A Classical music fan here.
Though, I don't like those Classical music versions of the great rock albums (any genre).
A Classical music fan here.
Though, I don't like those Classical music versions of the great rock albums (any genre).
I would disagree. It's a movie score, fusing classical compositional technique and instrumentation with South American folk music (Of what type, I'm not sure - while the movie is set around 1750 on the border between Argentina and Paraguay, the percussion groove sounds more like 20th-Century Brazilian samba). Like most movie scores, it has a specific mood-setting function, and is neither fish nor fowl - not quite classical, and not quite popular.
My understanding is that there's some disagreement among musical critics and scholars on whether movie scores, even those written by "legit" classical composers like Shostakovich, qualify as classical compositions. And none of them seem to quite know how to pigeonhole artists like Herrman or Morricone, who had all the formal training and the ability to be that kind of "legit" classical composer, but worked mostly or exclusively at scoring films. Or how to pigeonhole their work.
The only thing I would say other than posting hundreds of YT clips of pieces is that if you have written classical music off completely, then you are missing out on some of the best music ever written. My suggestion is that you don't give up, try different genres, periods, composers, orchestras, recordings, live concerts. Its all worth the effort.
I listen to a fair amount of classical music, but find that I spend a lot more time with (and get more enjoyment from) small group and solo stuff than the massed ranks of the symphony orchestra. That goes for both home listening and live concerts; I particularly like chamber music concerts, where you can really follow the interaction between the players.
I also listen to more chamber prog than "symphonic" prog, so I guess I am at least consistent.
Hmmm - while most classical music bores the shit out of me (especially almost all piano music), there are some classical pieces I like. It may seem strange but it is true - I can appreciate a sonata form, a fugue, a programmatic suite or whatever form borrowed from classical music better in prog than in classical music itself. The rock idiom gives these time-honoured forms a new freshness, I think. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that most prog is with vocals, in a style I can appreciate better than classically trained vocals where the "singers' formant" makes mincemeat of lyrics intelligibility and simply sounds ugly to my ears.
Finally, prog is a living genre where new good music is made every year, while classical music is largely a thing of the past.
I prefer classical to the classical bits in symph prog and to most prog in general as a matter of fact.
For example, I would rather listen to the symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams any day of the week over the works of The Nice, Yes, ELP.
Bookmarks