Symphony of a Thousand

[navneeth]

Till now, I didn't bother myself to find out why this symphony is known so. I was reading the Wikipedia article on Mahler, and this came into view:





(click pic for higher res.)

[Catmando]

Yes, Symphony # 8 is literally a Symphony of a Thousand

[navneeth]

How many of you have attended a performance of this work?

[Catmando]

I wonder if that's Mahler himself, conducting, on the podium?

[navneeth]

I wonder if that's Mahler himself, conducting, on the podium?

Nah. That's the American premiere, with Stokowski conducting the Philly Orchestra.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_N ... 8Mahler%29

[hal 9000]

How many of you have attended a performance of this work?

No one has ever seen a performance of this work because by the time they get the choir seated, there are no chairs remaining for the audience.

[navneeth]

How many of you have attended a performance of this work?

No one has ever seen a performance of this work because by the time they get the choir seated, there are no chairs remaining for the audience.

[Shapley]

Performances are very rare.

I think this is because each of the 1,000 performers expects union scale...

[navneeth]

Think of the poor recording engineers. How do you find a studio to fit these people in? I think you get only a symphony of half a thousand on LP's/CD's.

[bignaf]

it is possible to perform the work successfully with less than 300 performers. most performances nowadays don't break the 500 mark. the first performance had almost 2000 performers I think.

[Shapley]

It would also be possible to record the orchestral work and the vocal parts seperately, and mix them together sound-on-sound.

I mentioned a while back that my Mahler symphonies set on vinyl included a rather poor recording of the eighth. While the sound quality of the other nine (it included Das Lied von der Erde as symphony no. 10) was very good, the Symphony of a Thousand sounded like it was recorded with a tin cup on string. I believe this recording was quite a bit older than the others, since they probably did not go to the expense of making a new recording for the set, which is understandable.

V/R
Shapley

[bignaf]

It would also be possible to record the orchestral work and the vocal parts seperately, and mix them together sound-on-sound.

not really. there's a reason it's never done in classical music. there are too many tempo changes. so the syncronization will suffer.

[Shapley]

not really. there's a reason it's never done in classical music. there are too many tempo changes. so the syncronization will suffer.

I'll yield to your expertise there. However, it would seem to me that, if the conductor were listening to the previously-recorded orchestral performance while conducting the soloists and the chorus, it would be possible to match the two. (This, of course, coming from a non-musician.)

V/R
Shapley

[barfle]

I've never considered myself a musician, so I really can't say what it's like to do this, but I've watched musicians record tracks in sync with existing tracks, and they all are wearing headphones so they can hear what they're trying to match.

The Frank Sinatra album Duets was pretty much recorded this way. I've heard it described as the guests mailing in their parts.

[bignaf]

it's many more headphones for the 300 chorus members. also it stifles the conductor to have to follow rather than lead. he can't remember precisely how he did it with the orchestra. it works with Sinatra because they stay at the same tempo throughout (usually).

[navneeth]

Looking at the liner-notes of the recording of the Beethoven's Ninth that I have, it seems they recorded the chorus part separately, although I can't say that for sure.

Made over six sessions between 28 December 1957 and 2 January 1958 and on two days in April 1958 in Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Dahlem,...

I think it refers only to the ninth, and the 'choral' part was possibly recorded in the church. (I agree that the scale isn't as large as Mahler's 8th, but am just pointing out that it could have been done before)

[bignaf]

that doesn't mean they were recorded separately. iy means the first 3 movements were recorded in a few sessions, and then there were a few sessions that included the chorus. there are several sessions so as fix problems and select the best bits.

[barfle]

it's many more headphones for the 300 chorus members. also it stifles the conductor to have to follow rather than lead. he can't remember precisely how he did it with the orchestra. it works with Sinatra because they stay at the same tempo throughout (usually).

I was hoping that the reference to small groups dubbing was obvious. Clearly, having a chorus dub to a prior recording would be unwieldy at best.

[bignaf]

oh.

[bignaf]

you wanna see a thousand musicians in one place? here you go!

exactly 1,000. count 'em!