# Would Composers have enjoyed Lighting at their shows?



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Like rock/pop shows?


I bet Mozart would've enjoyed some awesome light rigs to accompany his music.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

We will never know. And that is the most aggravating part of it all. Just like the question of what music would Mozart have written if there were electric guitars back in his day? But someone could make a pretty wild fiction movie about some such scenario.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Fritz Kobus said:


> We will never know. And that is the most aggravating part of it all. Just like the question of what music would Mozart have written if there were electric guitars back in his day? But someone could make a pretty wild fiction movie about some such scenario.


I bet Mozart would have preferred acoustic guitar, just a hunch. I think electric is more Beethoven's territory!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I bet Mozart would have preferred acoustic guitar, just a hunch. I think electric is more Beethoven's territory!


Perhaps electric piano is a better subject for this speculation since the piano was their main instrument for composing.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I think Cage would prefer the audience fully in the dark if it weren't for safety issues. Or else staring at a white screen hiding the musicians


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I'm quite sure Berlioz and Scriabin would have loved it!!


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

.....the latest even wrote it into the score of Prometheus!


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Wagner. He would’ve been a German Yanni.

Eat that.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

I can see Mozart employing a few mirror-balls at the very least.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think Mozart would have appreciated even just a single lightbulb. Watch the film Mozart’s Sister for as near an authentic experience of what it was like to live in those candlelit times. It’s the darkest film I’ve seen (in terms of lighting, not emotions).

Bach and Handel would have welcomed electric lighting too. They went blind spending too many nights composing music - and copying all the parts, can you imagine? - by candlelight.

Having said that, there is something romantic about candleight, think of Chopin playing in his salons.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Heck148 said:


> I'm quite sure Berlioz and Scriabin would have loved it!!


Didn't the latter actually experiment with both lights and fragrances?


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Liszt. At least when young, I'm sure he would have milked lighting effects for all the drama he could get!

Which reminds me of hearing Andre Tchaikovsky play L's B minor Sonata in a completely dark concert hall with just a single spotlight on him and the keyboard. Very atmospheric!


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2019)

Watch this video and then rephrase the question as "Which composer would have enjoyed this "Professional 3D Stage Light Show" -






The first composer that comes to mind to me is "Anonymous" - (not the one you're thinking of - the other one)...


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Paganini would have the whole nine yards. Smoke, strobes, spotlights, anything. It would be like a hard rock concert.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Mozart likely would have been a glam rocker! :lol:


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Robert Pickett said:


> .....the latest even wrote it into the score of Prometheus!


Wikipedia says:
_The part for color organ is notated on a staff of its own, in treble clef at the top of the score, and consists of two parts: one changes with the harmony, and always goes to the root note of the prevailing harmony, and thus produces the color Scriabin associated with each key; the other consists of much longer notes sustained through many bars, and does not appear to be related to the harmony (or therefore to the first part), but for the most part slowly rises up the scale a whole-tone at a time, the changes being several pages of score apart, or a minute or two apart. It is not clear what relationship this part has to the first part, or to the music as a whole. The score does not explain how two different colors are to be presented at the same time during a performance. This color organ part also contains three parts briefly at one point in the score.

Sources differ on what Scriabin's intentions were for the realization of the color organ part: many state that the colors were meant to be shown on a screen in front of the audience; but others say that the colors were intended to flood the entire concert hall and that showing them on a screen was merely the compromise adopted after flooding the concert hall was found impossible or impracticable. The score itself contains no indications about how this is meant to be handled._

Every performance of Prometheus usually comes with its own interpretation of the color part.





 (very cool effects, lousy performance of the piece)




 (nice effects, great performance!)


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

we played "Prometheus", with colors, of course....couldn't really see it from stage, big screens facing the audience..not visible to orchestra...


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Perhaps electric piano is a better subject for this speculation since the piano was their main instrument for composing.


I'd love to see what Mozart would've done with a Rhodes!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Which composer could be the closest to Herbie on the Rhodes with their own twist? 

The best answer, and a boring answer imo, is Gershwin.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I'd love to see what Mozart would've done with a Rhodes!


How about a Wurlitzer like Ray Charles used?


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I don't listen to Classical music with my eyes. My ears could care less what the stage lighting is. 

