Disklavier

Good morning, everyone.

In answer to Jerry's questions regarding the details behind  
Gershwin's recent posthumous appearance with the Phoenix Symphony:

This performance was first put together by me for the Boston Pops and  
Keith Lockhart in 1998, the Gershwin Centennial year. I started with  
the Yamaha-published Disklavier recording that was converted from the  
original two-piano roll set under the supervision of Artis Wodehouse.

That recording represented a pianistic arrangement of both the piano  
part and the orchestra parts. In other words, it was a piano solo of  
the entire piece.

I converted the E-SEQ file to a MIDI file and reclocked it in a  
sequencer. This resulted in all of the notes being aligned to logical  
beats and barlines (which also meant that the Disklavier's measure  
counter would correlate accurately with the score). However, this  
reclocking process maintained the same tempi of the original recording.

Next I removed the orchestra notes from the MIDI file. What was left,  
of course, were piano solo notes that corresponded to the notes that  
the pianist plays when playing with an orchestra.

There was a problem, however. When you eliminate all of the orchestra  
notes, in some places you do not have a complete piano part. For  
example, in some places Gershwin might have played piano solo notes  
with one hand and orchestra notes with the other in order to simulate  
the effect of the soloist and orchestra playing together. When you  
eliminate the orchestra notes in such a situation, you usually are  
left with an incomplete piano part.

In those places, I carefully used the copy/paste/transpose features  
of my MIDI sequencer to recreate a complete piano part using notes  
that Gershwin actually recorded. In this way, I did the best that I  
could be to be faithful both to the original piano-roll artifact and  
the concept of Gershwin playing again with an orchestra.

The next issue was how to coordinate the piano with the orchestra.  
The tempi are very fast in many places and are often erratic. In  
other words, the piece was recorded without regard for an ensemble.

Next, I had to decide whether to chop the MIDI file up into separate  
files, one for each piano entrance, or leave the performance as one  
big MIDI file in which the piano is silent from time to time. The  
former solution would mean that we would have to start and stop the  
Disklavier many times during the performance.

I decided that it was too impractical in most cases to start and stop  
the Disklavier. Even if you can start the Disklavier in the middle of  
the piece at exactly the right moment, you have no guarantee that the  
orchestra's current tempo will match the Disklavier's. So, I came up  
with the idea of using one big MIDI file and putting the complete  
piano roll recording on a separate MIDI track to which the conductor  
listens on headphones. That way, the conductor is always conducting  
the orchestra to the tempi of the piano roll and each piano entrance  
is correctly synchronized.

I did, naturally, have to make some compromises along the way. A few  
sections have been slowed down a bit in order to make them playable  
with an orchestra.

I also cleaned up the sound that the conductor hears on headphones.  
The original rolls are messy in some places where it appears that  
there was some sloppy overdubbing. Regrettably, the role editors did  
a poor job--in my opinion--of working with those overdubs. Since the  
track that the conductor hears is for the sole purpose of making it  
easy for him to conduct, there was no reason not to clean up that  
messiness, and in some places to simplify that track, and to add  
occasional, helpful clicks. In a few places where the music pauses, I  
added extra beats with clicks in order to help the conductor to  
prepare the new tempo.

For the actual performance, I cue the Disklavier to measure 19, beat  
1, which is the piano's first entrance. The conductor conducts the  
first 18 measures freely and then pushes the Play button on the  
upbeat to measure 19. At that point, the adventure begins.

There are 3 ensemble scores for the piece: jazz band, theater  
orchestra, and large orchestra. The last version is what you usually  
hear and was created by Ferde Grofe after Gershwin died. For use with  
the Disklavier, it is better to go with one of the smaller ensembles  
because it is easier to conduct at faster tempi and to control quick  
tempo changes. The Phoenix Symphony used the Theater orchestra version.

The conductor did a nice job of introducing Maestro Gershwin. He made  
his entrance, complete with a spotlight following his path to the  
piano accompanied by the sounds of his footsteps. After he reached  
the piano, the first violinist stood up and nodded to him, at which  
point he played an "A" followed by a D minor chord for tuning purposes.

On this occasion, we used a Mark III concert grand. I connected a  
DSR1 to it and put it on a stand next to the conductor. This was a  
convenient way to provide him with a place to plug in headphones.  
And, he had a nice big Play button to push.

Using an extension cable, I put the Mark III control unit on the  
floor near the second violin stand. That player used a remote to play  
the tuning sequence.

Regards,
PianoBench

www.georgelitterst.com
www.timewarptech.com


On May 14, 2007, at 9:00 AM, Jerry Dutcher wrote:

>
> Hey Piano Bench, good show!  The newspaper article was fascinating,  
> and I applaud the Phoenix Symphony for there willingness to  
> innovate with technology and for sharing this priceless musical  
> performance archive with the public.
>
>
> I’m really curious about the details behind the performance.  Can  
> you share the story with us?  For example, they mentioned that  
> you’d “provided software” for the occasion.  Was this software over  
> and above the standard DKV operating software?   They said the  
> score was “time marked and prepared to allow a conductor to keep  
> time with the piano”.  What was that about?  And foremost, did you  
> use the solo piano version of the performance that’s commercially  
> available, or was is there a separate piano roll in existence with  
> just the piano from the Piano/Orchestra arrangement of the piece.   
> If you used the solo piano recording, did you edit out the portions  
> where he was playing the orchestra part (for example, the opening)?
>
>
> It sounds like a really fun endeavor in any case.
>
>
> Jerry Dutcher
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com  
> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Shifris
> Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:11 PM
> To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [disklavier] Yamaha Disklavier at the Phoenix Symphony
>
>
> Last night, the Phoenix Symphony used a piano roll conversion of
> Gershwin playing Rhapsody in Blue in conjunction with the orchestra.
>
> The following site has a nice article on the performance and the  
> technology.
>
> It was quite a beautiful performance. They even announced that
> George Gershwin was going to perform, had a spotlight following him
> as he entered the stage, the 1st violinist pretended to shake his
> hand as did the conductor.
>
> http://phoenixsymphony.blogspot.com/