Try Florian Magnus Maier
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...n+magnus+maier
Not group and orchestra, but Peter Hammill's song 'This side of the looking glass' written for voice and orchestra is I feel one of the best uses of an orchestra within a rock context.
I attended a public lecture by an academic colleague who used Yngwie Malmsteen's concerto as an example of something tasteless, fatuous and showing a negligible awareness of serious classical composition (I don't personally have an opinion on it - I don't know it).
I have to say, much as I love Steve Hackett's use of different guitars on his rock albums, his so-called classical projects tend to leave me stone cold and feel somewhat like Classic FM pastiche (a reference that maybe only British fans will understand). The one exception is his tribute album to Segovia, which isn't drenched in reverb, or with synthetic-sounding or cheesy orchestrations.
I've always liked Steve Howe's version of the slow movement of Vivaldi's Lute Concerto in D using a Les Paul (on The Steve Howe Album), but perhaps that doesn't fit the strict criteria requested :-)
Jon Lord's last purely classical works were pretty good, I thought (like the Durham Concerto).
I vaguely remember listening to Michael Kamen's concerto for Eric Clapton when it was broadcast live on Radio 1 back in about 1990/1 - I liked it well enough, and was wondering only the other day why it had never been released properly, but I was only about 15 at the time, and easily impressed by a wailing electric guitar. The second half featuring Kamen's orchestrations in a range of classic Clapton tunes was fantastic - but I'm well and truly into the ineligible stuff now. LOL
Well, personally I feel words like "appalling", "execrable", "hideous", and "shambolic" apply, but i don't want to step on the toes of those who dig it. It's fun to watch on Youtube; various members of the orchestra look like they are in physical pain and many are clearly just trying to go to their happy place.Originally Posted by Dodie
I appreciate the nice words about The Universe Will Provide!
Does Atom Heart Mother apply in this category? I suppose not since Ron Geesin did the heavy lifting in terms of orchestral writing.
They're not large scale pieces but I think Randy Newman's first album and much of his other work, and Van Dyke Parks' "Song Cycle" might deserve mention 'though they're not full-on rock music - it's art-pop. Songs and orchestration incredibly top notch in all of Newman's stuff, and "Song Cycle" is a fascinating trip.
Don't know details, but there apparently was a major falling-out between Kamen and Clapton.
Anyone have the Procul Harum with orchestra CD/DVD's? I would imagine their music suits the orchestral treatment!
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
It absolutely should. IMO the Floyd had as much to do with how that all came out as Geesin. I'm not sure I'd characterize it as a success on purely musical terms, but it was an early example of rock + orchestra.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
Not what the OP is looking for, but I've always liked this one ....
Roger Daltrey - A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and the Who
Last edited by bigbassdrum; 08-15-2014 at 05:08 PM.
"Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor
Not prog but an absolute metal-orchestra disaster...Dave Mustaine of Megadeth with the San Diego Symphony...the carnage begins about 14 seconds in
Check out my solo project prog band, Mutiny in Jonestown at https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/
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Wow. I mean wow.Not prog but an absolute metal-orchestra disaster...Dave Mustaine of Megadeth with the San Diego Symphony...the carnage begins about 14 seconds in
Did we ever figure out if Lenny meant the comment as an insult or put down? If I recall correctly, he likened Keith's concerto to Grandma Moses, who started painting late in life, with pretty much no formal training. Maybe that was the point that Lenny was making: that the piece sounded like it was composed by someone with little or no formal composition training. I get the impression that neither Keith nor Greg, at the very least, understood Lenny's comment.
At any rate, I still think it's hilarious that Lenny was apparently (according to Keith, anyway) more interested in Keith himself than he was in the concerto.
