Mahler and The Information Superhighway

L to R: Blair Bollinger - Bass Trombone, Bob Cafaro - Cello, and Chris Deviney - Percussion, in Tokyo with laptops and VoIP.

by Bob Cafaro, Cello

Ordinarily one would not think of Philadelphia Orchestra musicians as techies because we are artists in a unique genre where high tech has no place. We make up an acoustic instrument that has remained essentially unchanged for several hundred years because of its perfection of form. In this electronic age where music is amplified, synthesized or digitally enhanced, we have remained pure. Yet classical musicians are all too human as we love speed and cutting edge technology as much anyone else. In fact, one of my favorite pastimes is exceeding posted speed limits on my carbon fiber racing bike.

People today have a front row seat to watch the third revolution of mankind unfold. The first revolution was agricultural, which began in the Middle East around 7000 BC. Second was the industrial revolution which started in England around 1760 and the third and current revolution began in 1844 with electric telegraph.

Communicating with those back home has always been a challenge to the Orchestra musicians while on tour. In the beginning our letters were sent home via running messenger, and then horses graciously agreed to haul them in wagons. At the dawn of the communications revolution we moved to the telegraph which became the way to transmit printed messages for the next 100 years. 1876 saw Alexander Graham Bell patent the telephone and in the 1970’s the Internet was born. I own the bragging rights of being the first Philadelphia Orchestra member to email home from tour. It was our 1988 South American tour, and connecting a computer to a phone line (dial-up of course) was indeed high tech then! My laptop (yes they were that heavy back then) was a black and white Dell 386 notebook with 2 MB of memory and a 9600 KB modem. This was a DOS (disk operating system) computer, before the days of Windows! Now the hotels in Asia now offer High-Speed Internet Access for a premium but the charge is for one computer only. Extra charges apply for each additional computer connected. To illustrate how expensive Internet access is in Tokyo, our hotel charges $3.00 for a local phone call! While burning some midnight oil before leaving home, it dawned on me to bring a wireless router so others would be able to join the Geek party in my room at no additional charge and hopefully split the cost. A wireless router connects multiple computers to a single Internet connection via radio signal.

Having solved the challenge of the Internet connection, the next task was talking to my sweetheart back home from the commuter lane of the Information Superhighway. Talking to loved ones back home has been a major expense, so time spent on international calls was kept to a minimum. Those who surf the Net have no doubt seen ads for VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. This newly available technology is voice traffic over IP-based networks, or talking over the Internet. One week before leaving for Asia, I abandoned the traditional phone line and plugged the phone into the VoIP setup at home. For a very inexpensive monthly fee the plan not only provides unlimited calling in the U.S, but also to Canada, Western Europe, and every Asian country on our tour. I have also taken advantage of the 3-way calling to regularly speak to family and friends as well. The wheels are already turning for upping the speed for next year’s tour. One year from now the rage will no doubt be talking on the Internet directly from your computer to any computer or phone in the world. Perhaps video will then be a normal part of a phone conversation.

Now it is time to get out the cello and practice scales – an area that technology has left untouched. Before getting down to work, maybe I’ll sharpen the point of my cello’s carbon fiber endpin and get an A from the Musician Tools tuner and metronome on my smart phone. Beam me up Gustav!