joegratz.net

I was a theatre sound designer in a previous life, so the current battle over virtual orchestras on and off-Broadway is close to home. A so-called “vitrual orchestra” is a computer and a rack of samplers, together with some custom sequencer software that allows the musician operating it a great degree of control over tempo, dynamics, and phrasing. Predictably, this has musicians’ unions up in arms. Today’s New York Times has an article on one composer’s decision to use a Sinfonia virtual orchestra system. He says it’s not a labor issue, but an artistic one; the virtual orchestra allows him more flexibility than a keyboardist playing a synthesizer. Portions of the score are, he says, written to be played by a virtual orchestra. A musicians’ union representative responds:

“Claiming to have composed for the virtual orchestra is about as valid as claiming to have composed for a tape recorder,” he said.

Nobody tell Steve Reich. Not to mention Karlheinz Stockhausen or Pierre Schaeffer or any of the other practitioners of musique concrète, the avant-garde progenitor of much of today’s popular music. What a dumb comment.