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Blue Man Group I Feel Love |
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Sunday, 22 April 2007 |
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One of the very first entirely electronic songs was Donna Summer’s recording of I Feel Love. Before Donna Summer’s version of I Feel Love, the mass majorities of disco recordings were backed up by acoustic orchestras or electronically enhanced acoustic orchestras. This song became extremely influential in the development of the unique musical experiences of the 1970’s that we have all come to refer to as the disco and techno era. This entirely synthesized backing track recording method was one of the pioneer discoveries in the developing world of musical genres.
Taking one of the first entirely electronic songs and converting it to a uniquely new and delightful different acoustic musical presentation became the challenge of The Blue Man Group. The Blue Man Group is world renowned for their live performances that combine a unique blend of percussion focused rock music, unique musical instruments, spectacular demonstrations of light and a trio of mute men painted in blue latex with skull caps and bland black clothing. In place of the fast synthesizer arpeggios that are a constant in techno music, the Blue Man Group I Feel Love features an instrument know as a Tubulum. A Tubulum is crafted of 4” PVC pipe and has cardboard or rubber covering the ends that are hit with drumsticks, giving the tubulum a unique yet synthesizer like sound quality The design of the Tubulum is specific to playing bass notes and the tubes must be 4” in length to effectively generate the low sounds necessary for The Blue Man Group I Feel Love version. The inconvenient size of the Tubulum made it inappropriate to use in the show venues for live theatre performances in New York, Boston, and Chicago, as their facilities were not large enough to accommodate the use of the Tubulums in terms of sound quality and showmanship skills. A smaller version of the Tubulum was crafted and enhanced with streamer launching capabilities and was used for the Blue Man Group I Feel Love video as well as in several other performances in Las Vegas, Berlin and Toronto. |
