# Classical music composed by rock/pop artists



## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

Today on XM, I heard a piano piece composed by Billy Joel in a classical style. I thought it was pretty good! I also know that Ian Anderson took a bunch of his Jethro Tull songs and arranged them for string quartet, which I thought was interesting, though they still seem basically like rock songs, just with different instrumentation. Even punk/metal rocker Glen Danzig has written stuff that is at least advertised as being classical, though I didn't care for it.

Has anyone heard anything else in this category that they liked?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Paul McCartney · Working Classical




Paul McCartney talking about classical music and composing


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Mister Meow said:


> Has anyone heard anything else in this category that they liked?


Nope!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Me neither 🙁


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

hammeredklavier said:


> Paul McCartney · Working Classical
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I saw McCartney’s ballet “Ocean Kingdom.” Plotwise, sort of a variation of “The Little Mermaid.” Other than having his name attached to it, it was not memorable. It quickly disappeared from NYC Ballet’s active repertoire.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

remembering McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio" that he didn't really write; Carl Davis did the work, Sir Paul got the credit. Yanni is more of a classical composer than McCartney, and I can't tolerate the likes of Yanni.


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## CLASSICAL LOVE (Sep 2, 2020)

Claudio Gizzi (born 1946). Here is a 'delicious' little harpsicord piece in baroque style ('Romanza graziosa') from the 1987 long playing 'Musica antica vol.1'. Gizzi mainly writes electronic music and music for films.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Mister Meow said:


> Has anyone heard anything else in this category that they liked?


No.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Apart from Billy Joel and Paul McCartney, there's also Joe Jackson (a symphony I will not play again), and both Roger Waters and Rufus Wainwright have composed operas that I have been able to avoid hearing. The best that I've heard (although still far from brilliant) is the work of Tony Banks, keyboardist and founding member of the rock band Genesis. He has released three albums of classical compositions so far.


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## CLASSICAL LOVE (Sep 2, 2020)

Another very interesting example of contamination: the great french conductor Pierre Boulez engaged with Frank Zappa's music.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulez_Conducts_Zappa:_The_Perfect_Stranger


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## CLASSICAL LOVE (Sep 2, 2020)

This is a great LP from the historic rock ensemble Emerson Lake & Palmer: Works (vol. 1, 1977).


1st Movement: Allegro giocoso: 0:00 - 9:24 
2nd Movement: Andante molto cantabile: 9:25 - 11:37 
3rd Movement: Toccata con fuoco 11:38 - 18:27


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

CLASSICAL LOVE said:


> This is a great LP from the historic rock ensemble Emerson Lake & Palmer: Works (vol. 1, 1977).
> 
> 
> 1st Movement: Allegro giocoso: 0:00 - 9:24
> ...


I thought it enjoyable too until I became immersed in classical. 
Now it grates on me. It is hollow, tinny. Without a full body.


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## pkoi (Jun 10, 2017)

Zappa has a lot of classical works, some of them are quite good, I think. If I remember correctly, he was mostly into music by Webern, Schoenberg, Stravinsky & Varese. Here's a pretty little dodecaphonic waltz he wrote as a young man:


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Danny Elfman should be mentioned. Started out doing rock (Oingo Boingo) but his genuine ability to write in a classical style proved impressive and he's now done a lot of movie scores; and some are really, really great. Now comes the classical concert music. I heard the violin concerto a few years ago with the Scottish National Orchestra. It suffererd by being about 25% too long. His new cello concerto was pretty much savaged in the press. But there's a great musical mind at work there; who knows, maybe he'll give us a symphony some day.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

CLASSICAL LOVE said:


> This is a great LP from the historic rock ensemble Emerson Lake & Palmer: Works (vol. 1, 1977).
> 
> 
> 1st Movement: Allegro giocoso: 0:00 - 9:24
> ...


Yeah, *ejlr'*s comment is pretty accurate. 

Unfortunate for such a brilliant musician such as *Keith Emerson* to write a keyboard concerto that is so average it's grating. The *first movement* wanders around aimlessly, dabbling in little flashes of pointless piano virtuosity (There's some clever stuff in it, but it doesn't _hang together_ as a tidy movement), while the *2nd movement* seems like filler, a mere afterthought. 

The *3rd movement* is jolly good though, echoing some rip-roaring *Prokofiev* and *Stravinsky* stuff in grandiose style; the only real problem here is that it's been done before, and better. 

I'm not saying it's a _bad_ concerto, just not stellar. A real let down from a fabulous musician and composer.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I _appreciate_ *McCartney*'s Classical work, but it's more a vanity project, like many of his other projects, like The Fireman, or the Give My Regards to Broad Street film and soundtrack. 

