Nancy, Guy and Tony,
You clarify the presnt situation well, but does this not show that
my nostalgia for the old days of Astree LP records, financed partly
by the Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique, along with those
magnificent CNRS de Rippe tablatures, that I was able to buy at the
same time as I bought Hoppy's de Rippe LP, are to be regretted (to
say nothing of those first appearances of those gut diapasons).
It in no way puts in question the integrity and qualities of today's
performers, but the only way to escape these marketing obligations
seems to be to work with very small recording companies (magnatune,
etc ...), or to go it alone on the net. It just shows how heroic Jakob
Lindberg's gut strung Rauwolf project and his Bis recordings must
have been, the mind boggles!
No you are right, there is no use regretting. Times have simply
changed. There is just no money around for big research projects,
like those of the CNRS, or even that Oiseau Lyre recording of
Dowland. It is a little like regretting a beautiful carriage from the
time the French Baroque era. Those LP years, (30 years ago) have
simply gone.
Nevertheless, just as you say, and just like every one else, I was so
glad to be able to buy Jakob Lindberg's Weiss CD at his Rauwolf
concert at the English lute society meeting. I even bought two, and
was jokingly told off for being too greedy. There were barely enough
to go round, I believe.
Regards
Anthony
Le 23 aout 07 =E0 00:18, Nancy Carlin a ecrit :
> As Guy and Tony have said the scheduling of CD releases and touring
> are a bit complex. The record company tried to figure out which
> albums they will release when, here in the US sometimes revolving
> around the Christmas market, when most of the CDs are bought. Those
> Christmas present CDs will need to be ready to manufacture by mid-
> Summer in order to make it into the distributors catalogs.
> Meanwhile the musicians are booking tours in advance - right now
> they are starting to sell concert dates for Sept 2008-May 2009,
> complete with details on what they will be playing in those concerts.
>
> Both the musicians and record companies are eager that the CD of
> the current concert program be ready and sold at any concerts the
> musicians play. In this day and age of the death of record stores,
> the impulse buys from concert audiences are a really important
> source of income for both of them. You could ask a number of
> musicians, but I would bet that they would tell you that the CD
> that will sell best to a concert audience is the one that includes
> music from the concert that audience has heard. It will probably
> sell 2-3 times more than other CDs the musician may be selling at
> the concert.
>
> In some cases, probably not Hoppy Smith's, the record company does
> not want to tie up a lot of money releasing a CD before the program
> will be touring. Meanwhile the musician would like the record
> company to put that CD out as soon as possible, with a good
> publicity blitz, because they could book more concerts if the
> cognisenti are buzzing about their CD. We saw a really well done
> publicity campaign in the case of Sting's Dowland CD and the effect
> it made on sales. Unfortunately there are now only about 4-5
> record companies that do lute music, who are big enough to
> carefully plan out the timing of tours and CD releases now. Most
> of them (Hamonia Mundi, etc.) work with musicians who tour
> regularly and have enough potential buyers for their CDs that the
> sales will be reasonable, whether they come out before or after a
> concert. For example, some of you have already heard Paul
> O'Dette's Bach concert. The CD is just starting to be sold and the
> reviews to appear in the publications. HM has done a good job
> trying to coordinate this, by sending pre-release CDs out to places
> where they want reviews, like the LSA Quarterly.
>
> Nancy
>
>
>
>
>> That is indeed, interesting, I thought it was the contrary. I
>> thought the recordings were made following the concerts, or
>> occasionally during the concerts. I did not realize, at all, that the
>> recording was made before the performer began his concerts.
>>
>> Obviously you are quite right, if it is as you say. I did not look at
>> the date of the recording, and to tell the truth, although I have a
>> vivid memory of the performance in Paris, organized by the guitar
>> society, which impressed me greatly, I do not remember the exact
>> date, so I don't think I could check this up.
>>
>> The record did come out after the performance, but it doesn't prove,
>> at all, that it wasn't made before, as you have suggested. However,
>> why on earth do record companies function like that?
>> They must have their logic with escapes me; and indeed, I wonder
>> whether major recording companies allow performers any real control
>> over the recording process (whether or not they would like to have
>> any).
>>
>> Thank you for pointing this out to me, I must insist again, that I
>> was not criticizing in any way the performance, that impressed me,
>> and those with me, greatly.
>> Regards
>> Anthony
>>
>> PS Nevertheless, there was an extraordinary research dynamic in those
>> early Astree CNRS LP recordings. I wonder how much the French CNRS
>> insisted on this research element, or how much it came from
>> performers, musicologists, and sound engineers spontaneously.
