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So what you probably already knew was that this past Tuesday, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, not after his Oath of Office, but at precisely noon, that is, during the music played by a string quartet immediately preceding the Oath.

What you may not know is that the String Quartet, playing newly commissioned Air and Simple Gifts by John Williams, was not “playing” at all, but was rather lip-syncing (or is it “bow/keyboard/mouthpiece syncing” in the classical world?) the whole thing. What we all heard on Tuesday was a prerecorded version of the piece and the instrumentalists were simply going through the motions of their respective instruments. The excuse (which, is honestly pretty valid) was that the 30 degree weather in D.C. doesn’t exactly bode well for creating a rich and full sound on instruments usually used to the 70 degree weather of a concert hall (or at least, a California Beach).

I just feel a little bad for Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, who now find themselves in the dubious company of musicians who prior to Tuesday had seemingly nothing in common.