Alexandra Harte, Editor-in-Chief
@aharte_courant
On March 17, France went into lockdown and millions were quarantined. Despite the isolation, the French Orchestra managed to play together again and share their gifts online.
Each musician received their score to the classic song Boléro, as well as an audio track with a previous recording of the music and a metronome to listen to as they played. As they each filmed themselves playing their seperate parts, video producer and sound engineer Dimitri Scapolan edited together the videos into a 50-person orchestra, resulting in a beautiful melody.
For a smoother sound, Scapolan blended a previous performance from the orchestra that was recorded into the background.
One musician in particular did not have the ability to take his large kettle drums home, so he improvised. He pretended to hit two chairs in his living room with kitchen utensils to give the illusion of banging drums (if interested, in the video he is near the middle/bottom right in a gray sweater).
Despite the constant isolation from others, for all it was a therapeutic experience and made many musicians involved remember that music is sharing.
