Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, the onscreen mosaic view of a virtual music performance probably conjured up Eric Whitacre’s hauntingly beautiful virtual choirs. For example, the Virtual Choir pieces Lux Arumque (Virtual Choir 1.0), Sleep (Virtual Choir 2.0), and Water Night (Virtual Choir 3.0), that bring together an increasingly larger number of voices, from 185 in the first Virtual Choir, to as many as 2000 singers in the Virtual Choir 3.0, spread across the globe, in as many 73 countries.
At the height of the COVID19 pandemic, when more than one-third of the 7.8 billion world population is on lockdown, virtual music has taken on an exponentially different significance. The electronic feats that make it possible to bring performers together in a single visually captivating mosaic have become both medium and message in an art form of its own. Using several, to hundreds of video files, usually captured via cell phone, and processed with software such as Abobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects and Pyramix Merging Technologies, the media compositions take many additional bench hours to put together.
Virtual music redux, under pandemic conditions of stay-at-home production, has become a life-line for performers worldwide, such as those working in orchestras, symphonies, operas, choirs, and other sorts of performing groups. Performers have become enabled, in collaboration with production studios, to continue rehearsing, performing and creating together, in contact with an audience, albeit virtual. No small deal, since concert halls and other venues are all shuttered, meaning that the programs of a whole season of live public performances have been canceled, leaving performers essentially cut-off, both from their audiences, and each other. 2020 is also supposed to be the 250th anniversary of Beethoven, a year that both classical musicians, and lovers of classical music, had probably planned to glamorously celebrate.
However, beyond the wizardry of the technology that is making it possible for orchestras, symphonies, bands, choirs and other performance groups to continue creating and connecting with audiences, it is the graciousness of the momentum that is so extraordinary in this new locked-down virtual music. Pieces, for the most part, are dedicated to the essential and front-line workers “out there”, taking risks to keep the world humming, while everyone else, performers included, are safely locked down at home. Some Philharmonic orchestras and symphonies worldwide are indeed playing Beethoven in 2020, but it has become Beethoven in quarantine, or socially distant Beethoven, as a tribute to essential workers. Indeed, what is most elevating, in these quasi-barbaric times, is the solidarity. Some of the finest performers on earth are opening their homes and lives to the public, via the cameras of their cellphones, playing for free, for janitors, couriers, warehouse clerks, doctors, and nurses alike, in gratitude, and by the same token, enchanting anyone with an Internet connection, able to logon to Youtube.
The beauty of virtual music on lockdown in all of its vibrant forms, is that it is triumphant. Despite the disruption, sorrow, hardship and even horrors of the pandemic, “the bands play on”, bringing back energy, rhythm, wonder, faith in a better tomorrow, and even humor into daily lives.
If the first wave of lockdown music sprung from the heart, as a gift for frontline healthcare and essential workers, perhaps that a second wave might be commissioned in honor of all the COVID19 victims - already more that 50,000 sacred individuals — in the US alone (JHU CV Resource Center).
Above, musicians of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing Maurice Ravel's Boléro as a special tribute to healthcare workers. As a reminder, New York is the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with the highest number of infections and deaths, currently (on April 26 2020), reported for New York City alone at 12,827 casualties and 156,100 cases (NYC Health).
References (abridged shortlist)
Arctic Philharmonic - Greig's Holberg Suite - Praeludium à la quarantine
Bamberger Symphony (Germany) - Stronger together - Social symphony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHOJHP33Ps&t=55s
Buchholz, K. (April 23, 2020) - what share of the population is already on COVID19 lockdown?
www.statista.com/chart/21240/enforced-covid-19-lockdowns-by-people-affected-per-country/
Buchholz, K. (April 23, 2020) - what share of the population is already on COVID19 lockdown?
www.statista.com/chart/21240/enforced-covid-19-lockdowns-by-people-affected-per-country/
Cellists of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Bach in quarantine
International Opera Choir (Italy)- Va pensiero from Guiseppe Verdi's Nabucco
Jerusalem Street Orchestra - Mozart in quarantine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcI7tWIfnkw
John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Kendal Square Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPcgD-K7ys
John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Kendal Square Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPcgD-K7ys
L'Orchestre National de Lyon vous réveille en musique pendant le confinement (Musique d'Edvard Grieg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5XbC1oEe2s
Los Angeles Universal symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPcgD-K7ys
Metropolitan Youth Symphony - Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 5 - Virtual Performance!
Los Angeles Universal symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPcgD-K7ys
Metropolitan Youth Symphony - Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 5 - Virtual Performance!
Milwaukee Symphony (Virtual) Orchestra performs Elgar's "Nimrod"- From our homes to yours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8T7Y-E6E_w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8T7Y-E6E_w
Musicians of the Utah Symphony - A musical gift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-_fXcO9N8o
New York Philharmonic musicians send special tribute to healthcare workers - A Boléro from NY
New York Youth Symphony Orchestra - Mahler's Symphony 1 - Mouvement 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezZosUYlvMo
NYC Health - Department of Public Health
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page
Orchestre National de France confiné – Le Bolero de RavelNYC Health - Department of Public Health
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page
Orchestre National de France - Diimitri Shostakovitch - Waltz #2
Orchestre National de l’Ile-de-France – Les noces de Figaro (Mozart)
Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Paris - Dire merci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF3ceqw_lG4
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg "at home" - Ravel's Boléro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H577v8_-48c
Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille - Corona Wars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KUn1zyXIZQ
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg - Les musiciens en télétravail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi51kBUs1o
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg "at home" - Ravel's Boléro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H577v8_-48c
Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille - Corona Wars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KUn1zyXIZQ
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg - Les musiciens en télétravail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi51kBUs1o
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal says Thank you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWXjPtBN7qk
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Restez dans le rythme avec Le Boléro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeAfvHVJdM
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Restez dans le rythme avec Le Boléro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeAfvHVJdM
Quarancelli - 12 quarantined musicians of New York City's music community, playing
Rachmaninoff's Vocalise for 12 cellos
Socially Distant Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky' 1812 Overture as a thank you
Street Orchestra (UK) - Carmen
West Michigan Symphony - Imagine
West Australia Symphony Orchestra introducing WASDO - West Australia Social distancing Orchestra interpreting Bit 'o boléro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJHE1JbP_vs
Whitacre, Eric - Website
Whitacre, E. (March 2010) Lux Arumque Virtual choir 1.0
Whitacre, E. (April 2011) Sleep - Virtual choir 2.0
Whitacre, E. (April 2012) Water Night Virtual choir 3.0
Whitacre, E. (July 2013) Fly to Paradise Virtual choir 4.0
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