# Whether you are amused or offended....



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

It did in fact happen. What other bizarre "classical crossover" have you heard about? I wonder what the Seattle Symphony performers were thinking...


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

For me, more amused than anything else. My guess is that this is yet another attempt to connect with millennials though I don't really see how doing it with rap is going to be all that successful. After all, symphony orchestras are symphony orchestras: Is rap going to be part of future programming?


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Faintly amusing at best. But ultimately I feel like these sort of cross-overs do nothing for anyone - each would have sounded better on its own. If you want to promote classical music, play good classical music


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## Gordontrek (Jun 22, 2012)

Mixed feelings. No doubt there were a lot of people who went to that concert solely to hear the rapper, and couldn't have cared less about the orchestra. Unfortunately, classical and rap do NOT mix- not very well anyway. So, as for the success of this attempt to draw in a younger audience, it probably has no chance. Is anyone who came to this rap concert for the rapper going to go to the Seattle Symphony's next classical concert? Nah. Sitting still and quiet in a concert hall is a mostly foreign concept to my generation.
Besides that, it just looks utterly ridiculous to me! Quite embarrassing, to be blunt.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

One thing that drives this sort of thing - money for cash-strapped orchestras!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

So -- is this "song" the origin of the "and I cannot lie" meme you see all over the internet?

For a much earlier merging of popular culture and orchestra check out Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra on one of Deep Purple's DVD's. Lord wrote every note without help. The performance was dubious because back then just wasn't taking it seriously enough to proactice, but the commentary track is pretty entertaining.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

The best mash-up that I've stumbled upon recently:


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Then there was this entire album:


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

http://angelcitychorale.org/about/thechoir/


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> The best mash-up that I've stumbled upon recently:


HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Oh my Goddess. . . . . . I'm DY-ING.

This is definitely going on at work tomorrow.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

It's good to let your hair down and act silly once in a while. The symphony has the rest of the season to be serious.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

"Amused" is highly subjective. It is my understanding that some people are amused by being present during 'waterboarding'.

"Offended", by [adjective deleted] perversions of the art of classical music - that makes sense only if you are, officially or by your own volition, an arbiter of what is proper. Note that 'proper' and 'appropriate' have different meanings.

OK Clavi, I am relying on you to take up the gauntlet.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Amused, something different and a bit of fun. Why not?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

starthrower said:


> It's good to let your hair down and act silly once in a while. The symphony has the rest of the season to be serious.


Good point, one can't take everything serious :tiphat:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

All the women shaking their booties on stage. A circus; funny with a degree of derision.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I've always found this extraordinarily amusing, even if it's only half a minute


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2016)

clavichorder said:


> It did in fact happen. What other bizarre "classical crossover" have you heard about? I wonder what the Seattle Symphony performers were thinking...


What a ******* mess?


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

clavichorder said:


> It did in fact happen. What other bizarre "classical crossover" have you heard about? I wonder what the Seattle Symphony performers were thinking...


Lord have mercy.

We are going to depend upon that generation for our pensions.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Hahahaha...sorry my venerable geezer friends. I apologize on behalf of my generation.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

clavichorder said:


> It did in fact happen. What other bizarre "classical crossover" have you heard about? I wonder what the Seattle Symphony performers were thinking...


I don't like that kind of stuff. It's either classical or butt-shaking mania. I understand that people like dance music and I have no problem with that, but classical as a musical form is entirely different. In conclusion, either or, combining doesn't work well in this case imo.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Cosmos said:


> I've always found this extraordinarily amusing, even if it's only half a minute


It is amusing, I agree, but pretty pointless .


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> It is amusing, I agree, but pretty pointless .


Beyond pointless :lol:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I laughed my face off. I mean, I think it's absolutely dumb and disgusting, but it's still hilariously absurd.

If I was in that orchestra, I'm not sure if I'd be laughing though. It would be humiliating. At least it's not bringing attention to _me _per se, and I can hide behind the celebrity on the front stage.

