There are also plenty more bad composers. All it takes is a computer and the ability to click your mouse. I shudder to think that you can now just as easily call yourself a performer.

Mr. Tito Munoz has no idea of what he is talking about. He is simply biased, emotionally, against a powerful new form of personal artistic expression for composers. He should stop elevating his mere personal dislike into a negative aesthetic principle.

Actually, the only thing that follows from your comment is that a digital orchestra is not an orchestra. But we can’t expect you to follow your own logic, can we? And no one ever said a digital orchestra must only be played by one person. So, in the case where more than one person plays it, it would actually be an orchestra, if we go by your thinking.

It is a digital replacement for a live group of musicians.

So is your iPod. Are you going to tilt at that windmill, too?

You “conduct” this orchestra… but that doesn’t seem to take any musicianship or skill except waving a Wii wand around. It takes great skill and musicianship by the real musicians who unfortunately provided their services for you to record all the samples, but you’re certainly not fooling anyone… hence the fact that the only people who endorse your project are composers.

Actually, I’m not surprised you think that. (Most people think conductors, in general, don’t do anything other than wave a stick around.) However, as you know, a huge amount of musical skill goes into preparing a performance. The stick-waving is the least important element, even in the digital orchestra performance.

Perhaps if you were to listen to one of my recordings, you might — might — hear that all of following parameters are carefully crafted and skillfully brought into play at the service of realizing the composer’s ideas: balance, phrasing, tempo, and dynamics. And would you believe that absolutely none of these crucial elements of the performance were “provided” by the musicians who recorded the samples? So, where did these essential parts of the performance come from if not from the instrumentalists who recorded the samples? From me, a conservatory trained (i.e., “legitimate”) musician. (BTW, I didn’t record any samples.)

I repeat, a digital orchestra is not an instrument. Beethoven is not new, orchestras are not new… and Beethoven with a faux orchestra is exactly that: faux Beethoven.

And when a pianist performs a Beethoven symphony transcribed by Liszt or Busoni, that’s also faux Beethoven. Or, do you draw the line there because you “like” the piano?

You can claim that I’m not fooling anyone all you want (and how would you even know?) But the important question is can a worthwhile musical experience come of it? As for the digital orchestra, I’m merely attempting to find that out. It’s not about fooling people. The proof will be in the listeners’ experience. All of the labeling you care to throw at it won’t matter. Is it legitimate, real, faux, an insult, yadda, yadda, yadda? If you keep an open mind and see whether digital orchestra performances can result in valuable musical experiences, then we’ll know if they are “legitimate.” I happen to think that’s possible. And when it comes to that, we will have even more opportunities for musical expression along with traditional orchestras that, thankfully, are not going to go away.

Consider that as early as 1926 the Berlin Hochschule für Musik offered a course on using the phonograph as an instrument. And its use for that purpose now eclipses its use for passive listening. In the 1940s, nearly as soon as it became available, tape recording technology was used to create music. But was it an instrument? A tape recorder?!? Yes, of course it was. Musicians played it in concerts all over the world.

Synthesizers and computers have all been around as musical instruments longer than you’ve been alive. You can’t just claim they are not instruments because you wish they weren’t. Did you know that early trumpets and snare drums were also not considered musical instruments? They were military signaling devices. Some fool composer brought them into the orchestra! The list of instruments that started out as “not instruments” in someone else’s book goes on and on. People with actual knowledge of the history of our ever-evolving instrumentarium can understand the development of digital orchestra instruments in this context.

Are digital instruments superior to, or even as good as real orchestra instruments? Debatable, perhaps, but that’s not the point. This flowering of digital technology presents the expansion of expressive possibilities for musicians and for composers. Calling this an “insult to great art” is simply non-sensical. Music can’t be insulted. You’re insulted, Tito, not the music.

But that, I guess, is your real point. And it’s a point no one can argue with: “I don’t like it.” If you would just leave it at that, you wouldn’t have to appear ludicrous by arguing that digital instruments are not real, or the musicians using them are not “real,” “legitimate,” or “of note” (i.e., musicians you approve of).