Can't even imagine JS Bach, Buxtehude or Pachelbel playing with flashing strobe lights. Hindemith, maybe. :lol:


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Franz Liszt is a good call - in his early years I can imagine him in spangled Liberace-like tails with lots of lasers to bounce off them creating a mind-blowing prism effect.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

If music could accurately be conveyed by colors in light shows, then the deaf would rejoice.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I see I've been going about this all wrong. I tend to listen to Mozart's music at night in my darkened listening room, only the glow of KT88 tubes on my amplifier lighting the environ. This thread has shown me the light. So, I'm installing a full array of klieg lights with Fresnel lenses, gel frames, the whole shebang. (My background in theatre tech and design will prove helpful here, I'm sure.) I should be running upwards of 12,000 watts when I'm finished. (I recall that scene in Ralph Ellison's novel _Invisible Man_ where the protagonist hangs his secret basement abode with 1,369 bulbs. Of course, he stole the power with illicit wiring. I'm going to have to pay for all of this. Hmm … I wonder if Ellison's protagonist ever listened to Mozart in his room. I think he was fond of jazz music.) In any case, the next time I program a listen to _Eine kleine Nachtmusik_ or the oboe quartet K.370, holy moly! Somebody once said "Let there be light". And there will be. Woo hoo! Mozart, here I come -- with brilliant glowing lumens.

Maybe I'll even add one of them there mirror balls which one of this thread's posters recommended! A big one, on a revolving spindle. Sure. Why not?

Mozart! I can't wait. I'm sure I'll hear your music like I've never heard it before. Yeah!


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Concerts I'd have liked to hear: 
_Mozart and Bob Dylan at the Roxy_.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Why not lighting? Why not screens that show something visual - ideally abstract so as not to suggest meaning that is not there - and why not less formal dress and seating arrangements? What harm would these things do? It might take a while to learn how to get them right and some early fumbling might be embarrassing but do we really want to go on and on with a concert model that was developed relatively recently in the history of the music we love?


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

Watching videos of concerts at halls like Concertgebouw/Amsterdam (mostly from 70s - 90s), I always wondered why the venue was so "underlit". In some recent videos, it seems as if more lights have been added (LED???).
For videography, the added lights do help with seeing visual detail. At the same time, some dark/moody ambiance is lost.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Back in '86 The Proms did this. The program was 
Luciano Berio Epifanie (Proms premiere)
William Walton Violin Concerto ( Iona Brown)
Ottorino Respighi The Pines of Rome.

It was marvelous. During the Pines of Rome, the Trumpet player was up in the rafters for his solo. Very atmospheric. 
Legend has it he was stopped by security on the way up. ( "Here mate you cant bring a trumpet in here!")


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

DeepR said:


> Every performance of Prometheus usually comes with its own interpretation of the color part.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Heck148 said:


> we played "Prometheus", with colors, of course....couldn't really see it from stage, big screens facing the audience..not visible to orchestra...


I watched a performance of Prometheus that included a big screen that projected the work of a painter, who was painting live along with the music backstage. It was..... interesting.


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2019)

SONNET CLV said:


> I see I've been going about this all wrong. I tend to listen to Mozart's music at night in my darkened listening room, only the glow of KT88 tubes on my amplifier lighting the environ. This thread has shown me the light. * So, I'm installing a full array of klieg lights with Fresnel lenses, gel frames, the whole shebang.* (My background in theatre tech and design will prove helpful here, I'm sure.) *I should be running upwards of 12,000 watts when I'm finished.* (I recall that scene in Ralph Ellison's novel _Invisible Man_ where the protagonist hangs his secret basement abode with 1,369 bulbs. Of course, he stole the power with illicit wiring. *I'm going to have to pay for all of this.* Hmm … I wonder if Ellison's protagonist ever listened to Mozart in his room. I think he was fond of jazz music.) In any case, the next time I program a listen to _Eine kleine Nachtmusik_ or the oboe quartet K.370, holy moly! Somebody once said "Let there be light". And there will be. Woo hoo! Mozart, here I come -- with brilliant glowing lumens.
> 
> Maybe I'll even add one of them there mirror balls which one of this thread's posters recommended! A big one, on a revolving spindle. Sure. Why not?
> 
> Mozart! I can't wait. I'm sure I'll hear your music like I've never heard it before. Yeah!


No, you're not - just run an extension cord into your neighbour's exterior outlet - they won't even notice - problem solved! Don't ask how I know this...









This is the media room that my neighbour is "subsidizing"... (click on the photo to size it properly)









Even after all of that expense I still can't hear the dialogue in any film that I watch - I have to view it with the "English subtitles" option selected... I'm reading written dialog rather than actually being able to watch the film and hear it being spoken... I may be wasting my time and my neighbour's money...


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Mozart likely would have been a glam rocker! :lol:


Wasn't he reincarnated as Liberace?


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