>> I have to say, I am English, living in France, so it is not some sort
>> of nationalistic feeling, but those seem to have been truly
>> pioneering days.
>>
>> Indeed, look at that box set of Dowland LPs made by Oiseau Lyre in
>> England, at around the same period. I don't want to say that it is
>> the best recording ever. It is not; but just imagine, five top
>> performers recording together on the same record set. Is that
>> possible now?
>> Ok, I am a little nostalgic, I will admit that. I hope you will
>> understand.
>>
>> I suppose anything should be possible with the web, but is it
>> happening? I wonder ...
>> AH
>>
>>
>>
>> Le 22 aout 07 =E0 20:50, Nancy Carlin a ecrit :
>>
>>> I think there is a spacial communication you get hearing the music
>>> live that will never be there on the CD. It includes the ability to
>>> watch the performer's body language and their opportunity to feel
>>> the
>>> communication coming back from the audience. This is the reason many
>>> musicians love making live recordings.
>>>
>>> But, I think the biggest difference is that in the case of Hoppy and
>>> Dowland (and many other performers) the concert you hear is done
>>> months and years after that CD was recorded and you are indeed
>>> hearing a different performance. The more a master plays the music,
>>> the better it gets.
>>> Nancy Carlin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> What is the input of Hoppy and Nigel North on their recordings? One
>>>> would hope they are interested, and that they want to control the
>>>> sound as much as they can. Of course you can't control the
>>>> volume at
>>>> the listener's end, and that is one of the key elements in getting
>>>> the focus of the sound right; but you are right to take it as
>>>> far as
>>>> you can.
>>>>
>>>> However, Hoppy, now seems to be searching more for a sort of
>>>> universal musicality (and there is no denying he is musical), which
>>>> seems to allow him to ignore strings, acoustics, and even
>>>> possibly,
>>>> the quality of his lute; almost as though these no longer matter at
>>>> the particular stage of research he has reached. It was not always
>>>> so.
>>>>
>>>> I was looking this morning, at his De Rippe recording of 1977. He
>>>> states clearly, in his own signed notes, that the musical
>>>> language of
>>>> a period seems to come to life best when you use the specific means
>>>> available at the time, and thus gut stringing is an essential
>>>> element, in this, in spite of the problems for the interpret. I
>>>> translate a little wildly from the French.
>>>>
>>>> Now some may not like that record (I do, but it was one of the
>>>> first
>>>> gut-strung lute recordings I bought), and perhaps Hoppy has matured
>>>> beyond this sort of preoccupation. He has every right to determine
>>>> his priorities, as the sensitive musician he undoubtedly is.
>>>> Perhaps like a number of musicians before him, he considers only
>>>> the
>>>> performance counts (you must be there to hear him, too bad if
>>>> you are
>>>> not), and so the recording might be of little, or no import to him.
>>>> Indeed, the Dowland recording, without his presence, seems but a
>>>> pale
>>>> shadow of what I thought I had heard in concert.
>>>>
>>>> This may be good. We should not just listen to recordings; and I do
>>>> not mean to say he does not care, or is self indulgent, in some
>>>> way.
>>>> On the contrary, he has almost a quiet "religious" humbleness
>>>> before
>>>> the music he is playing, and this is truly extraordinary to
>>>> watch and
>>>> hear, but after a month or so, I could not find the same quality
>>>> coming through the recording. I know you never can find the true
>>>> presence of a performance on record (especially one that is not
>>>> recorded live), and perhaps the more a musician's presence is
>>>> clearly
>>>> felt in the auditorium, the greater the disappointment, at his
>>>> absence, when one simply listens to his records.
>>>>
>>>> Sorry, I have strayed a little,
>>>> Best regards
>>>> Anthony
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> David - thanks for the input, it's needed to push me along and to
>>>>> make me reflect on my own recordings, after all, I have just one
>>>>> set of ears.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ****************************
>>>>> David van Ooijen
>>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>>> www.davidvanooijen.nl
>>>>> ****************************
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To get on or off this list see list information at
>>>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>>>
>>> Nancy Carlin Associates
>>> P.O. Box 6499
>>> Concord, CA 94524 USA
>>> phone 925/686-5800 fax 925/680-2582
>>> web site - www.nancycarlinassociates.com
>>> Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
>>> web site - http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
>>>
>>> --
>>
> Nancy Carlin Associates
> P.O. Box 6499
> Concord, CA 94524 USA
> phone 925/686-5800 fax 925/680-2582
> web site - www.nancycarlinassociates.com
> Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
> web site - http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
--
