The Daily Swarm

“It is my pleasure to introduce a unique musical performance,” Senator Barbara Feinstein said before Itzhak Pearlman (violin), Anthony McGill (clarinet), Yo Yo Ma (cello), and Gabriela Montero (piano) performed “Air & Simple Gifts” at the Obama Presidential Inauguration Ceremony on Tuesday. “Unique” being the operative word.

“What the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along. The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme cold and wind during Tuesday’s ceremony. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the president’s swearing in (which had problems of its own).”

Itzhak Perlman: “It would have been a disaster if we had done it any other way. This occasion’s got to be perfect. You can’t have any slip-ups.”

Carole Florman, Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies: “Truly, weather just made it impossible. No one’s trying to fool anybody. This isn’t a matter of Milli Vanilli. They had to perform in such cold weather, the instruments couldn’t possibly be in tune. They were able to play in sync with the tape. It’s not unusual.” New York Times

Watch the “performance” again

Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the musicians — cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill — were insistent on playing live until a day before the inauguration.

Only the people sitting close to the performers would have heard a live performance of ‘Air and Simple Gifts’ because their instruments were not amplified. New York Times

The New Yorker’s Alex Ross on the music

“I liked several things about the work and its place in the ceremony. 1) The quiet, almost bittersweet ending — a welcome change from the grimly bombastic Williams film music that marred Obama’s victory speech in November. 2) The gesture of homage toward Aaron Copland, whose Lincoln Portrait was pulled from an Eisenhower inaugural event in 1953 at the insistence of a Red-baiting congressman. 3) The look of delight on the face of the president — a title he officially acquired while the music was playing, at the stroke of noon. I’m not sure that any president since Jimmy Carter has exhibited such obvious interest in the neighborhood of classical music.” The Rest Is Noise

Why Milli Vanilli Has Nothing To Do With It

“Yes, Milli Vanilli lip-synched in concert, as does everyone from Eminem to Madonna to Britney Spears. Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy, however, because the two members of the group never sang on the actual album. Other singers did those vocals, and it was to those voices that the group lip-synched live. Again: Lip-synching is something you do onstage or on TV, pretending that you’re singing live a song you actually sung. Milli Vanilli lost the Grammy because they never actually sang the songs credited to them. Minor but important distinction.

What the musicians played along to at the Inaugural was a recording they’d made two days before just in case. So Yo-Yo Ma was pretending to play music he had actually played. Not the same as Milli Vanilli.” Rocky Mountain News

WATCH: More Great Moments In Faking It When The Whole World Is Watching

Beijing Olympics 2008: Cute Girl Lip-Synching Not Cute Girl’s Vocals

Luciano Pavarotti also lip-synched an aria at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. Organizers said the world-renowned tenor had been feeling ill at the time and was unsure of his voice. It was also pretty cold.

The Sydney Symphony uses a backing tape at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

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ABC News Top 5 Pop Lip-Synch Scandals: Kanye, Madonna, Britney, Ashley, Milli Vanilli…
Editor’s Note: It’s totally worth it to watch the Ashley Simpson Saturday NIght Live performance one more time!