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November 12, 2007

Indie pop footnote

As a quick followup to my post on Sufjan Stevens making history -- maybe -- at BAM:

Other indie rock people have done orchestral work. Ben Folds and Nick Cave, for instance, have appeared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that claims (on its website) to have "multiple identities: as a chamber group, a small symphony orchestra, and an electro-acoustic collective." I haven't found out much about these concerts, but I'm told that Folds and Cave did more than play their songs with the orchestra. They had a role in curating the concerts. (Thanks to Georgia Rivers, the new Marketing Manager of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, for this. I'll find out more.)

I also know a well-known American orchestra where one of the top administrator wants to co-produce concerts with pop people, precisely by having them both play, and curate the events. And I've heard that the music director of yet another orchestra is interested. All this is tricky, obviously. You need to have a pop artist with enough knowledge and imagination to think up viable and interesting things for an orchestra to do. This is more than simply having the orchestra back up the artist's songs, as the Baltimore Symphony has done with Ben Folds. Not that I'm minimizing how important even that can be. (Though note this, from the newspaper review the above link takes you to: "The setting was a bit awkward and unusual at first, but eventually the conductor and orchestra lightened up and looked like they were enjoying themselves as much as Folds and the audience were." Some orchestras, possibly, might never relax.)

Apparently this Baltimore event followed the Australian Chamber Symphony's work. The newspaper story I've linked to mentions a DVD of Folds with the Australian group, but I can't find any trace of it.

Nick Cave wrote the music for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and it's very effective, in a classical style. It also drove me crazy, but that's not Cave's fault. I'd assume he wrote what the director asked me for. The film -- quite strong dramatically, and wonderfully acted -- has one big weakness, apart from its slow pace. It gets more than a little gaga about the profundity of it all, the gigantic supposed human and cultural significance of everything it shows us. When Jesse James was finally shot, I thought he'd surely rise again, three days later. Cave's score is evidently meant to underscore the deep meaning of it all, the message of "Isn't life profound?" I'd have preferred music that simply said, "It's rough out there."

But I digress. Cave can write music for strings, though a collaborator is credited, so he might have had help. There's no shame in that. How much help would Elliott Carter need to write a rock song? (OK, throw things at me.)

I'm sure I've just scratched the surface here. Classical music is changing, in many ways, very fast, and there have to be pop-classical collaborations I haven't heard of.

Posted by gsandow at November 12, 2007 2:48 PM

COMMENTS

Off the top of my head, here are a few other artists who fit the "indie " tag and have a symphony show:

The Decemberists, Joanna Newsome, Rufus Wainwright.

Posted by: JB at November 12, 2007 5:19 PM

Now I'm kicking myself because I can't remember the details, but a decade or so ago I saw a composer speak who had written a piece for orchestra, DJ and rapper, that was primiered by the Denver Symphony. It was pretty interesting as I recall; not the sort of "hip hopera" fare pushed by Beyonce, and not just rock w/strings, but a true attempt to write idiomatically interesting contemporary concert music and satisfying hip hop at once. Darn, I'll have to hunt that up soon.

The other hip hop-based stab at something like "classical" music that comes to mind immediately is R. Kelley's recent "Trapped in the Closet" offering. I know, I know, it's genuinely awful (fabulously, deliciously awful, I think, but I'm sure some see it as just plain awful). But I think it is hearable as an echo of the big 19th c. song cycles--Winterreise comes to mind, as does Schoene Meullerin (pardon my useless German spelling)--in intent if not quite execution. And it is credible R&B, which matters. The thing I usually dislike about "Third-Stream" projects (so to speak) is that they so often fail as rock/jazz/pop/R&B/Hip Hop/etc.#

Thanks, Gabriel.

I'm uncomfortable with pop types writing or otherwise creating classical music -- Paul McCartney (obviously), Elvis Costello ("The Juliet Letters," for instance), so many others. They don't have the chops. Which is no shame for them. Why should they know how to write classical music?

Posted by: Gabriel Solis at November 13, 2007 9:59 AM

I know its ancient history now, but I still occassionally drag out my old vinyl copy of John Cale's 1972 album The Academy in Peril, on which he wrote pieces for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Of course, Cale is a bit of a ringer, having played in the Welsh Youth Orchestra, played with LaMonte Young and cut a groundbreaking album with Terry Riley in the early 70's.

Posted by: Ries at November 13, 2007 12:24 PM

Several years ago I heard a radio broadcast of Nigel Kennedy peforming with The Detroit Symphony (I think). He did a concerto for electric violin, blues band, and orchestra. I think the title was On The Frontier. I thought it was great. Have you heard it? I can't remember the composer's name,shamefully.

I haven't heard it, or even heard of it, unfortunately. Thanks for bringing it to us.

Posted by: Dave Irwin at November 13, 2007 1:10 PM



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