The other day I was listening to a couple of favorite albums: Ray Manzarek’s version of Orff’s Carmina Burana and Emerson Lake and Palmer’s version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. These are incredibly creative yet pretty faithful renditions of famous big pieces of music. (The ELP album does have a few songs inspired by the original piano pieces.) Offhand I can of more modern renditions of big classical pieces (no need to correct me on the era, I mean classical in spirit), but most are synthesizer-based, like Walter/Wendy Carlos, Tomita, etc. There are also plenty of shorter pieces/songs, but I’m more interested in the big ones.
Can anyone think of/recommend any other non-synthesizer renditions of big/long classical pieces?
Hi Chas,
There are several fragments of pieces in The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack by the Nice. There might even be more extended workouts on earlier albums; that was Emerson’s thing from early on. Despite a reasonable albeit somewhat fragmentary knowledge of prog right down to recent albums, I can’t think of an extended work. I assume you are excluding 20th century compositions by band members themselves, otherwise Henry Cow and several French, German and Italian groups might be candidates. Even Frank Zappa’s compositions might qualify but I suspect you didn’t have anything like that in mind.
Wow, the Nice are a name I haven’t heard in a few decades. I’ll check out the record you suggest.
Your mention of Zappa reminds me that he conducted a piece (I think it was just orchestra, no rock instruments, although my memory is foggy) that was then-recently discovered by a composer named Francesca Zappa. I think it was from the late-18th or early-19th century, but was quite noisy, 100 years ahead of its time. FZ said something to the effect of, “As soon as I saw it, I knew we must be related.”
Renaissance certainly have their share of allusions to classical. The only piece of theirs I can think of that is complete is “Cold is being,” the tune of which is taken from an Albinoni piece.
They’re one of my favorite bands ever. If you’re not familiar with it, they released a two-disc set called “BBC sessions” maybe ten years ago. It’s one of the best live albums ever. I’m not crazy about live albums that are just carbon copies of studio songs. Renaissance generally didn’t perform with an orchestra, so the arrangements are necessarily different. Their musicianship is breathtaking, too.
Gee, I hope some of you guys got to go to the Yestival in Camden (New Jersey, USA) earlier this month. My younger son attended. He listened to too many of my LPs as a young-un. Along with Yes (what’s left anyway) Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy, Renaissance (only Haslam remains from the various 70’s line-ups) and others played. Day long concert - lots of music - some better than others. Prog-rock lives on, for now, with bi-focals.
Chas, you might be amused by one of the opening acts from the Yestival - Scale the Summit. They organized at the Musician’s Institute in LA. Good chops, very much clascic-rock, prog-rock inspired but with three stage rectified amplifiers. They are not doing classical compositions but if you liked the vibe of the classic rockers they get there, just a little louder.
Didn’t make it to the Yestival, but, I did see Yes live when they were only a maybe. Yes played a gig 1973 at the Great Lakes Naval Station, IL… bootcamp for some of us sailors. Probably the highlight of my time there besides leaving. Sailors have more fun and the US Navy knows how to rock the boat!
Yes were very well established by that time - at least in the Philadelphia region. If you got to see them with Peter Banks on guitar and Tony Kaye on keyboards that would have been early - 1969-ish. They were more of a Jam band in those days, still exquisite.
One of the more interesting parts of the Yestival, according to my son, was the presence of Roger Dean the creative mind behind the artwork gracing the covers of many of the Yes LPs. Annie Haslam also had some of her artwork on display too.
Might as well start with the Turn of the Cards cd. In relation to chas’s original inquiry one of the tracks is essentially a rocked out version of Albinoni’s Addaggio in G Minor. Hard to imagine that this group was formed out of the ashes of both the Yardbirds and the Nasville Teens.
MP, While your at it look into Gentle Giant - Octopus is a decent recording to start with. Lots of videos by them on YouTube from live concerts. They were masterful in concert.