I almost accompanied a funk singer before, a couple years ago. The non-music-major Orchestra at my school was asked to accompany a famous DC funk singer, but then he declined the night of the performance to have us accompany him after all... -_- It was going to be cool though, not like accompanying rap where you repeat the same thing over and over.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I live in a multi-cultural, post-modern world. I speed down the highway in an automobile that is the product of the latest technologies: anti-lock breaks, monitors of temperature, air pressure, road conditions, GPS, etc... I pass digital animated billboard, neon beer signs, the latest strip malls, and abandoned factory warehouses that are 100+ years old. During this drive I flip through my satellite radio stations listening to Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzell, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, the Rolling Stones, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. 

Nearly 100 years ago Picasso argued that the greatest art of our/his time was the result of the merger of the "high" and the "low". He suggested that "High" or "Fine Art" left to its own ossified and become boring and academic. "Low" or "Popular Art", on the other hand, left to its own devices wallowed in trite cliche and the vulgar. The solution, he felt, was an art produced in the manner in which the Renaissance aristocracy produced its heirs: a melding of the "high born" and the "low." 

As a visual artist I wholly agree with Picasso. Considering the repeated fears that "classical" music lacks accessibility and relevance... especially among the younger audience... I find myself wondering whether Picasso's argument might have some relevance for the "classical music" world?


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Not as bad as some of the garbage that I have been forced to perform.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

arpeggio said:


> Not as bad as some of the garbage that I have been forced to perform.


I agree at least the audience was very engaged with the music and orchestra.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

I don't know. Does it matter? You people love getting worked up. The SSO plays _plenty_ of "real" traditional and contemporary classical. Really great programming. I saw them play Berio's Sinfonia last month. Full house. A friend of mine (who goes more than I do) says that's pretty standard, so I see no reason to resort to "pandering" to explain this concert--maybe they just thought it would be fun...?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Cosmos said:


> Beyond pointless :lol:


Ask Richard Osman:lol:


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2016)

It doesn't have to be a crass clash. The Pet Shop Boys incorporate classical motifs in a creative manner:


(Ok, I've just seen the word copyright at the bottom of the link I posted so....search "Pet Shop Boys classical sampling" and you'll find a very good commentary blog.)


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

dogen said:


> *It doesn't have to be a crass clash. *The Pet Shop Boys incorporate classical motifs in a creative manner:
> 
> (Ok, I've just seen the word copyright at the bottom of the link I posted so....search "Pet Shop Boys classical sampling" and you'll find a very good commentary blog.)


No, not all. This is decent.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Adam Weber said:


> I don't know. Does it matter? You people love getting worked up.


Well, it _is_ the decline of Western civilisation, after all! :lol:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Adam Weber said:


> I don't know. Does it matter? You people love getting worked up. The SSO plays _plenty_ of "real" .?


It is fun to get worked up sometimes, and to get others worked up...

Yes, I agree that SSO has fantastic programming. I heard Nielsen's fourth in November I think, and they also played Martinu 4 and Britten violin Concerto. In other words, they are adventurous programmers even within the bounds of 19th and early 20th century music.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Pugg said:


> Ask Richard Osman:lol:


Lol I'm too American for that joke...flew over my head & I had to google him


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## rspader (May 14, 2014)

Well, it was the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Pretty much anything goes here in western Washington!


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

I smiled till it hurt...No offence taken, just a bit of fun. 
Once I saw Dame Vera Lynn sing "We'll meet again" With Hawkwind for a backup band. Nothing much upsets me after seeing that! :lol:


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

Oh so stogy. No matter what, some just have to complain. Always with the negative waves.

I have played concerts like this. With the right musicians and the right arrangements they can be a lot of fun.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Well, and there is more to the context here. Sir Mixalot is notoriously from Seattle and unknown outside his late nineties hit, "Baby Got Back". He is far from a gangsta rapper and also is more a local iconic person than a mainstream pop sensation. This particular event is much more possible in Seattle than any other place, excepting maybe Portland OR Tacoma. And even though his song is raunchy and some of the women are being very silly, he maintains a relatively classy presence, with good humor.

But still, it is true most of the audience will never go to hear the wonderful programming in the same hall, of Nielsen, Britten, Schnitke, Varese, Dutilleux(I state these programming choices with pride for my city)...Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Holst Planets or even the annual Beethoven's 9th or Handels Messiah for New Years/Christmas.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

I think this is one of the most embarrassing songs I can think of.


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