There are two different questions asked:
Will sheet music digitalization become widespread?
Will digital musical instruments become widespread?
I'll comment on the first question, and I see three main issues: suitability for orchestral use, the general rush into iPad use, and the future availability and ownership questions of sheet and digital music.
While many people do use iPads, I see them as being gimmicky and problematic, especially for youth orchestras (as portrayed in the example).
For one thing, regular sheet music is big. iPads are tiny. And if you get an iPad large enough to read easily, especially for older musicians, they'd have to be huge. And that means heavy and expensive. Not to mention energy-hungry and breakable. If you've ever had to navigate an orchestral stage with stand lights in use, such as in an opera pit, you'd see it's a mine field. One wrong move, you trip on a wire, and suddenly you've brought down several stands. I'm trying to imagine a typical youth orchestra setup with kids, who are often not terribly aware of their surroundings (I've coached youth symphonies for 20 years), and there are iPads delicately balanced on stands, tiny wires from foot pedals just begging to be tripped over. Aye.
There is one compelling reason for digitization: bowings. Orchestra librarians must spend hours and hours tediously hand copying a concertmaster's bowings into all of the string parts. It's the bain of their jog. Just ask one. I could imagine simply taking the principal part and broadcasting the bowings with a click of a button. Of course, digitization would likely eliminate many or substantially change the profession of orchestral librarian...
Another aspect of all this, especially for students of all ages, is the headlong rush into iPads. Don't get me wrong, I practically live out of mine as a technician. I have my EDT, Quickbooks, databases, schedule, everything. But as a parent with young kids, I see schools shoving iPad use down our kids' throats with questionable results. I see it as a mass outsourcing of teaching skills: programmers doing the "teaching" and classroom teachers relegated to being disciplinarians and systems managers. School systems make huge investments in them (remember the LA Schools fiasco
The LA School System's $1.3 Billion iPad Fiasco Comes to a Sad End) and they become obsolete, lost, stolen, cracked, or mostly used for games when teacher isn't looking. Or parents have to foot the bill.
We're trying to limit screen time, and the system is constantly trying to find ways to addict them even more. Please, can't the activity of music be reserved as an oasis from the digital frenzy?
The last issue is digital ownership. When you download music or a book onto an iPad or other device, you don't actually own the rights to it. You can't pass it to your heirs. You can't share it. You can't sell it to a used bookstore like the one 3 blocks from my house. Most people may not care, but there is a trend now that may make them care in the future: digital copying. I've seen many musicians, students, and parents now refusing to purchase music. They really believe it should be free (just like many piano shoppers), and will only download someone else's scan from IMSLIP. I predict that if everyone downloads copied music for free, there will come a point where the companies that print nice bound volumes of music and etudes (including oversized and thicker paper) will not have enough demand to keep printing. We'll all be forced to purchase the rights to digital downloads. Some may cheer that day, but I'm not there yet.
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Scott Cole, RPT
rvpianotuner.com
Talent, OR
(541-601-9033
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-17-2018 14:59
From: Roshan Kakiya
Subject: Will classical music performances become predominantly digitised in the future?
Acoustic intruments and physical sheet music are currently being used by orchestras but some orchestras seem to be using a computer program called Newzik that shows digital sheet music on a screen:
https://newzik.com/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-40985570/yorkshire-young-sinfonia-swaps-sheet-music-for-tablets
Could this be the beginning of the digitisation of classical music performance?
Could digital instruments replace acoustic instruments that are currently being used by orchestras?
Could digital pianos solve the problem of inharmonicity which affects acoustic pianos?
Could digital orchestras enable the possibility of using programs such as Scala to instantly change the tuning that is being used, for example, by switching between 12-tone equal temperament and a variety of well temperaments?
Could digitisation pave the path for a groundbreaking digital era of classical music performance on a large scale?
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Roshan Kakiya
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