All This Machinery Making Modern Music . . .

Yesterday's New York Times had an interesting article about the march of musical technology. It was about the increasing use, off-Broadway, of computer programs that play back entire sections of scores, replicating all the various instrumental parts. An operator keys in the rhythm, so as to allow the "instruments" to speed up or slow down along with the conductor's whims. This allows the orchestra to sound fuller than its small numbers, but doesn't completely resort to using canned music. Union rules are keeping the tech off Broadway for now, but it's sure to make it in the long run (as sampling synthesizers already have).

I'm not sure what I think about this development. Part of me has never been a fan of "live" music being produced by anything other than live musicians. But modern tech began blurring the lines long ago. Since I've gotten some schooling in the history of musical synthesis and how synths work, I've softened my stance a bit. I used to not be able to stand drum machines, but now that I've played around with one, I recognize them as just another kind of instrument. So, I guess a person who creates tunes using pre-recorded loops can't exactly champion live-performance purity, can he?