April 1, 2018 at 20:40What the Beatles, Radiohead, Doors and other musicians took from classical composers
Yesterday we wrote that modern music owes a lot to the classics and melodic techniques that are popular with great composers. Moreover, performers still borrow ideas from musicians of different centuries, styles and levels of fame.
Today - we recall the familiar to many rock and pop compositions that somehow work with classical material. All who are interested in this topic are welcome to cat. Photo Anders Printz PD
Some Beethoven musical solutions are so widely disseminated and recognizable that they are used everywhere (from advertising to background music in films), and other musicians constantly refer to them. One of these references was made by cult performers from a completely different era - the Beatles. In their song Because they use part of " Moonlight Sonata ".
Only lose it backwards.
Here is the “version” of The Beatles:
It is believed that this is the idea of John Lennon - once he heard Yoko Ono playing the “Sonata” and asked him to play it the other way around. Of course, this is not a literal “retelling” of Beethoven, but the melody of the song The Beatles is based on the inverted structure of the first part of “Moonlight Sonata”.
Perhaps one of the most popular songs by the British band Take That is Never Forget. At the very beginning of the song you can hear a melody from the Requiem by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.
"Version" Take That:
The Italian composer wrote this part of Requiem for Bass and Choir. In the song Take That, by the way, the choir is also used - the intro is performed by the choir of boys from the city of Henlan (Henllan Boys Choir).
Radiohead not only used references to avant-garde composers in their work , but also inspired classical music. For example, in several tracks from the A Moon Shaped Pool album , references to classical composers are traced : for example, in the Glass Eyes track - to Debussy-style strings , the sound of which exists as if separate from the keyboard and voice.
In The Numbers - to Stravinsky.
Another “classic” work by Radiohead is the well-known song Exit Music (For a Film) from the OK Computer album. The melody of Exit Music (For a Film) is based on Chopin's Prelude No. 4:
Borrowing from the classics is not always a “creative reflection” of the material or a direct reference. Sometimes it turns out to be more explicit - as in the case of one of the most popular ballads in the world - All By Myself by American singer Eric Carmen.
The melody of the verses almost completely repeats the passage from the second part of the Concert No. 2 in C minor by Sergei Rachmaninov:
Eric Carmen borrowed another tune from the Russian composer: Never Going To Fall in Love Again is based on Symphony No. 2. This borrowing was so obvious that it did not go unnoticed - the work of Rachmaninoff at the time of the release of the record was not in the public domain outside the United States. After negotiations with the singer, the fund managing the heritage of Rachmaninov received the right to 12% of the royalties from these tracks.
Several popular tracks of the American rock band The Doors contain borrowings and “quotes” from classical music. So, one of the tracks from the 1970 Waiting for the Sun album is a full cover of Adagio in G minor for stringed instruments and organ.
The doors:
Adagio is usually attributed to the authorship of Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, the Venetian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. It was allegedly restored from a small fragment of the recordings by the biographer of the composer Remo Gadzotto, who published his book on Albinoni in 1945.
In the fragment found by Jadzotto, the bass part and part of the first violin part in six measures were described. On this basis, Jazzotto composed a full-fledged work and in 1958 released it under the title “Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ, on Two Thematic Ideas and on a Figured Bass by Tomaso Albinoni”. A fragment of the score of Albinoni, from which he allegedly repelled, no one saw.
Now many music researchers are inclined tothat Adagio invented Gadzotto from beginning to end. Nevertheless, Adagio is one of the most popular and popularized “classical” tunes in the world, which sounds in dozens of films and which has been addressed by many great musicians of our time.
This is far from the only example of a group working with classical material. For example, the introduction of the track Spanish Caravan The Doors refers to the play by Asturias "Spanish Suite No. 1" by composer Isaac Albenis.
Classical music does not cease to excite a variety of contemporary artists - from rock musicians to pop singers. In fact, many of them conduct a “dialogue of cultures” with their predecessors - and at the same time introduce a new generation of music lovers to the classics.
