Slog
News & ArtsThursday, January 22, 2009
Inauguration Why, Itzhak, Why?
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Apparently the same folks that ran the Beijing Olympics were running the inauguration...
The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the National Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.
This news is making me wonder if John Roberts flubbed the oath of office by accident or if it was planned that way so that OBAMA COULD TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE WITHOUT PUTTING HIS HAND ON THE BIBLE!!!!
1
I am so pleased that he didn't use a Bible the second time. I truly hope that some right-wing nutter's head explodes because of this. I also secretly hope that the screwing up of the oath and the no-bible-retake is Obama's way of fucking with the nutters. Even though it's not. But still. A girl can dream.
2
Huh. I wondered about this when I was watching it. Something seemed off, but then again ABC's audio feed was often out of whack.
It makes total and complete sense that they did this. I can't even imagine trying to play an instrument like that in the cold weather. Aretha told Larry King that the cold messed up her voice, too. Perhaps she should've sung to a recording as well.
I love the NO BIBLE? wackos. What a bunch of mouth-breathing dunces. Learn some history you ignorant fucks.
It makes total and complete sense that they did this. I can't even imagine trying to play an instrument like that in the cold weather. Aretha told Larry King that the cold messed up her voice, too. Perhaps she should've sung to a recording as well.
I love the NO BIBLE? wackos. What a bunch of mouth-breathing dunces. Learn some history you ignorant fucks.
3
I don't care if it was Perlman and Ma, or if it was live or Memorex. All I know is, it stunk, like everything John Williams has ever done.
5
Tuning your instrument and then taking it out into severe heat or cold can seriously throw off your careful tuning, making your performance sound like crap. I'm not surprised they pre-recorded.
6
@3,
I have to disagree with you there. It boggles my mind that John Williams bothers composing for anything outside of the movies, but his film scores are fine. They get the job done and, in terms of how they complement those movies, they're better than plenty of film scores by "real" composers.
I have to disagree with you there. It boggles my mind that John Williams bothers composing for anything outside of the movies, but his film scores are fine. They get the job done and, in terms of how they complement those movies, they're better than plenty of film scores by "real" composers.
7
@3 - Fnarf: Totally. I was honestly surprised that we didn't hear the Imperial March or theme from Jurassic Park shoehorned into it. Well performed, granted, but insipid!
8
Of course it was recorded. You can't play solo string instruments in open air like that without pickups on the instruments. They'd sound like shit.
And, @3, yeah it sucked. Those four could have IMPROVISED something on the tune of simple gifts that was much better. Ma especially is a very gifted musician not just a great cellist. With that kind of talent anchoring the quartet they would have been better than anything John Williams might have come up with given a lifetime. Williams was used to anchor it in old white bullshit.
And, @3, yeah it sucked. Those four could have IMPROVISED something on the tune of simple gifts that was much better. Ma especially is a very gifted musician not just a great cellist. With that kind of talent anchoring the quartet they would have been better than anything John Williams might have come up with given a lifetime. Williams was used to anchor it in old white bullshit.
10
Jesus, just last night I was thinking some wingnut was going to claim the flub was a conspiracy so that Obama could do the oath later on the Koran. Not too far off.
11
I'm waiting for the day when a president is sworn in on a copy of Harry Potter. It'll happen by 2040.
13
The article has a good point about the weather. In that extreme cold they would have had intonation issues (strings going sharp), which for the piano would have been impossible to remedy, and might have caused strings to break on either of the instruments. I suppose they might have gotten away with tuning the instruments sharp, but some with a good ear could find that distasteful. Thankfully we don't use sheep intestine anymore.
16
A long time ago, I found a single-sided John Williams 45 that was A Fifth of Beethoven-ized disco version of his Close Encounters song. It wasn't good, but it was funny - to me at least - at the time.
19
If there is one thing you can say unites every American administration since Washington's, it is that none of them ever wanted to get started the kind of people who state in no uncertain terms not to get them started. It's simple common sense: you warn us not to get you started, and we heed your wise council.
I just wish Obama would hurry up and issue our numbers so we can get on with buying and selling.
I just wish Obama would hurry up and issue our numbers so we can get on with buying and selling.
21
The Internet is a race, but don't get the "everybody is a critic"'s engine started.
It'll just sound like a buzzing Frig.
It'll just sound like a buzzing Frig.
26
On a completely unrelated note, I'm so relieved that Mr. Poe and Bellevue Ave seem to have disappeared from the Slog. Much more pleasant with them gone. Hopefully a pitbull is gnawing on their bones in a Capitol Hill alley.