But my experience on the old AOL classical music boards tell me that you are indeed correct that a lot of classical music people have very little use for rock music people of any stripe. Jazz people And they especially don't appreciate rock musicians who attempt to adapt music from either genre into a rock music setting. I once had a jazz snob insist there's no way I could have been turned onto Charles Mingus by hearing Jeff Beck's version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, because according to him, every single rock music person (including ones who claimed to be Beck fans) he'd ever played the Mingus Ah Um version found it boring or whatever. And you didn't dare mention ELP's version of Pictures At An Exhibition or Fanfare For The Common Man to any of them. Too bad I didn't know about Keith playing with Oscar Peterson back then, or that both Ginastera and Copland approved of what ELP did with their music (well, Copland sort of did, I have the understand he liked the part of Fanfare where they're actually his composition, but that solo made him scratch his head). They'd probably insist they only stooped to such things to make a "fast buck" or whatever.
Talking about Zappa: I remember him complaining that whenever he recorded any of his orchestral pieces, the orchestra insisted that they had to be paid for any and all rehearsals as if they were concert performances or recording sessions. And between the nearly unplayable nature of Frank's compositions and the fact that he didn't have an unlimited budget, he couldn't always get the music rehearsed the way he wanted to hear it. I think I read on the LSO records, he had to have overdubs done to clean up out of tune instruments.
I also remember that similarly, when ELO recorded orchestral parts in the UK, the musicians were so uptight about the union rules that if you listen carefully on Eldorado, you can hear them some of the musicians packing up their instruments leaving as soon as they were done playing. In the middle of a take!
Oh god *lol* At least Yngwie could probably have pulled that off, not that such a thing should be condoned.Not prog but an absolute metal-orchestra disaster...Dave Mustaine of Megadeth with the San Diego Symphony...the carnage begins about 14 seconds in
Yeah, I can maybe see that, though again, I don't really know the piece myself. I just know much of Yngwie's career has veered toward the tasteless. About the only thing he's ever done that's really any good is that first Alcatrazz album. Island In The Sun, baby!
I don't know if it fits the category, but I always loved the orchestral arrangement on Comfortably Numb, particularly as it builds dramatically during the second chorus. I also like the little brass line, it's like three notes, but very effective on the G/B chord in the chorus. Actually, come to think of it, the orchestra on Nobody Home was quite excellent too.
Somewhere around here, I have an LP of the London Symphony Orchestra performing an entire LP of Queen songs. I think it was called something like London Symphony Orchestra Plays The Queen Collection. It was conducted by Louis Clark, who was ELO's arranger. I probably haven't listened to it in over 30 years, but I seem to recall it was pretty good, if a bit on the "light music" side.
Well I don't blame them (although we'd have to see footage of them playing works by others too) -- as I pretty much implied, at least for me it's unlistenable from start to finish, it's just too many fast notes on the electric guitar, but as I mentioned I can take it a track at a time, for most tracks. It's not something to enjoy frequently, either. It is what it is --- I prefer not to look down on it -- it is enjoyable once a year or so. The reality is that someone who has actually made semi-fast sounds come out of a electric guitar with distortion is going to feel familiar with what's going on here and not put it down, whereas someone who does not have that experience or feels compelled to stick purely to the academic side of music is probably not. I'm certainly not interested to defend the piece beyond what I wrote...
I second Renaissance Song for Scheherezade. Awesome piece. I also quite like David Palmer's releases of Jethro Tull, Genesis and Yes with orchestra. Not really "rock band + orchestra" but "rock musicians + orchestra". I'm probably in the minority though liking those releases. I'll also add Uriah Heep Salisbury. Not a full orchestra but I think the results are really good.
Guitar Geek talks about Zappa's experiences with orchestras. In his book The Real Frank Zappa Book he dedicates a chapter to what he called Orchestral Stupidity. He became so jaded in working with symphonies that when the Ensemble Modern approached him to write some pieces of them, he refused until they suggested that they would pay to fly to LA to rehearse with him for as long as he thought necessary. Needless to say the results are breathtaking (Yellow Shark).
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