Advances in Musical Technology (Blog #10)

While Technology has been growing it has become huge in the Music industry. Technology has allowed to be easier for instrumental soloists turn pages and have more that two songs and not have a lot of pages to worry about. Not only that, but if a big symphony orchestra, like the Altoona Symphony, is performing a concertized opera they can display the english translations therefore helping the audience better enjoy the performance. During a performance there may be a change in lighting to create a certain mood, once again enhancing the performance of the group. Technology has helped the musical community in so many ways to either, help the performers or to enhance the the performance itself.
When a soloist was performing in a big, grand concert hall, he/she would have a binder full of music. Most instrumental solos are more than three pages long. That means that there would be page turns, and considering that most instruments require you to use two hands it made it difficult to accomplish this simple task. Then they came out with the Ipad and AirTurn Hands Free Page Turning pedal. With these two new devices, the ipad eliminated the binder full of papers thus keeping the performer more organized and the pedal allowed the instrumental list to keep playing and never worry about turn the pages with their hands. The pedal actually has two pedals, one to turn the page forward and the other to turn back. Once again, this allows the player to turn back pages if there is a repeat in the music. I had the opportunity to play around with one once as I played the Trumpet, which involves two hands. It made the playing so much easier and less hectic in trying to keep all your music in the right order.
The Altoona Symphony Orchestra is a spectacular group under the direction of Teresa Cheung, who flew all the way from Hong Kong to be the director of the Orchestra. Last month, they performed an Opera called Cavalleria Rusticana. During the performance they had the english translations of the Italian lyrics. This helped the audience really enjoy, not only the music, but the story itself.
Over the years with technology advancing, the music industry has grown as well. With the ability to share music via computer and listen to it on Ipods and the radio, music has grown to become a huge part of our culture. Not only does it allow for performances to be enhanced, but has allowed for industry itself to become more technologically advanced.

However, some believe that the technology is becoming too much. In an article about the impact of technology on the music industry the author talks about how the, "Music industry has an ease in publishing music as highly developed devices are replacing real musicians, which saves the music industry a lot of money." In Japan, they created a holographic performer that moves very much like a real person but looks like someone out of a cartoon book. It's things like these that make the industry and performers very nervous about the future of the performance industry. 


Janissary. "The impact of technology on music is overwhelming. Technological advancements in the last century have revolutionized the way we make, market and listen to music.." Get Essays, Research Papers, Term Papers & College Essays Here. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.writework.com/essay/impact-technology-music-overwhelming-technological-advance>.