27
what no one knows is that Obama has since then taken the oath a THIRD time, but this time in arabic with one hand on the Koran and the other clinched tight around a freshly aborted fetus.
then he kicked a puppy.
then he kicked a puppy.
28
Dan,
I found both revelations funny and not too surprising. It proves that whoever is in the White House has much if not all choreographed for him or her. Suddenly, Bush's presenting a "faux" turkey on Thanksgiving on his surprise visit to Iraq a few years ago doesn't seem so ludicrous.
I found both revelations funny and not too surprising. It proves that whoever is in the White House has much if not all choreographed for him or her. Suddenly, Bush's presenting a "faux" turkey on Thanksgiving on his surprise visit to Iraq a few years ago doesn't seem so ludicrous.
29
It's kinda creepy that it was recorded...but, really...I thought the song was quite nice, pleasing. I mean, what do you want?
30
Dan,
Your fear and irrational quick draw on some silly "issues" (portland mayor, pit bulls, youth pastors), are not so pretty. Just embrace the era of responsibility and stick to the core apple. Take a red and see that you are playing into the same old culture war bs that the repubs have won on for years. Slow your reactionary ass down please.
Your fear and irrational quick draw on some silly "issues" (portland mayor, pit bulls, youth pastors), are not so pretty. Just embrace the era of responsibility and stick to the core apple. Take a red and see that you are playing into the same old culture war bs that the repubs have won on for years. Slow your reactionary ass down please.
31
seriously had they attempted to mic them it would have sounded more like early Jesus and Mary Chain than the stirring Muzak of J. Williams.
too bad the composer wasn't Itzhak's old student CC DeVille.
too bad the composer wasn't Itzhak's old student CC DeVille.
32
I gave a lecture in my class the next day about traditionalist composers (Copland and others) vs. the serialists (Schoenberg, Webern) -- both were reactions, of a sort, against war, the industrialization of everything, urban chaos, modernism. And Williams fits firmly into the traditionalist mode, as do most film soundtracks. I think they were SMART to prerecord -- I could see Yo-Yo Ma's breath in the icy cold, and I worried about the clarinetist getting any sound out of his instrument at all. It was fine. Relax. Put on another soundtrack.
33
Could have been worse, Fnarf - it could have been the theme from "Lost In Space."
Note to @24:
Us pre-hipsters, who've had our ears assaulted by insipidly neoromantic Johnny Williams (as he used to be known back when he was composing Irwin Allen TV series themes) scores since the 1960's have every right to rage on him.
Note to @24:
Us pre-hipsters, who've had our ears assaulted by insipidly neoromantic Johnny Williams (as he used to be known back when he was composing Irwin Allen TV series themes) scores since the 1960's have every right to rage on him.
34
Obama didn't use a bible the second time around as a shout out to all those "non-believers" he mentioned in his address.
37
@33: Agreed. Thank you.
What riles me is not that John Williams is untalented - on the contrary. He is a highly talented composer who probably could have done anything but wasted his talents entrenching movie score cliches for Spielberg et al.
"Johnny Williams", his father, was a terrific jazz drummer in Raymond Scott's Quintette from 1936-39. Their output was a perfect blend of musical innovation and commercial success - proof that it can be done.
What riles me is not that John Williams is untalented - on the contrary. He is a highly talented composer who probably could have done anything but wasted his talents entrenching movie score cliches for Spielberg et al.
"Johnny Williams", his father, was a terrific jazz drummer in Raymond Scott's Quintette from 1936-39. Their output was a perfect blend of musical innovation and commercial success - proof that it can be done.
38
Gentlemen and Ladies, you are witnessing a rare event, the first few steps in the birth of a conspiracy theory. You will be hearing variations on this story years from now....
40
It's a book. Hasn't been touched by the hand of god, or blessed by the pope. It's leather and paper, that's all.
46
uh, not quite getting the hatin' on John Williams...granted, he hasn't come up with anything new for quite awhile but his scores for all those popcorn films of the 70's and 80's are iconic.
Popular doesn't mean bad and indie doesn't necessarily mean it's good. Pull the hipster pole out of your ass, people.
Popular doesn't mean bad and indie doesn't necessarily mean it's good. Pull the hipster pole out of your ass, people.
48
@32, etc - This was covered in the NYT this morning. Apparently pre-recording, for use as a last resort, is standard procedure for this kind of thing.
Justice Roberts should obviously have been pre-recorded.
Justice Roberts should obviously have been pre-recorded.
49
ehh . . . the bible was probably locked up in the National Archives right after the first swearing-in. I doubt that Roberts would have easy access to it.
50
please no more swearing-in on the bible. its like promising on a huge stack of get of jail free cards. please, true separation of church and state in my lifetime.
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