So, thanks for clarifying your stand, which is ultimately your personal expression of dislike. If your psyche is one that requires you to get on your high horse and defend great art from things you don’t like, you could probably find actual anti-musical enemies out in the world that deserve your attention. I certainly wish you would go look for them.

So why the insults? Well, what you do and what you stand for is an insult to great art. It’s an insult to the music you wish to replicate. It’s an insult to what I and millions of other people do. I don’t like it, and I’m going to let you know it, as many other people already have.

I believe that musicians attacking other musicians for their choice of instrument and nomenclature is unnecessary in this world today. So, your comment saddens me. More musical opportunity, more voices and experiments and chances for creating great, fulfilling artistic experiences are all good things. Why would you, a musician, waste energy fighting against that?

Perhaps if you try to accept the fact that the palette of musical expression is continually expanding, and has been for thousands of years … and that humans will always pick up whatever technology they want and make music with it, you might begin to see this issue in its larger human context and understand it.

I won’t acknowledge the rest of your post as all of it falls along the same lines, of never actually giving an intelligent argument to anything I presented.

You obviously love music, and you obviously love technology. But what this boils down to, Paul, is your desire to fulfill your own fantasy of being a symphony conductor, and masking that behind this facade of a digital orchestra. You obviously have no idea of what being a conductor really is, since you actually think that a digital orchestra is a legitimate means of producing orchestral performances.

An orchestra is an ensemble, a group of musicians. A digital orchestra is not an orchestra. You use the term “we” when speaking of the Fauxharmonic Orchestra, which makes me worry about your mental state. You call yourself Music Director of this “organization,” yet the only thing alive about it is you.

In the end, you’re just a kid that lives in his basement, plays video games all day, and fantasizes about being able to fly like Superman; a living, breathing Buddy Pine.

Waving your Wii Wii around is not music making. How dare you even consider calling yourself a conductor.

“Why congregate and spend money to listen to a bad recording? I certainly would rather spend my money on a great recording and listen to it at home.”

I went to a concert at Yale last January in which several recordings of orchestral music were played for (to?) the audience. The composer came out on stage and told us not to clap for the recordings. They ignored his instructions. This just goes to show that not everyone will behave the same way you yourself would in these situations.

Yes, people come to see live musicians. Of course. But maybe you don’t realize that a digital orchestra concert actually is a concert of live musicians. It’s not going to the concert hall and listening to a recording.

People pay to go see single performers on stage all the time (pianists, cellists, etc.). When you can wrap your head around the idea of the digital orchestra as a musical instrument you might begin to understand how a digital orchestra concert could be something other than listening to a recording.

I think the question we should raise here is how do you see your efforts as helping the situation? How do you see your efforts as legitimate?

Legitimate means what? Probably something like “meeting the approval of” some taste-maker. I’m not interested in that.

Helping the situation? That would be arrogant indeed to think that some sort of concert I could muster might help the dire situation facing classical music. Fortunately, I do not concern myself with that. I’m simply interested in making some great music.

It’s too bad you think it’s naive and idealistic to think that a great performance could move anyone. Sadly, that’s not an uncommon attitude to find among professional musicians. Many really do not believe in the magic any more. But, if you set aside your belief that that’s not possible and entertain for a moment the idea that it could happen, it’s not hard to comprehend the very simple economic argument that, if more “moving” performances were more common, the “situation” could improve.

And as for your uninteresting questions that you so kindly answer for me:

So how do you define a great classical music performance, Mr. Smith? How would you describe one of these life-changing-for-all concerts? Is it a performance of your Fauxharmonic “Orchestra”?

I don’t define it. No one can, and it’s a silly waste of time to try.

Oh, and let me just point out that I never said anything about “life-changing-for-all” concerts. You’re right that some people will never be moved by any musical experience whatsoever. Who cares about them? It would be naive to assume that merely presenting the opportunity for a great musical experience would be enough to change everyone present in the room.

But this discussion really has very little to do with digital orchestra. Irrespective of the musical instruments used, we’re talking about the possibility and need for great musical experiences. That’s something that we both know can happen. It’s most easily brought forth with a real orchestra, I believe. No question.

However, there is also no question that digital orchestra instruments played by good musicians will soon have the potential to deliver the same. Given the pace of development and advances in this realm, you’d have to be blind to think that’s not going to happen.