Group & Orchestra

[NogbadTheBad]

Do I have to put Sventonio / Juba / daoubourg all on ignore, or does one ignore work for all of him?

[daoubourg]

Kayak's Merlin (Bard Of The Unseen version, 2003) is an insane piece of music.

[TheH]

Someone taking bets on how many Posts he can still do before being baned again?

[daoubourg]

Metalized Symphonic rock at its best!

[daoubourg]

I wonder why nobody mentioned Pain of Salvation's 'Be' since it's a Prog Metal masterpiece of group & orchestra stuff.

[Scrotum Scissor]

how many before being banned again?

Reminds me a bit of this one:

[Rick L.]

This all Smaks of a familiar pattern.

[Garyhead]

This IS THE Group & Orchestra + Choir Standard:

https://youtu.be/usQem53fDH8

[Udi Koomran]

Now THIS I agree with. Although when he put Oldfield's Telecaster into the midst of his own Star's End it came out unusually harsh and, well, rather bizarre. He composed more successful orchestral works, of course. And much of the orchestration he did for others was, as mentioned, one-of-a-kind; the strings to Edgar Broughton Band's "Evening Over Rooftops" are astoundingly effective, and Roy Harper's "Me And My Woman" elevates to schorching heights under wing of Bedford's string.

I l o v e. star’s end
Bought back in the day when i saw Oldfield and Chris Cutler were on it
It was my first exposure to classical contemporary music at the tender age of 14
Heh heh
Those dissonant clusters

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ I was always more of a Rime of the Ancient Mariner man, Udi. Or Nurses Songs With Elephant. Or White Horse.

And I too got Star's End due to Cutler's participation, along with Bedford's association with the Canterbury scene back then.

I should revisit, but I suspect I'm still unprepared for that grotesque Telecaster attack in the middle of dense orchestral timbre.

[Kcrimso]

Star's End is quite good and as Mike Oldfield -fanboy I of course also love his part in this opus.

[Udi Koomran]

^r that grotesque Telecaster attack in the middle of dense orchestral timbre.

grotesque ??
to me it sounds heavenly

[Dave (in MA)]

Someone taking bets on how many Posts he can still do before being baned again?

He's already the bane of PE.

[Vic333]

The recent trend of group + orchestra has not been terribly successful in my ears. At least not for the bigger names that have tried it (Metallica and Kiss come to mind).
But, it's been done right at times.
Some of Elton John's orchestral additions have been very good (though those were added later to prerecorded tracks).
Peter Gabriel's New Blood outing was terrific, but that was orchestra only, no rock band.
I never have heard the Deep Purple track (Concerto for Group and Orchestra). Perhaps I'll give that a listen now.

[Tangram]

Regarding Art Rock songs that featured a group & orchestra, Sir Elton John's early phase immediately come to mind. Thus, I would like to mention Sir Elton's songs The Greatest Discovery and The King Must Die, both from Elton John s/t LP from 1970, and Levon the song from his Madman Across the Water LP from 1971. I think that these songs are just perfect examples of group & orchestra apropos the early seventies' English Art Rock - thanks to London's composer, conductor, cello player and arranger Paul Buckmaster (RIP).

Paul Buckmaster worked his magic over many of Elton's early albums and the songs you picked were great. A few more standouts are







If you can get past his tattered vocals, his Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra displays a group and orchestra recorded very well.

[Wah3]

Is that Rick Wakeman on the Hammond just before the 5 minute mark in Madman Across the Water? Paul Buckmaster is terrific. Another of his Elton John arrangements I like is Have Mercy on the Criminal. He also arranged the strings on Bowie’s Space Oddity, which I think brought him to Elton’s attention. He won a Grammy Award for best arrangement in 2002, for Train’s Drops of Jupiter. And he did a couple of film scores, including Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. Worked with Miles Davis on his 1972 album In the Corner (with Corea, McLaughlin etc.), although the musicians supposedly reworked his arrangements a lot, despite Buckmaster being in the studio with them.

