Air and Simple Gifts

The musical portion of Obama's Inauguration Day has also finally been made public, and you can hear (and see) Yo Yo Ma on cello, Itzhak Perlman on violin, Gabriela Montero on piano, and Anthony McGill on clarinet perform a new piece composed for the occasion by John Williams, "Air and Simple Gifts."

Actually, from what I hear, it's a collage of popular arias, some of which appear in Copland's Appalachian Spring, one of Obama's favorite composers. All in perfect American style.

The funny thing, however, is that the aforementioned musicians officially lip-synched because the low temperatures on January 16th (the ceremony was outdoors) prevented them from bringing their expensive instruments outside and would have made the performance a bit risky. So the four lip-synched with banal instruments, but, to make the performance more realistic, they actually played, but the strings were "soaped" and the piano keys were detached from the hammers.

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