# Old masters in the future



## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Imagine that the old masters would be transferred to our time from theirs, what would they think about digital orchestras, Sampled orchestra sounds and about the technology what can be used to make music today, what would they think about the industry today? Media? Recordings? Teaching of music etc..

I know that it can be hard to answer to all that.

Would you think that they would say something like " All that technology takes the soul out the music"
or " The cold hand of technology takes the soul out of the music and replaces with sounds with no real meaning"
or would they embrace it?


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Who knows? it would really be overwhelming for the really old guys (like Bach) who didn't even see a world in which technology advances were taken for granted. 

I suspect some would be impressed by the massive access we have to music, some would be shocked how much time we spend listening. Some would say the things you wrote.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

They would be completely shocked - and should they survive the first difficult adjusting phase mentally, it is not likely that they would feel able to compose anything, at least in their former style, since they would be "living antiques", whose public doesn´t share their world-view any longer.
(Guess this doesn´t specifically answer the technology part that much ... ).


----------



## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I feel most would embrace whatever advancements that interested them, and get on with it fairly quickly. The greats from any generation could be great today. Common denominators, passion and skill for what they do.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I think they would be smart enoguh to realize that technology does not have a cold hand, any more than a pianoforte does. That is a perception brought about the easy access, so you have people as unskilled as me, for instance, able to make something very much resembling music. In the hands of masters this same technology has brought us orchestral recording with a clarity the old master could never have dreamed of. And the sampled instruments (or better lately, even physical modeled virtual instruments built within the computer and calulating how how the sound resonates around the different chambers) are getting better all the time. I don't htink they would find the technology meaningless. It's only harder to separate the Wheat from the chaff.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Apart from all the tantalizing psychological traumas of sci-fi time transport, the social mores, people's appearance and clothing, the fact that Bach, for example, would barely be able to understand contemporary spoken German, etc....

First, all those big 'old boys' could write at a desk, had a thorough and idiomatic knowledge of the capacity of instruments for which they wrote, and would have no need at all for the contemporary score software, or midi and orchestral samples.

I think they would immediately 'get' that these tools are tools _ intended to put active players out of business_ (the prime motivator was to more cheaply produce commercial music), and would be less than delighted with that aspect.

There is always the 'ideal' performance, the right tempo, inflections, dynamics, which a composer usually has a clear notion of, and being able to 'realize' such a performance, put it 'on record,' could be very appealing; the counter to that is those composers were writing with the expectation that musicians are musical, and sometimes, whether a work was a chamber piece or piece for larger ensemble requiring a conductor, those musicians could bring out something very desirable the composer had never thought of....

For the rest, just talk with some seasoned classical pros:

The virtual instruments lack the full harmonic spectrum compared to their real timbrel color.

The virtual orchestras have a sound far too homogenous. The virtual orchestra packages are also innately 'Hollywood sweet' in their timbrel qualities, making it rather labor intensive and never wholly successful in getting more a classical 'Mozart' style delivery, or a 'straighter' contemporary classical sound (the original concept was to be able to produce musak, studio recordings, film tracks, far less expensively (back to that point of cutting many instrumentalists out of jobs.)

The tuning is also far too homogenous, always 'too perfect.'

Qauntized 'performances' take all breath out of a performance -- it is, rhythmically, "death by asphyxiation."

What these tools are are tools which I believe the older composers would think the same of as do contemporary composers and musicians, i.e. they are tools -- handy maybe -- tremendous in saving the labor of producing a full score and player's parts or especially handy if revising the same, but _overall they are absolutely not an acceptable substitute for the real thing_.

A younger generation has been sold a bill of goods and then 'romanticized' everything "Virtual." _Just remember, virtual literally means "Nearly But Not Real."_

Where the electronics shine is in doing what they do best, i.e. electronically generated sounds with the designated instrument(s) of choice for performance, the speakers -- for which those sounds were designed.


----------



## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I think they'd be surprised to know just how famous they still are so many years later


----------



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

The first shock would be the time machine they came in! After this, they may feel that too much choice, too much technology gets in the way, it hampers the ability to keep things simple and clear.

Some of them may enjoy technology too, and find it helps, but if we're taking a composer from the Baroque-Romantic periods, they may think it lacks something essential to the soul. Or to the purpose of the musician, where a composition for a violin is actually _for_ a violin, and not a machine pretending to be a violin...


----------



## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

The answer begins at about 0:50


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

GreenMamba said:


> Who knows? it would really be overwhelming for the really old guys (like Bach) who didn't even see a world in which technology advances were taken for granted.


I don't agree with this. Bach was always interested in new technology, at least as far as instruments went. He became especially interested in the fortepiano, though very critical of Silbermann's early efforts. His crticisms and other improvements resulted in much improved models, and Bach actually became a sales agent for Silbermann in his last years.

Beethoven's support of several generations of improvements in the piano is well known. And Haydn gravitated immediately to the valved trumpet, writing his concerto for that instrument.


----------



## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I'm guessing they would hate "American Idol" and "Britain's Got Talent".


----------



## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I have just imagined Wagner showing up in the year 2013, going to see some Hollywood epic, saying "Mein Gott! I knew our descendants would be smart, but I did not think they would do things like this!" and rushing back to revise his Ring to make it even longer and more difficult to stage.


----------



## Rapide (Oct 11, 2011)

Just observe what Monsieur Boulez is doing.


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

KenOC said:


> I don't agree with this. Bach was always interested in new technology, at least as far as instruments went. He became especially interested in the fortepiano, though very critical of Silbermann's early efforts. His crticisms and other improvements resulted in much improved models, and Bach actually became a sales agent for Silbermann in his last years.
> 
> Beethoven's support of several generations of improvements in the piano is well known. And Haydn gravitated immediately to the valved trumpet, writing his concerto for that instrument.


True. Who knows, maybe they'd even be disappointed in the amount of progress made in traditionally crafted instruments, but bewildered by the virtual and electronic tools we use.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

GreenMamba said:


> True. Who knows, maybe they'd even be disappointed in the amount of progress made in traditionally crafted instruments, but bewildered by the virtual and electronic tools we use.


I think if Bach or Mozart were given a keyboard synth, they'd do nothing but play with it for weeks! Whether it would materially change their music is another question.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese (Jan 8, 2013)

Olias said:


> I'm guessing they would hate "American Idol" and "Britain's Got Talent".


Would the same go for Papua New Guinea's got talent?


----------



## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

The Renaissance masters might look like this (!):


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Does anybody here remember th emovie "Bill and Ted's excellent adventure" ? There wa s ahilarious scene where Beethoven was brought back from th epast through a time machine, along with Socrates and other great names from the past .
Beethoven went into a music store and was playing his music on an electric keyboard ! I laughed myself silly !


----------



## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

All I can say with certainty is that Cherubini would be very disdainful about the music of the last 150 years... and especially that of today.

But I forgive him, that handsome Scrooge.


----------

