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| MakeMusic Forum > Public Forums > Finale - Macintosh - FORUM HAS MOVED! > Unexpected enthusiasm for Finale playback from a very experienced orchestral musician | Forum Quick Jump
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David Ward
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Date Joined Aug 2009
Total Posts : 2834
| Posted 9/8/2014 3:47 PM (GMT -6) |   | This was so unexpected that I think it worth quoting here. On a recent visit to Glasgow and Edinburgh for various musical events (including seeing the Mariinsky's Les Troyens at the EIF) I rather whimsically gave a very experienced musician a CD of the computer playback of my recently finished 25 minute Divertimento for mixed octet plus the link to a PDF of the score. This musician was for 16 years principal cellist of a major symphony orchestra, before moving back to number 3 or 4, and recently retired as the longest serving member of the orchestra. I expected to have the playback soundly mocked, so was very surprised to receive this response: cellist said...
The link worked fine, and I've just been listening to your piece. It's great chamber music - full of interest and fun to play, and, as always, coherent and 'followable'. I imagine that a non-specialist audience would easily enjoy a live performance. Congratulations. I wish you success (luck?) with it.
I won't press the ensemble who should be playing the piece for an early 'real' recording, as I find some musicians can feel inhibited by the presence of recording equipment and then don't take the risks that really bring a performance to life; but one day …
David Ward
www.composers-uk.com/davidward
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Christopher Smith
Registered Member
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 2290
| Posted 9/8/2014 7:19 PM (GMT -6) | | ttw said...
You're lucky. At least they didn't ask, "What's brass?"
Ha ha! I had an experience that almost required this question from the client. It was a theatre piece that I had to write incidental music for, to be prerecorded. The director was very good, simply explaining the drama of the moment, never getting too specific. He was a lighting designer originally, and the LD of this show said that the director never mentioned a specific item once in his briefing, even though he knew enough to do it himself. However, the director said to me "I'd like a big, brassy intro." Key word, brass. I knew what that was. I wrote and recorded a fantastic brass fanfare with timpani. He heard it and said, "Wonderful! But where's the brass?" Blank look from me. "It's almost nothing BUT brass. What did YOU mean?" "You know, kshhh!" He mimed a pair of crash cymbals. Oh yeah, cymbals ARE made of brass, it's true. Fortunately, it was easy to dub cymbals onto the recording, and all was well.
Moral of the story: never assume that because a client uses a piece of jargon that he KNOWS what the jargon means. I have had to learn that lesson over and over again.
Christopher Smith
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N. Grossingink
Registered Member
Date Joined Nov 2002
Total Posts : 3991
| Posted 9/9/2014 9:25 AM (GMT -6) | | Ronwass said...
I wouldn't hesitate to say that your experienced musician wasn't thinking that the Finale playback in any way approached the sound of his major symphony, but was saying, "You know, it's really good enough that my experienced ears can tell what a 'real' performance will sound like."
And that is quite positive.
What you say is very wise. Moreover, it speaks to the character of that musician. The ability for most of humanity to "think outside of the box" is rare in most circles, especially serious music.
N.
Finale 2010b, 2011c, 2012c
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Writer of Music
Registered Member
Date Joined Aug 2011
Total Posts : 848
| Posted 9/10/2014 2:25 PM (GMT -6) | | cellist said...
The link worked fine, and I've just been listening to your piece. It's great chamber music - full of interest and fun to play, and, as always, coherent and 'followable'. I imagine that a non-specialist audience would easily enjoy a live performance. Congratulations. I wish you success (luck?) with it.
I'm not sure where he says anything about the 'quality of the playback'?
But please ignore, because I'm not going down that lane again.
Finale 2014a, b and c, but switched back to 2012c. Again.
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