Best rock band ever, but from a new perspective.

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by Fraggle Rocker, Sep 18, 2006.

  1. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    You're confusing "classical," which means "music that reaches out beyond its time," with "symphonic," which is simply a genre that uses the standard symphony orchestra. (Or "chamber" or "string quartet" or "solo piano with lots of dynamics" or a few other formats that were once in vogue.)

    The distinction is understandably blurred. Ralph Vaughan Williams, Erich Korngold, Leonard Bernstein and others who worked more or less in the symphonic form wrote music for movies and popular shows, but also wrote symphonies to be performed as such for concert hall audiences.

    John Williams ("Star Wars"), Elmer Bernstein, Miklos Rozsa, and Randy Newman's whole family, among others, specialize(d) in film scores but stuck close to the symphonic form. Today you're as likely to encounter scores by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh or Oingo Boingo's Danny Elfman, with rock instrumentation and motifs integrated.

    There was a code developed for movie music, using a symphony orchestra, that everyone learned as a child. A certain motif means a love scene is about to start, another means the murderer is lurking in the kitchen, one means the army is on the way, one means the army is hopelessly pinned down by enemy fire, etc. Today the codes are evolving. Hip hop, emo, metal, fusion, and other vocabularies are used to craft codes for car chases, kung fu battles, alien monsters, torrid sex, corporate betrayal, drug deals, etc. A new generation is learning these in childhood. Tangerine Dream has made enough money on soundtracks to support their traditional space music ventures for their loyal fans. Mike Oldfield started his career as a space music pioneer by having "Tubular Bells" used as the soundtrack for "The Exorcist." Philip Glass has done a splendid job with his so-called "minimalist" post-classical soundtracks for the "Koyaanisqatsi" series of films.

    Don't assume just because a movie soundtrack uses a symphony orchestra and some of the motifs of the symphonic genre, that it's "classical" music. And by all means don't assume that that form has got a lock on movie soundtracks! Expect lots more from Elfman, Glass, and Tangerine Dream--and their successors.
     
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