Renaissance are the only group I know of who had NO founding members on their second album. They were the same group, as Jim McCarty did co-write (I think) a couple of songs on Prologue and one on Ashes Are Burning. There were a few groups, the Moody Blues and Blood Sweat and Tears come to mind, whose sound completely changed, but each had two or three members left over from the original lineup. I have a CD that has the first album, fleshed out with a few singles, and I love it. It bears no resemblance to the Dunford et al. version, although it’s heavy on the keyboards, and you can see the seeds sown for John Tout. Ashes are Burning and Scheherazade are also great albums. I think the high points of A Song for All Seasons (especially the title song, which is the absolute pinnacle of orchestral rock) are the best music they ever made, but it’s pretty uneven.
I think Gentle Giant were probably the most artistic prog rock band. It was not unusual for all (or at least most) of the members to be playing recorders, guitars, or xylophones/marimbas/vibes at the same time. Even moreso than Renaissance, their live arrangements were often completely different from their studio work. I agree, one of the best live bands ever. Three Friends was another great album with some folk inspirations. I love their noisy stuff – Power and the Glory, the first couple of albums.
Feadoggie, since you’re from the mid-Atlantic, are you familiar with Happy the Man?
Have we moved on now, from bands performing classical works, to symphonic-sounding “progressive” rock or pastoral compositions?
If so, my favorites are IQ, UK, Strawbs, Gentle Giant, Fish-era Marillion, Gabriel-era Genesis, Renaissance (btw the Camera, Camera CD, not usually mentioned, is not bad), Triumvirat; Italian-style groups such as Locanda delle Fate, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Le Orme, Corte Dei Miracoli, Latte E Miele, Maxophone, Luciano Basso, the original Il Volo (not Simon Cowell’s impostors), Museo Rosenbach, Neuschwanstein, Nuova Era, Pablo El Enterrador, Quaterna Réquiem, Il Rovescio della Medaglia.
Not in the same vein, perhaps for those who like jazzy/rock stuff, then I recommend Arti & Mestieri, especially for one of the world’s best drummers (Furio Chirico).
As Feadoggie stated, YES was definitely well established by 1973 here in the Northeast anyway. Many of my friends and I were listening to them regularly by then, me being a junior in high school at the time. That was a period of some truly inspiring music and both YES and ELP were among some of my favorites.
Hey Ytliek, is it true that “if this boat’s a rockin, one shouldn’t come a knockin”? God bless the Navy!
Chas, I was not aware of them back in the day. I only first heard them on the Internet in recent years. Good stuff. Thanks for reminding me about them.
For those of you that like the Peter Gabriel era Genesis performance theatrics ( I was always amused) Yestival included a tribute band The Musical Box (Gabriel endorsed BTW) that performed Genesis pieces complete with the costumes and characters. So look for them at your local venue. Ironically another band, Sound of Contact, included Phil Collins’ son Simon which has a real prog-rock throwback sound.
In a complete 180 degree turn of the Chas’ topic, I spent a few days earlier this month absorbing to the orchestral versions of Peter Gabriel’s hits on the New Blood/i] album. Interesting stuff too. No wild abandon as the music of the 70’s exhibited but the structure, rhythm, harmony and layers are all still there. As I age I wonder where my musical head will end up. Things seem to go in circles. Once one full circle is complete another starts. Hopefully it never ends and keeps on advancing a bit.
Thread drift is fine, even encouraged. One more remark on Gentle Giant: I got the two DVD’s a couple of years ago. My wife appreciates good music, and even liked some of GG’s stuff. But after seeing the performances, she said something like, “It’s impressive to hear their music, but watching them, running all over the stage to get to other instruments, is way more impressive.”
One of my favorite music-industry quotes is from Gentle Giant’s primary singer, Derek Shulman (quoted from memory): Our goal is to expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of being very unpopular.
Thanks Kevin and Feadoggie for the recommendations.
Mute, if you like the Renaissance album(s) and have the means, I’d encourage you to buy them – they were never especially successful commercially, and AFAIK the members have never been wealthy. Same for Gentle Giant except for Derek Shulman, who became a record-company exec, which I find a little ironic given the quote above.
Thanks, Oleo! That lute piece is wonderful! I was aware of Focus, but never knew much about them. From looking at their discography, I see their second album contains a 23-minute reworking of the opera Euridice. I can see an Amazon order coming this weekend.
