Loudspeaker Orchestras are just…loud…
One of the most interesting classes we had this semester in my opinion was when Steve Beck from the LSU school of music came and spoke to us. He told us all he could squeeze into the hour and a half class time about loudspeaker orchestras. If you are like me, you have no idea what I am talking about. Well, it is a large or sometimes relatively small number of speakers set up on stage in the form and specific positions of an orchestra. A large difference other than the lack of actual, living breathing musicians is that “traditional music” is not what is being playing, but rather noises or all ranges, loud to soft, high to low and fast to slow. This is a field known as electrostatic music and it is for the most part, done with intention of it not being heard live. Another huge difference between this “music” and music performed by musicians at a traditional concert. I I have a closer connection to this topic than most artists because I am a musician I play in LSU’s top musical performance group, The Wind Ensemble and I know that if I was to hear this “music” I would probably hate it compared to someones who has into been exposed to traditional, classical music on a daily basis for over 11 years now! I think the concept is a very interesting one and I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of my notes from Mr. Beck’s talk with us.
- this kind of music unburdens us from traditional music, takes away the boundaries etc.
- how is it performed?
- live performer and fixed media
- live performer and interactive media
- laptop music-which is people on stage with computers making the music
- static playback-he says its boring, I believe him!
- diffusion- prerecorded sounds redistributed
He then went on to explain to us all the different ways you can set up the “performance” I thought it was interesting that the entire sound and relevance of the pieces can be altered by the placement of the speakers the same way the placement of instruments in a concert set up can enhance or damage the dynamic of a piece.
The fixed speaker arrangements vary from stereo which is two to eight channel set up and beyond.
All in all it was a very interesting lesson, not really from the view of an artist, because as critical and possibly close-minded as this may make me sound I do not view this type of performance as anything other than art, it is NOT music! I’m sorry to say something so main-stream but having played some the strongest and most influential pieces of music that are available for wind bands for throughout the majority of my life I can not view random sounds from speakers spread all over a stage as an equally valid or even interesting thing. I know there is a large portion of society that would strongly disagree with me on that note but that is what makes our communities so diverse. There is something for everyone and the same holds true for art, if not even more so because art is so very objective and personal.
