Campbell Vertesi

Yesterday, I posted about an electronic orchestra, poised to play the Beethoven symphonies. I was pleasantly surprised to get a comment from the conductor of the orchestra, Mr. Paul Henry Smith. I think his response merits front page mention, so here it is, reprinted in full. Discuss.

Thanks for writing about my work.

I just want to clarify that the test to try to determine "real" or "fake" was not supposed to have been the point of providing sound examples to the WSJ. The purpose of the audio clips was so listeners could hear that the interpretation the Fauxharmonic Orchestra has was new. It actually allows the main melody to be heard without being obscured by other winds, while all of the other clips let the melody sink below the sustained notes. That, apparently, was too nuanced a pointfor the "general" reader to grasp. So, a parlour game was made of it.

You can hear more about this passage from Beethoven's seventh and read an interesting discussion of the musical choices involved (and nothing at all about the technology).

Also, I just want to clarify that the digital orchestra IS performed by a live musician. It's not an "intelligent" machine attempting to follow a performer. It's a dumb box that has been "rehearsed" up to a point, with certain aspects of the music left un-specified (like, tempo, loudness, phrasing, balance) so that these can be finessed according to the live acoustics of the performance space, in real time.

I'ts interesting to note that technological advances in musical instruments have always lead to greater expressive possibilities and opportunities. This has been going on for at least 400 years with the orchestra and will continue well beyond our lifetimes. As long as there are people, they will exploit technology to make music. I want to direct the current technologies toward creating the best possible musical experiences, not the least expensive ones.

Next, the reason I am bringing the digital orchestra to the concert hall is precisely because that's where music of the highest quality happens. The digital orchestra is a musical instrument played by musicians. It offers new opportunities for composers whose music is not currently being played. And soloists who are not being paid to play concertos or sing arias will have that opportunity with the digital orchestra.

It would be wrong to assume that the composers, musicians and soloists who would appear with a digital orchestra must be inferior wannabes. While that may be true for many of them, that is not the only reason many of them lack opportunity. The economics of orchestras make it difficult even for the best musicians and composers ever to get a chance to be heard. It is simply too expensive to pay all the musicians to accompany the soloist or to premiere the new symphony; the ticket sales would not support it. So, that musical opportunity is now closed.

With the digital orchestra we can "expand the pie" of musical opportunity. We can play "unplayable" pieces. We can accompany young un-heard soloists graduating by the hundreds each year from top music schools worldwide (don't they deserve a chance, if a major conservatory deems them worthy of a degree?).

We can explore old masterworks. Interestingly, many of the potential soloists are themselves working in orchestras now. A chance to perform with a digital orchestra is a new artistic and economic opportunity, even for them. Not necessarily a threat. Some orchestral musicians might actually jump at the chance to play the concertos they have been practicing for years with little hope of ever getting to play them in a concert.

Lately I've begun playing with a new way to interact over the internet: Second Life.  I've been encouraged to explore this medium by one of my jobs... and I've found it interesting, for lack of a better word.

First of all, a brief primer: Second Life is a freeform virtual universe, where people interact over the internet.  It's a bit like a giant chatroom, with visuals.  When you sign up, you create an "avatar" (a character) to play as.  You can change your avatar's appearance as much as you like, at any time - be male, female, dragon, or flying spaghetti monster.  And then you go interact.

As I mentioned, SL is entirely freeform.  The parent company (Linden Labs) creates only the land where things happen.  Users create everything else.  From chairs and couches to buildings and fighter jets, everything is built by users.  Not that you have to be able to program in order to get by - people own stores as well, to sell the things they build.  This means that the world contains literally anything you can imagine.  Plenty of people have homes that float in the sky.  Flying (yes, like superman) is a major form of transportation.  People, are, have, and do the wildest things you can imagine.

SL even has an economy of sorts - a currency with a free floating exchange with the US dollar.  There are people who earn a living in this virtual world.  Anshe Chung for instance, was the first Second Life millionaire - that's millionaire in US dollars.  I'm not kidding when I say that this is an entire universe.

So why am I posting about it on a music blog?  Because like the real world, second life also has a music industry.  

This is still hard for me to wrap my head around, so bear with me.  There are concerts given in SL all the time, often synchronized with real world events.  To my understanding, they work much the same way a real concert does - buy a ticket, sit down, and listen or watch.   The website touts virtual concerts by U2, Duran Duran, and Susanne Vega. 

Having no experience with this aspect of the virtual world, I can't offer you much insight into it.  But maybe you all can help me?  Is there a future for musicians in this sort of digital broadcast?  Is it worthwhile streaming any of your performances over the internet, in any format?  What would be the attraction of having an avatar stand on a virtual stage and perform to your instrument?

