|
| |
|
Virtual orchestra seeks place in the pit
|
Sabra Chartrand NYT
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
|
|
Labor issues lead inventors to refocus
NEW YORK Three scholars who won a patent for a computerized virtual orchestra say their system will keep musical theater alive by cutting costs without sacrificing orchestration.
Musicians argue that the machine, which can not only synthesize various instruments and produce musical notes but also match tempo and other more subjective elements with a live performance, will eliminate their already dwindling job opportunities.
The debate has already led the musicians' union in New York, home of the Broadway musical, to demand a ban on the invention and the system's manufacturer to allege unfair labor practices.
After nearly two years of battling the union, the inventors are focusing on using their idea to enhance a smaller orchestra, rather than to replace a live orchestra.
The hardware and software behind the invention are examples of how high technology can reshape the way things have long been done in just about any industry.
The beleaguered invention belongs to three professors: David Smith, chairman of the entertainment technology department at the New York City College of Technology; Frederick Bianchi of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts; and Kojiro Umezaki of McGill University in Montreal.
The three created a system based on music sequencing, the technology that allows every element of a piece of music to be broken down into digital data.
"Think of a traditional recording as a sound file - you put a microphone out and record a voice," said Smith, who is also a partner in RealTime Music Solutions, a New York-based company that manufactures the system under the name Sinfonia. "But that recording is stuck in time and space. Once you've recorded it, you can't make any changes.
"The idea with sequencing is that every note, every sequence, every change in volume, is programmed into the system."
Smith said the invention was intended to "develop an interface between the way music is stored in sequencing and the way it is manipulated in real time so we can modify various parameters of music, based on the requirements of the moment."
The system's hardware uses "what basically looks like a normal musical keyboard," he said, "but is really more like a computer keyboard with different functions for different keys." The orchestral parts are recorded into the equipment during preparations for a production, and during the live performance the absent instruments are reproduced in a way that blends them into the tempo and dynamic of the real performers.
The virtual orchestra system divides a performance into two parts, Smith said: those that never change and those that could vary.
A fixed aspect might be, say, the musical notes in a song. "We give those to the computer system," Smith said.
A changeable aspect might be the way the singers sing each night. "Ideally, everything that is considered musical or the expressive aspect of the performance, we keep for the performer," Smith said.
One of the most important areas of performance is tempo flexibility - "how you speed up and slow down," Smith said.
To manipulate tempo in real time, the invention can be programmed with what Smith calls tap parameters. "Like tapping your foot," he said. "As you tap faster, the music will speed up or slow down. That's the basic template of how we control tempo."
The system requires a considerable amount of custom programming before a live performance.
"Each instrument has to be recorded in, with every note, each articulation and shape programmed in beforehand," Smith said. "Then we have a shaping session with the music director and go through every note, go through a whole process of making the synthesized music correspond as closely as possible to the music."
The next step is a rehearsal with the live orchestra to be sure the machine is integrated with the remaining orchestra members. That is followed by another rehearsal with actors, singers and other performers, during which the person operating the system manipulates the tempo in real time by following cues from the performers on stage.
The software for the virtual orchestra can also be used to replace people who work behind the scenes in a theater, like those who control lights, sound, video and other elements that are linked to a show's music. In that case, it would mimic the systems already in use during large rock shows that include music, video, elaborate lighting and pyrotechnics.
Last year, during a musicians' strike, Broadway producers threatened to replace picketing musicians with the virtual orchestra machine. The result was a labor agreement in which the musicians' union would allow the system to be used on Broadway only as a supplement, and as long as the number of live musicians in an orchestra pit met an agreed minimum.
The New York Times
|
|
|
Copyright © 2004 the International Herald Tribune All Rights Reserved
Printer Version
E-mail A Friend
Subscriptions