Steve Martin (second row from top, second column from right) jamming with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra (courtesy of ID)
This past March I ran an article about how the members of the New York Youth Symphony used videoconferencing technology to perform an excerpt from the second movement of Gustav Mahler’s first symphony in D major while socially distanced. The YouTube video that resulted was followed by similar treatments of the Alexander String Quartet playing Joseph Haydn in April and Antonín Dvořák in May. These were all performances equally satisfying for the music and the video management.
Nevertheless, in all of these cases, the array of windows in the display was static. We now have a YouTube video involving the somewhat surprising combination of Steve Martin performing with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Martin leads from his five-string banjo picking out the tune he composed for a song called “Office Supplies.” As the tune progresses, he is joined by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, all playing from home and all equipped with earbuds for coordination.
However, the display emerges to be as lively as the tune itself. The content of the mosaic of windows keeps changing to keep up with the many different participating instrumentalists. Just around the time that the viewer begins to “get” how this video was made, the layout starts changing, often with the windows themselves dancing around the screen in different formations. (Meanwhile, when he was not playing his instrument, the trombonist was dancing a hoedown with his young daughter.) I do not think I am exaggerating in saying that this may be the richest video content I have encountered since video management software has emerged.
By the way, Martin introduces the performance, mentioning that he will explain the title at the end; the joke is too good to spoil!
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