And inevitably: does performance art like opera have a future in this kind of virtual environment? 

Two days ago, I posted a question to my artistic readers: "Why are you an artist?"

As I mentioned: the world is a messy place. Hunger, war, disease, oppression... why would a globally-aware person choose to become an artist? I promised my own answer.

I think about this question a lot.  I'm one of those people who could have done almost anything as a career. Computers in any capacity being one example, but business and marketing have always fascinated me.  Not to mention med school: biology continues to be an interesting hobby field.

So why art?  And of all the arts, why that dinosaur without relevance to modern life: opera? 

 The sensation of a calling is hard to describe.  I remember the precise moment when I realized I had to sing for the rest of my life, in some capacity.  It made me understand people who feel "called" to the priesthood, or to public service. That calling is certainly why I started as a singer. But I could have stopped, or become an avocational singer instead.

Momentum alone is not enough to explain a lifetime of effort.  Fundamentally, I believe that what I do is important.  In the first place, I consider opera an art of growing relevance to modern life.  As a colleague of mine from the theatre world told me recently: "all the action is in opera now.  I went to the Fringe Festival, which used to be the most edgy stuff in theatre.  Now everything is traditional-format, using safe ideas... meanwhile, opera is broadcasting into theatres and on the internet.  Opera is making headlines by challenging religious and cultural boundaries."

So opera is a contemporary art form.  Moreover, I believe that opera at its very best can carry all of the emotional weight of symphonic music, the power and gripping communication of drama, and the specificity of the spoken word.  Truly great opera speaks to you on multiple levels, and has something specific to offer to the dialog of a culture.  Truly great opera however, is as rare as truly great art in any field: we are fortunate to get a handful of such creators in a century.

 I do not understand yet quite how this works; precisely how it is that great opera achieves relevance, or what one performer's place is in that picture.  For now, I think of the significance of my own career along the same lines as the significance of a skyscraper: it is not important in and of itself, but rather as a symbol.  It reminds us of the greatness of humankind.  It is a physical manifestation of the ability of a single human being - like a church that, ignoring the spirits and demons of religion, glorifies man instead.

I am trying to build a skyscraper of an artist.  I want to be able to say that I have reached the fullest capacity of my body and life, and in doing so, to remind people just what we are capable of.   I want to be a living example of the greatness humanity can reach, and opera is my medium.

Is everyone here familiar with the 'golden mean'? Also called the golden proportion, and a whole bunch of other golden things, it's the proportion that occurs all over the place in nature.

It occurs in the structure of leaves, in the shape of shells, the proportions of your body parts, and - surprise! - in a lot of the music we love so much. Go and look for it: it's roughly a proportion of thirds. It's one of the first things we learn in photography (in that field it's called the "rule of thirds").

Here are some examples for your edification:

the Parthenon:

 Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing applying the golden mean to the human head:

Well, it turns out that some of your favorite video game music works that way, too! This guy did a detailed music theory analysis of the Zelda Nintendo themes... check it out!

 On the vocal front, I took a day of rest yesterday, and sang much better in my lesson today.  Feeling good again... like that new French piece (the mysterious one, remember?) might actually make it onto my list in the end.  This singing business is hard!

I have to say, when I got into this job I expected it to be difficult.  I expected to slave away over my technique, and to push myself further than I had before.  I had not expected it to be quite THIS difficult, though!  In other careers, you slave away and learn and study your craft for 4, perhaps 6 years before you get practical application.  And that practical application tends to be very rewarding, after 6 years of study... financially and otherwise.  Think about MBA graduates for instance, or stock brokers.  Certainly, once you're done training you slave away over practicing your field... but at least you're out there DOING, rather than still LEARNING how to do. 

As an opera singer, I've been studying for 7 years now (8, maybe?), and I'm just beginning.  I'm still a "baby bass", and can't even begin to look at the meat of my repertoire yet.  I have high notes, but getting them to a place that is worthy of presenting in front of an audience will take years more effort.  I don't get to really practice my craft for another 10 years yet!

This was in my mind yesterday, as I thought about the alternative.  I'm a capable guy; I didn't have to pick such a difficult career.  At any moment I could drop this whole music gig, move to the city of my choice anywhere in the world, and work in computers for the rest of my life.  I could make a nice income to support my wife and a family, and have my evenings and weekends to myself (as much as anyone does).  This image contrasts nicely with the music world, where every moment not spent practicing is a moment someone else gets an advantage on you.  Where you must eat, breathe, and sleep your music if you want to create great art.

 And that's where it ends for me.  Because,  no matter how easy and comfortable a conventional life might be, I do want to create great art.  I do want to do something really exceptional with my life.  And you can't achieve that with  just 7 or 8 years of training.