More interesting about music in our “Hi-Fi World”:
Today - we recall the familiar to many rock and pop compositions that somehow work with classical material. All who are interested in this topic are welcome to cat. Photo Anders Printz PD
Because the Beatles and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
Some Beethoven musical solutions are so widely disseminated and recognizable that they are used everywhere (from advertising to background music in films), and other musicians constantly refer to them. One of these references was made by cult performers from a completely different era - the Beatles. In their song Because they use part of " Moonlight Sonata ".
Only lose it backwards.
Here is the “version” of The Beatles:
It is believed that this is the idea of John Lennon - once he heard Yoko Ono playing the “Sonata” and asked him to play it the other way around. Of course, this is not a literal “retelling” of Beethoven, but the melody of the song The Beatles is based on the inverted structure of the first part of “Moonlight Sonata”.
Never Forget by Take That and Tuba Mirum from Verdi's Requiem
Perhaps one of the most popular songs by the British band Take That is Never Forget. At the very beginning of the song you can hear a melody from the Requiem by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.
"Version" Take That:
The Italian composer wrote this part of Requiem for Bass and Choir. In the song Take That, by the way, the choir is also used - the intro is performed by the choir of boys from the city of Henlan (Henllan Boys Choir).
Exit Music (For a Film) by Radiohead and Prelude No. 4 Chopin
Radiohead not only used references to avant-garde composers in their work , but also inspired classical music. For example, in several tracks from the A Moon Shaped Pool album , references to classical composers are traced : for example, in the Glass Eyes track - to Debussy-style strings , the sound of which exists as if separate from the keyboard and voice.
In The Numbers - to Stravinsky.
Another “classic” work by Radiohead is the well-known song Exit Music (For a Film) from the OK Computer album. The melody of Exit Music (For a Film) is based on Chopin's Prelude No. 4:
All By Myself Eric Carmen and "Concert No. 2" by Rachmaninov
Borrowing from the classics is not always a “creative reflection” of the material or a direct reference. Sometimes it turns out to be more explicit - as in the case of one of the most popular ballads in the world - All By Myself by American singer Eric Carmen.
The melody of the verses almost completely repeats the passage from the second part of the Concert No. 2 in C minor by Sergei Rachmaninov:
Eric Carmen borrowed another tune from the Russian composer: Never Going To Fall in Love Again is based on Symphony No. 2. This borrowing was so obvious that it did not go unnoticed - the work of Rachmaninoff at the time of the release of the record was not in the public domain outside the United States. After negotiations with the singer, the fund managing the heritage of Rachmaninov received the right to 12% of the royalties from these tracks.
The Doors, Albenis and Albinoni
Several popular tracks of the American rock band The Doors contain borrowings and “quotes” from classical music. So, one of the tracks from the 1970 Waiting for the Sun album is a full cover of Adagio in G minor for stringed instruments and organ.
The doors:
Adagio is usually attributed to the authorship of Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, the Venetian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. It was allegedly restored from a small fragment of the recordings by the biographer of the composer Remo Gadzotto, who published his book on Albinoni in 1945.
In the fragment found by Jadzotto, the bass part and part of the first violin part in six measures were described. On this basis, Jazzotto composed a full-fledged work and in 1958 released it under the title “Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ, on Two Thematic Ideas and on a Figured Bass by Tomaso Albinoni”. A fragment of the score of Albinoni, from which he allegedly repelled, no one saw.
Now many music researchers are inclined tothat Adagio invented Gadzotto from beginning to end. Nevertheless, Adagio is one of the most popular and popularized “classical” tunes in the world, which sounds in dozens of films and which has been addressed by many great musicians of our time.
This is far from the only example of a group working with classical material. For example, the introduction of the track Spanish Caravan The Doors refers to the play by Asturias "Spanish Suite No. 1" by composer Isaac Albenis.
Classical music does not cease to excite a variety of contemporary artists - from rock musicians to pop singers. In fact, many of them conduct a “dialogue of cultures” with their predecessors - and at the same time introduce a new generation of music lovers to the classics.
More interesting about music in our “Hi-Fi World”:
- “For every taste”: streaming services for listening to music
- 5 legendary rock festivals that shocked the USSR
- Box set: how true fans listen to music
- “Sound in the Museum” - contemporary art and creative experiments
- How to make a fortune in noise and become a legend
- Weekend Reading: 5 books on music and musicians
- Forgotten Formats: Flexible Records