upstanding citizens who tour through and have lunch. Places like McDonald’s, for instance, offer free Wifi so that during your optimal 12.37 minute lunch rush, you feel better about stopping in there while you wolf down your veggie burger and fries and McCoffee. But when one browses the internet and takes up space and blogs from the table in the corner, one is sure to put a hit in their profits, statistically speaking. The “two-plugs-in-the-dining-area” design of the place tells me that hip guys like you are distinctly unwelcome if you bring your laptop and settle in. We have a Panera here in town that is crawling with folks studying over their fancy coffee drinks, but I feel in some deep part of me that when the place gets hopping during lunch the management’s collective brow furrows at bloggers and students.

Nobody gets a free ride, no matter how big the smile is at the front desk or register…