Posted on 10/11/2007 10:34:54 PM PDT by Borges
As a rule, film score classical music is used as a shorthand: Handel indicates that the snobs have arrived, Mahler that someone is about to die, but not before pouting about it, and Wagner is a sure sign that big trouble's a-brewing. This cultural semaphore system was established in the silent-film era, when no monster worth his salt would dream of making his entrance without the accompaniment of Bach's Toccatta and Fugue in D or something equally theatrical by Liszt. The tradition continues today: Vivaldi's ludicrously overplayed Four Seasons invariably indicates that the stuffed shirts are having brunch; Beethoven's Ode to Joy announces that Armageddon may be just around the corner; and anytime an aria by Verdi, Bellini or Puccini is heard, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone is going to get raped, stabbed, blinded, buried alive or impaled.
(Excerpt) Read more at music.guardian.co.uk ...
PING
In answer - check out the Vitamin String Quartet (yes, its a string quartet) and their translations of popular music into string quartet play.
Most interesting stuff I’ve heard from a string quartet in years.
Me no likie, but I did find the Metallic album done in Christmas format to amusing.
http://vitaminrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=product&catid=25&id=1291
I take that back, I didn’t realize that they had more tributes until I clicked on those side tabs. Otherwise I thought they had just picked crappy bands that even orchestrated didn’t make sound any better. LOL! I will have to contact them and see if they sell sheet music.
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The only part that bothers me is the use of a piece of music when it wasn’t written for that intended use. To clarify, to use Handel’s music ,which was mostly written for Mass, for unholy events is just wrong. I much prefer original classical music in soundtracks like Hans Zimmer’s work. The music is written to fit the movie.
So funny and so true.
Likewise, Barber’s ‘Adagio For Strings’ was written as absolute music...the slow movement of a string quartet. It always irked him that iwas used as a funeral dirge. And to top it all off...it was played at his funeral.
What was the intended use of Handel’s Water Music? Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude? Can anybody besides the Brandenburg descendants listen to Bach’s six concerti? Play Haydn’s last 12 symphonies outside of London, or Beethoven’s 6th anywhere but the primeval forest? ;-)
Beethoven’s or Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique when you’re not depressed?
I say be glad when any classical music actually gets heard anywhere.
“The part that bothers me” is the over-generalizations by the writer of the article. Bach’s cello suites (all six of them, apparently) represent menopausal grief? Good grief.
Handel’s music is mostly written for mass? That’s a new one on me.
A couple of interesting ones (most are available through iTMS, BTW):
String Quartet Tribute To Peter Gabriel:
http://vitaminrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=product&catid=20&id=587
Strung Out On U2: The String Quartet Tribute:
http://vitaminrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=product&catid=20&id=170
String Quartet Tribute to The Offspring (especially the cover of “Gone Away”):
http://vitaminrecords.com/web/page.asp?pgs=product&catid=20&id=793
“Handel’s music is mostly written for mass? That’s a new one on me.”
Yes my mistake, I keep forgetting not to post when I tired.
On the other parts, yes you can listen to Classical Music at anytime. Don’t be silly I didn’t say otherwise. This article is about movies and I was commenting on that specifically. I just believe it is wrong to play a piece that was written for a type of emotion of setting and Hollywood using it while some psycho murders another victim. I don’t have anything that comes straight to mind as an example.
The writer’s a real lover of classical music.
;-)
ping
Thanks!
Ironically juxtaposing elevated music with depraved behavior can be very dramatically effective.
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