So it's back to the grindstone with me.  You all who are already out there doing can have it.  I've got more training to do.

What music do two musicians have at their wedding?

Good question.  Wish I knew.  We're going with "au fond du temple saint" for the registry signing, and Ben Folds Five "The luckiest" (it's our song) for the processional/recessional.  We certainly couldn't have pachelbel's canon, or the Wagner march! 

You married musicians, what was your wedding music?  Did you get any of your friends to perform? (we have a couple)  Did you perform?  I've heard horror stories of singers singing their way down the aisle.  Not for me, thanks!

Get 'em while they're hot!

The International Mozart Foundation in Salzburg is sending out Mozzie's 250th Birthday year with a bang! They've bought the rights to the definitive scholarly editions of the complete works of Mozart for free release online!

That's right, free as in beer. And that's right, scholarly as in Baerenreiter. These are the most expensive, most coveted Mozart texts (for singers, at least), prized for their high accuracy and scholarly annotations. Apparently the big B got a cool $400,000 for the rights. Not that this was the end of the spending: with over 45,000 visits in the first two hours, they've had to buy a bigger server!

So what are you waiting for? The full text is searchable, so (as reuters points out) a search for "Pamina" will yield all of her arias, as well as the famous Baerenreiter notes thereupon.

I can't believe it, so I'm gonna say it again: the complete Baerenreiter scores of Mozart are available for free online!

Today is St. Cecilia's Day, the day for the patron saint of Music (and of the blind). As a "radical atheist", I won't be lighting any candles, or praying any prayers or any of that... I'll just remember that music is a powerful enough force to be considered magical.  And I'll wear my glasses.

Ironically, I spent all day yesterday singing, and today my throat lies fallow while I sit at work. 

Also interesting to note that my friend with a brain hardwired to learn about, listen to, and engage in music making was born on this day.  Adam Cioffari, are you reading this?  Maybe you're St. Cecilia reincarnate! On the other hand,  you can see pretty well, so maybe not.  Maybe you just have a mind like a Grove Music Encyclopedia.

Finally they're starting to understand! Marketwatch is reporting that according to EMI's CEO, "the music CD is dead". Not as if it hasn't been obvious for the last 7 years or anything.  Well, at least they're catching on.  Better late than never!  Choice quotes from the sparse article:

"You're not going to offer your mother-in-law iTunes downloads for Christmas," he said. "But we have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content."

Record companies will need to make CDs more attractive to the consumer, he said.

"By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material," Levy said.

 Not a big surprise for anyone here, I hope!  I guess we have to do this in baby steps. 

The next little step to to realize that digital copying is a rule of the market now.  This is a very big bite for normal people, so it might take the big labels some serious time to understand.  Anything that can be made digital, can and will be copied.  There is no DRM that can keep your computer from making internal copies of a song while it's being played, or transmitted.  As the saying goes: build a better mousetrap...   This makes for some very significant changes to Supply and Demand.

Once you wrap your head around the idea that uncontrolled copying of digital content is inevitable, the next big bite is to realize: this is a good thing for the music business.   Don't expect those dinosaurs at the RIAA to pick up on this one for a loooooong time though.

Woohoo! The blog finally proves its worth:

Last week I was contacted by a young director/singer, working for a company in Northern California (Opera Fresca).  He was looking for a Sparafucile for a concert Rigoletto they're doing in October.  Thanks to the website he was able to look me up and listen, and poof! - there was an offer for one of my dream roles!

 I would have posted it here immediately, if I'd been able to answer him that fast.  Thing is, Sparafucile is not an easy role for a young, heavy bass.  I had to be sure, and my teacher gave me a week to work on it, at which point we would decide whether I should sing this or not.  Most of the singing is just fine, but there's one page of sheer masochism in the storm trio.  (my GOD that moves fast!)  Once you get your mouth around the rapid-fire verbiage, you have to move your voice around the difficult vocal part.  A page long run of eighth notes without pause, ascending first to a D, then an E, and then (ulp) an F#!  I called my old teacher Mr. Tozzi for advice on the part, and I worked my butt off to make it singable.  In some ways, that section targets precisely my biggest demons - staying open, relaxed and free on runs, and extreme high notes.

The good news is, after a lot of work, I can do it.  I'm excited to build the role with my teacher, and even more excited to sing it in a month!  It really is one of my dream parts, and I'm totally thrilled for the opportunity to get to sing it. I made sure that my contract includes a provision to allow me to post excerpts - so you'll be the first to hear!

(no, really - you think I have a better way to send recordings to my parents and Bryn than this website?  You'll be the first)