{"id":1760,"date":"2014-02-06T23:27:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2018-03-01T23:27:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T07:27:49","slug":"recording-by-ear-part-i-live-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/archives\/1760","title":{"rendered":"Recording by Ear, part I: Live & Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n(To the tune of \u201cMaria\u201d)<\/i><\/p>\n

Recording!
\nI search for a way of recording.
\nI found an engineer,
\nBut nothing\u2019s very clear
\nTo me!<\/p>\n

Recording!
\nHe\u2019s got his own way of distorting.
\nAnd suddenly I\u2019ve found
\nHow dry my gorgeous sound
\nCan be!<\/p>\n

Recording!
\nPlay it loud and it sounds like braying!
\nBut too late! It\u2019s already past praying.<\/p>\n

Recording!
\nI\u2019ll never stop hating recording!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Just hearing the word recording<\/i> is enough to make us musicians anxious. And why not? Everywhere we turn, people who claim <\/span>to be experts are telling us what to do and how to do it; blinding us with science. But these engineers, producers, consultants\u2014do they really know how to capture our performances, our interpretations, our precious sound<\/i>? No, not always. Perhaps not even most of the time.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: some of these \u201caudio people\u201d are treasures! But we do well to remember that what matters most in recording is good ears and musical judgment; so our musical training and experience are directly relevant to judging audio questions. And a good thing, too; for as the artists, it\u2019s our obligation to see that our performance arrives intact at listeners\u2019 ears; and this applies in recording as much as in the concert hall. A sacred obligation that we must not abdicate!<\/p>\n

Now, most music, heard by most people most of the time, is recorded. And more people may hear our recordings, if we make any, than attend our concerts. Even when we\u2019re asleep, some concert manager may be listening to a track of ours and deciding to hire us. As we learn new repertoire, the dean of some music school may be deciding to invite us for a residency. While we take a day off, listeners may be discovering that our playing gives meaning to their lives. So, yes, recordings can be important to us; and we want them to present us at our best. But what does \u201cbest\u201d mean, and how do we assure it?<\/p>\n

I have two recordings of the same pianist. In the first one, she and her audience are obviously caught up in the moment. Her playing brims with insight and overflows with feeling. Audience members\u2019 involvement shows in their attentiveness and eager applause.<\/p>\n

In the other recording, the whole level of feeling is lower; and the insight is more pedantic than poetic. As for audience response, there is none; for there is no audience.<\/p>\n

#1 carries me away. #2 is boring. #1 makes it obvious she\u2019s a superb pianist, expressive interpreter and exciting performer. #2 leaves me uncertain about these, and not caring much either way.<\/p>\n

We can identify what makes the difference between the two recordings, and no doubt you\u2019ve already done so; but just to put things in context, it wasn\u2019t the pianos: both instruments were fine. So were both tunings, and the acoustics of both halls. Nor was the difference due to differences in the recording process.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re impatiently whispering, \u201cIt\u2019s the audience! The difference is the audience! What you\u2019re describing in #1, we know from our own experience!\u201d Of course I agree. The audience is everything.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also notice that #1 cost the pianist no money and no work beyond the preparation and performance she was already doing for the concert. It was a routine taping of her very much not-routine faculty recital at a conservatory. By contrast, #2 cost her mucho moolah for renting the hall and hiring the recording engineer; and lots of work in recording sessions and editing (which can range from no-work-needed\u2014almost unheard of\u2014to the musico-permutational hell described hilariously by Jeremy Denk in \u201cFlight of the Concord,\u201d The New Yorker<\/i>, Feb. 6, 2012).<\/p>\n

So! When you and I perform and record together, are we agreed we\u2019ll record ourselves in concert<\/i>? Yes? Good!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(To the tune of \u201cMaria\u201d) Recording! I search for a way of recording. I found an engineer, But nothing\u2019s very clear To me! Recording! He\u2019s got his own way of distorting. And suddenly I\u2019ve found How dry my gorgeous sound Can be! Recording! Play it loud and it sounds like braying! But too late! It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1761,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions\/1761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/boykonpiano.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}