visuals in concerts

[bloke]

Pops concerts - one particular orchestra - now feature amazing visuals (and not just laser and other types of lighting).
(Humans are visually oriented, which - surely - is why some are willing to pay to attend ACTUAL live performances.
...but not every orchestral musician is particularly easy on the eyes, correct?)

This carousel (during a medley of tunes from Carousel) was spinning, and HUGE - perhaps well over 50% of actual size.



EVERY individual piece on this show (17 of them) featured an individual/thematic/animated display on those screens.

Apparently, next month's concert ("masterworks" - a very difficult Michael Tippett *symphony...with two very challenging tuba parts, no less) may also feature a visual display. My understanding is that it's one of those birth/life/death-themed pieces...so it will be interesting to see what (if anything) they display.

btw...Since the screens have been put into use, ticket sales are WAY up.
__________________________________________
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A1XSpzjREc

[Mary Ann]

Younger adults have had a lot more visual instruction than we did way back. I keep seeing news items, informational items, and all I find is a video to watch, nothing written down, as if written language doesn't exist any more. I deem it a waste of time to watch a video when I could scan the written information in a small fraction of the time. But that "training to prefer visual input" is having a noticeable impact on entertainment activities. The dumbing down of America: "I can't understand it unless it is presented in a series of pictures."

[bloke]

Younger adults have had a lot more visual instruction than we did way back. I keep seeing news items, informational items, and all I find is a video to watch, nothing written down, as if written language doesn't exist any more. I deem it a waste of time to watch a video when I could scan the written information in a small fraction of the time. But that "training to prefer visual input" is having a noticeable impact on entertainment activities. The dumbing down of America: "I can't understand it unless it is presented in a series of pictures."

yes to all...
...but I like for places that pay me to do stuff (that neither requires getting dirty nor perspiring) to NOT shut down...
Also, I'd wager that there were some people - at that concert - who will never experience a real carousel...nor visuals from the era of true visual artistry (as well as a lack of debauchery) in Disney movies.

bloke "who doesn't turn down video-game music orchestra concert gigs, either...and - I live way out in the sticks - a considerable distance from the closest concentrated masses of the dumbed-down."

Some of the visuals were more generic:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1072261177370578
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1852060111896709
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1346533212721496
For the Disney Cinderella movie song, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes there was an animated visual of the Disney bluebirds flying back-and-forth across those screens.

animated:
https://imgur.com/D6P2SjD


...and it wasn't all "pops"...well eight of these "popped" out during the Tchaik' Sleeping Beauty waltz (#5).

[tofu]

[

[tofu]

[

[bloke]

@tofu

We need music written past the 1830's to become that popular, in order to continue to be paid to have fun reading charts from the back o' the band...

bloke "unless you're like me, and are paid to play 3rd 'bone parts in Schubert, Dvorak, and Mozart major works on a cimbasso"

[Tubeast]

We do that in community band on our winter season´s main concert.
https://www.harmoniemusik-buers.at/blog/page/7
=> You need to scroll down a little to get to the concert pictures.

One of our percussionists has a company providing technical services to events (sound- and light systems) and likes to test his latest equipment on us...

It supposedly is a mixture of still photography as well as film sequences.
The audience tells me it´s rather impressive and enhances the experience.
I wouldn´t know ´cause we never really get to watch the show ourselves...

[hrender]

Younger adults have had a lot more visual instruction than we did way back. I keep seeing news items, informational items, and all I find is a video to watch, nothing written down, as if written language doesn't exist any more. I deem it a waste of time to watch a video when I could scan the written information in a small fraction of the time. But that "training to prefer visual input" is having a noticeable impact on entertainment activities. The dumbing down of America: "I can't understand it unless it is presented in a series of pictures."

Some things are better explained visually. If I have to fix something, having a video of someone doing it is preferable to just a set of written instructions, and I speak as someone with several volumes of written fix-it manuals.

[bloke]

We may feel "upstaged" by those types of things, but - hey - all the blue-haired ladies are dead/buried, and there's moss on their tombstones.

If we're going to be able to continue to play (for fun or remuneration) we're going to have to cater to the available potential audiences...

...and I do not believe that people of the past were any more sophisticated/clever/smart than people - in general - are today.

After all, look back at all the people for whom they voted.

Actually, I view some of the very smartest people - of the past - as those that had the courage to form gigantic mobs, march up to the palaces, and throw out their tyrants. We haven't done anything like that - here - for 250 years.

[Mary Ann]

Some things are better explained visually. If I have to fix something, having a video of someone doing it is preferable to just a set of written instructions, and I speak as someone with several volumes of written fix-it manuals.

That isn't what I was referring to, and I agree with you about that. I'm right now looking for a video to learn how to safely remove and replace rotary valves. A manual wouldn't do me much good. But that is quite different from the original topic of videos during concerts attracting larger audiences.

[bloke]

attempt at a VERBAL guide to removing tuba rotary valves:

Due to the size of TUBA rotary valves (compared to horn or trombone), it's best to NOT unscrew the center (stop arm) screw a couple of turns and - after removing the back cap - strike down the center screw.

Assuming the linkage is flexible enough to not require removing it first...

- set up a dish or bowl to collect screws and rotor parts
- remove the center/stop arm screw (most: a thin flat bladed screwdriver, recent Miraphone: Torx, Yamaha: Phillips)
- remove the back cap
- locate a DULL/WORN medium-sized (ie. typical/household) bladed *screwdriver.
- place the dull screwdriver blade underneath the stop arm, and (either locating or creating a fulcrum point) firmly/carefully pry up on the bottom side of the stop arm and remove it. (If the linkage is NOT flexible enough, then FIRST remove the linkage from the stop arm.)
- with your other hand in place underneath (to catch the bearing plate and rotor body) tap firmly/carefully straight down on the rotor stem with a hard plastic mallet (rawhide is also ok, but the top of the stem tends to mar up a rawhide mallet hitting surface pretty badly)

Just like the guy who found Book I of "How to Fly a Plane", I have not included "Book II" ("How to LAND a Plane")...so "reinstalling a rotor and getting to spin nicely again" is "Book II".

______________________________________________
*It would actually be better to use a grinder, a file, and some sandpaper and create a facsimile of a worn flat-bladed screwdriver with a c. 5/16" diameter piece of round brass rod.

[York-aholic]

I'm right now looking for a video to learn how to safely remove and replace rotary valves.

https://youtu.be/fKp4NEZP4Sc?si=nzrIoy2qwxUwZQmi

^^^
Perhaps this?

[russiantuba]

We may feel "upstaged" by those types of things, but - hey - all the blue-haired ladies are dead/buried, and there's moss on their tombstones.

If we're going to be able to continue to play (for fun or remuneration) we're going to have to cater to the available potential audiences...

I am thankful for an opportunity I had last week to play for a well known tubist in an orchestra that did 2 showings of the first Harry Potter movie with the orchestra providing the music. 2 sold out shows (tickets were nearly $90 a piece too). The company that does the movie projection hires the town orchestra from what I was told and gets the ticket sales from what I am told. I also played another pops show earlier in the week with another orchestra that featured cosplayers in a "super hero" themed show. A lot of playing for the brass, especially when you have a full rehearsal (and in the second scenario, the only rehearsal) the same day of the performance.

People that would not normally go to hear an orchestra play are attending these. I consider that a win for the art. What I don't consider a win is having very limited rehearsals in comparison to a "masterworks" show, where I am playing a lot less. One would think with music that is more recognizable for general audiences, that would warrant at least the same number of rehearsals...