There is a story in today’s Guardian about a new kind of musical gizmo, the sinfonia, which is striking terror into the hearts of West End theatre musicians:
Theatre musicians held opening talks last night with the millionaire impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh in what they suspect may be a battle for survival against his plan to introduce an electronic “magic box” in place of part of the orchestra for musicals.
Champions of the device, called the Sinfonia, maintain that it “gives more bangs for the buck” than musicians. Musicians say it “steals jobs and cheats audiences”.
First reports made it sound to me like a glorified backing tape. That really would be creepy, with the conductor having to keep time with a predetermined tempo, with a predetermined performance in fact.
However the Sinfonia does seem to be a bona fide musical instrument:
The Sinfonia resembles a synthesiser but consists of two powerful computers and keyboards. It was developed by two professors of music technology.
Older versions, presumably, of that music geek in Fame who played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (I think it was) all on his own at his high-tech keyboard.
Using a keyboard, the operator controls the instrumental output while watching the conductor’s baton on video.
Virtual orchestras were a factor in a recent Broadway strike. This led to compromise on a minimum of 19-26 musicians for each production.
It occurred to me while reading the story that if costs can be reduced, maybe it will become possible to put on more musicals, thereby creating as many jobs for musicians as ever, and many more for singers and dancers. But the Musicians’ Union cares not for such speculations, and the union-friendly Guardian man ends his piece not with such economic optimism but with this decidedly menacing final sentence:
Last night the Musicians’ Union said it understood there were no trained Sinfonia operators in Britain.
Expect it soon, a remake of that old Kazan classic, this time called In the Orchestra Pit, with the guy in the Brando part now saying: “I could have been a concert pianist.”
I expect also that audiences will prefer a real orchestra and will pay more for one, so “live orchestra” will be something to put on the marketing for the play.
Meanwhile the sinfonia will be a boon to lower budget productions, who will be able to have a grander score than otherwise. Everyone wins.
Finally found the website of the people who make it; Realtime Music Solutions (no-one linked to them for some reason).
Looks like a bit of a con, which is what I thought when I heard about it on Radio 4 the other day. Their “revolutionary device” is basically a computer, a backup computer, & a few samplers, all mounted in a hefty case.
There are no screenshots of what the computer displays, so it’s not possible to tell whether they’ve written some software specifically for the purpose (that would at least add some value). If not, you could totally put together a system like this yourself, with a bit of research. It’d be interesting to know more about what their thing actually does; I’m suspicious of the lack of information on their site (the one unique point they claim; using “specific samples”, is fairly commonplace these days; you can buy massive professionally recorded orchestral sample sets for £800, and many of the ‘orchestras’ you hear in movies may be more than 50% sampled. Most of the big movie composers compose using samplers at the very least, & then record some of the strings live afterwards).
I think the public should decide; if they feel cheated, then fine. Advertise “all live, all real” musicians & watch the crowds flock in. Otherwise, well, you’ve still got a musician playing the thing… It’s like protesting that a piano, being able to play a bass part and a melody simultaneously, is putting bass players out of work.
However, I personally feel artificial reproductions of things are never as good as the originals, & technology should be used to make sounds which were not previously possible; not pale pastiches of “real” sounds.
Drummers aren’t supposed to exist any more. Drum machines were going to put them all out of business. Not only did that not happen, but, as drum machines got better, more bands started using drummers. And drummers, faced with competition from the extreme possibilities of drum machines, got far better.
The cathedral organ was supposed to replace orchestras, too.
When will they learn?
I am a faithful follower of the Orch-Extra and Sinfonia digital sampling devices. I am the assistant director at a small local catholic high school where money is tight. Sinfonia is a life saver in that it is less expensive than hiring a full orchestra. It is also very easy to play and sounds very realistic. I’m not saying it should replace live musicians in a professional setting, but in our case it is great, and perhaps more reasonable as an orchestral supplement for traveling companies.
I am a faithful follower of the Orch-Extra and Sinfonia digital sampling devices. I am the assistant director at a small local catholic high school where money is tight. Sinfonia is a life saver in that it is less expensive than hiring a full orchestra. It is also very easy to play and sounds very realistic. I’m not saying it should replace live musicians in a professional setting, but in our case it is great, and perhaps more reasonable as an orchestral supplement for traveling companies.