Brass Chamber Music During Covid - New York Philharmonic

     Some organizations opted in to this trend, just as the Boston Symphony did, but opted to demonstrate more practical music, such as this excerpt from Mahler's second symphony. This video shows the power of digital music making, as all of the musicians in the video are recording themselves at home, in totally different spaces. Also, seeing as they are not sound engineers, but instead orchestral musicians, they likely know very little about proper microphone placement or balance. This would require someone with a good knowledge of mixing music to balance, eventually producing a solid finished product. 

    All of this to say, that limits of what people thought to be possible using remote recording at this time were constantly being challenged, leading to some interesting projects such as the one below. 




Comments

  1. Maxwell GradisherApril 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM

    I think the idea a blog focused around brass chamber music is really interesting. Covid happened when I just graduated high school and was going into my first year as a music major. Obviously this was pretty rough, because what most musicians find fulfilling is playing with other musicians. During this time I started recording all of the Arban art of phrasing solos for myself. Seeing how other musicians had similar ideas and were still collaborating during lockdown is inspiring.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brass Chamber Music During Covid - Metropolitan Opera Brass and bell covers!!!

Image
      One thing that being a student during the pandemic meant, especially as someone who relies on air to make my instrument work, was protective equipment was required to make playing my instrument safe around others in a time where being in close contact was still experimental and even a little taboo. The way this protective equipment, or PPE as it was called, manifested for me was in the form of a mask (pretty standard) and a bell cover, essentially a trumpet diaper. In the included video below, you can observe the musicians instruments adorned with these covers, which are Met branded meaning they are way cooler than the ones my undergraduate institution made us use! In all seriousness, outdoor rehearsals and bell covers were a new reality, at least for a little while, and they presented novel challenges. The bell covers, though made of a thin and stretchy material, totally changed the blow of the trumpet for me, and presented some serious calibration issues, especial...
Read more

Brass Chamber Music During Covid - Matt Barker

Image
      Matthew Barker is currently the 4th/utility trumpet with the Baltimore Symphony, as position which he's held since the 2016-2017 season. Like many other musicians, he found himself with very little to do once his orchestra closed its doors at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. The following video is a trumpet chamber piece he wrote and recorded himself, while at home during the global lockdown. Pay attention to the art style and intentional recording style being used here. A trend that began to emerge in peoples content around this time was experimental/interesting camera work, to try to be unique from the pack and get eye on their work. A cursory understanding of how to work a camera soon became a common expectation around people who recorded themselves for online content. 
Read more

Brass Chamber Music During Covid - Brass of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Image
      Some larger groups also banded together during this time to do some socially distanced recording projects, some of which were done in person (at a safe distance) in the home hall of whatever orchestra was recording. One group that opted for this route was the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras brass section, comprised of members of the orchestra, and occasionally subs. The following recordings were made during the pandemic, when most orchestras were not playing at all. This trend of recording during this time really helped to boost the moral of musicians, especially those that were fearful for the future of their careers.           The ensemble started out with recordings such as the one above, published on Youtube on April 10, 2020. Though short, it showed that during the lockdown these musicians were still inspired to make music, and obviously working on ways to make that happen with their newly acquired free time. Through these projects ...
Read more