[Rarebird]

Paul Buckmaster also worked on Angelo Branduardi's debut, which also has Joel Vandroogenbroeck (Brainticket) on flute

[Progbear]

Banco - Di Terra

Written as a unifying piece for 'orchestral rock group', rather than farting up already established songs or creating a monster hybrid r&r-versus-philharmonic junk.

This has been in my rotation of late, and it is definitely one of the albums I will hold up as a paragon of “orchestral rock.” It is truly a magnificent work to behold; my only complaint would be that there’s not enough Francesco!

And, of course and absolutely obviously, that one Yes album.

I was prepared to write this one off as a gimmick, particularly given the late date, but I was surprised to hear how inspired it was. Not a patch on their 70s work, but better than any of us expected for sure.

Yes, this is a great pairing. So great in fact that he did it two years in a row with quite different setlists. I have one of them as a bonus disc on Rundgren's "State" CD; the bonus disc is why I bought it! Somehow Metropole really understand these things and know how to arrange them properly.

There’s also Nearly Human; a deliberately maximalist album with strings and brass done as a reaction to the Korg Workstation “band in a box” recordings proliferating at the time. Not prog, but I love it; one of his best albums with some of his finest songs. He was truly inspired to create something grand.

I find the worst effort in this genre is Deep Purple's "Concerto". I find it truly unlistenable, but I give them a break because they were innovators. On paper the idea was cool.

It may be heresy to say so here, but DP truly sucked at the “classical rock” shtick. Only once they dropped all the arty pretensions and sallied forth as a straight-ahead heavy rock band did they begin to excel. Somewhat surprising, as isn’t Jon Lord classically trained? Why do Concerto and Gemini Suite suck so badly, then? Sarabande was good, but weren’t the band toast by then?

Days of Future Passed has some great moments

And some pretty awful ones. Some of the orchestrations on that one are, as our friends across the pond are fond of putting it, extremely “naff.” Stuff like “Peak Hour” sounds like the kind of music you used to hear in the background of educational films and family restaurants.

I don't think they used an orchestra on those albums.

The Enid were kind of the inversion of this; light neo-classical music played on “rock” instruments.

Someone taking bets on how many Posts he can still do before being baned again?

I think we have the answer to our question. Now I’m taking bets to see how many days before he pops up again in another guise.

shabby boy platt reaction.jpg

Paul Buckmaster also worked on Angelo Branduardi's debut, which also has Joel Vandroogenbroeck (Brainticket) on flute

I am quite fond of his work on Judie Tzuke’s Welcome to the Cruise album. Off-topic (but related to another thread), but he plays a sublime cello solo on Neil Ardley’s Kaleidoscope of Rainbows.

[Tangram]

Is that Rick Wakeman on the Hammond just before the 5 minute mark in Madman Across the Water? Paul Buckmaster is terrific. Another of his Elton John arrangements I like is Have Mercy on the Criminal. He also arranged the strings on Bowie’s Space Oddity, which I think brought him to Elton’s attention. He won a Grammy Award for best arrangement in 2002, for Train’s Drops of Jupiter. And he did a couple of film scores, including Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. Worked with Miles Davis on his 1972 album In the Corner (with Corea, McLaughlin etc.), although the musicians supposedly reworked his arrangements a lot, despite Buckmaster being in the studio with them.

Yes, that's Rick Wakeman on Madman.

[wilcox660]

On the flip side - I love seeing classical music performed live & don't want pesky electric guitars infecting my Mozart. :P

[Zappathustra]

Zess

[Progtastic]

Saw the 1st of two shows tonight, Rick Wakeman with full orchestra and choir (plus rock ensemble) playing Journey to the Centre of the Earth for the last time (in the UK at least). It was magnificent.

[waren]

Saw the 1st of two shows tonight, Rick Wakeman with full orchestra and choir (plus rock ensemble) playing Journey to the Centre of the Earth for the last time (in the UK at least). It was magnificent.

[Rarebird]

Just bought Stern Combo Meißen - Bilder einer Ausstellung (Pictures at an exhibition) The Rock Version Live, which is performed with an orchestra and a choir

[waren]