I don't blame him for his forays into other genres, in fact he's done that his entire career, even with the Beatles; from string quartets to reggae to music hall, country folk, to practically inventing heavy metal in an attempt to be louder than The Who.

McCartney put together the *Liverpool Sound Collage* way back in 1966 (or thereabouts), an electronic pastiche of who-knows-what (it's never actually been released as it was originally created). There was his *Thrillington* album, an oddball orchestral Pop-Classical and Big Band version of *Ram*.

But yes, the *Liverpool Oratorio* was a collaboration with McCartney's name on it (and the libretto was sometimes pretty awful), and the others are all somewhat generic pseudo-Classical. Again, as with the *Keith Emerson's Piano Concerto No. 1,* none of it is _bad_, it's just _OK_. Nothing _objectionable_, and nothing really outstanding. I think he reached his pinnacle for orchestral music in his addendum to *Eleanor Rigby*, titled *Eleanor's Dream*, from the Broadstreet soundtrack. Very film-sountracky. More of a successful short-form programmatic _Tone Poem_.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Excepting the likes of Zappa (arguably), rock and pop musicians generally do not have the skillset and experience required to compose a cohesive classical piece. The genre makes substantial demands of its practitioners and it often takes many years of practice to achieve some measure of competence within such a complex medium.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

This was awful. I'd rather listen to The Cheeky Girls writing a symphony.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

CLASSICAL LOVE said:


> Another very interesting example of contamination: the great french conductor Pierre Boulez engaged with Frank Zappa's music.
> 
> 
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulez_Conducts_Zappa:_The_Perfect_Stranger


Contamination? I don't think Boulez was forced in to doing something he didn't want to do. Neither Kent Nagano who conducted the LSO in several Zappa pieces recorded in 1983.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Merl said:


> This was awful. I'd rather listen to The Cheeky Girls writing a symphony.


If you think *Standing Stone* is awful, do NOT listen to *Liverpool Oratorio*. 

Personally, I don't think Standing Stone is "awful". But it's not "great" either. It's somewhat bland and unremarkable, but not in any annoying or aggravating way. I think it may make for some rather excellent background music. It sounds like a second-class soundtrack score. 

My overall critique is that *the orchestrations are excellent*, but composition itself is shallow and fairly basic. I'll listen to it now and then, as I kind of like it, even though intellectually I'm quite aware it's substandard. Complexity and perfection are overrated.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Money, publicity and egos are involved. As long as we have celebrity culture these crossover attempts will happen, even though the probability of a fine rock songwriter bursting out as a classical orchestral composer is low (you have to work your way up to doing these things). Incidentally does anyone know if the word "kitsch" is still permitted, or would one be attacked for elitist speech?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Has anybody heard this one? I think it's Billy Joel's attempt at classical music, but I've never gotten around to hearing it.


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## Mister Meow (10 mo ago)

Manxfeeder said:


> Has anybody heard this one? I think it's Billy Joel's attempt at classical music, but I've never gotten around to hearing it.


I listened to one of his Inventions which I found on YT, which is part of this collection. I thought it was really good and ... inventive! 🤔 This piece will only take 1 minute of your time.  

Here's the link:


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Roger Knox said:


> Money, publicity and egos are involved. As long as we have celebrity culture these crossover attempts will happen, even though the probability of a fine rock songwriter bursting out as a classical orchestral composer is low (you have to work your way up to doing these things). Incidentally *does anyone know if the word "kitsch" is still permitted*, or would one be attacked for elitist speech?


Permitted and appropriate.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

pianozach said:


> Yeah, *ejlr'*s comment is pretty accurate.
> 
> Unfortunate for such a brilliant musician such as *Keith Emerson* to write a keyboard concerto that is so average it's grating. The *first movement* wanders around aimlessly, dabbling in little flashes of pointless piano virtuosity (There's some clever stuff in it, but it doesn't _hang together_ as a tidy movement), while the *2nd movement* seems like filler, a mere afterthought.
> 
> ...



Yeah, I am a pretty big ELP fan, but this does not appeal to me at all.

Emerson got big assistance, especially with regards to orchestrations, from conductor, composer, John Mayer (not _that _John Mayer).

John Mayer


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

One of the best prog bands from Italy, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, composed and performed this excellent recording, Di Terra.

I think it is possibly the most successful 'classical' piece from a rock band.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Mister Meow said:


> I listened to one of his Inventions which I found on YT, which is part of this collection. I thought it was really good and ... inventive! 🤔 This piece will only take 1 minute of your time.


I like this one. It has energy and conviction. Billy Joel as classical composer is new to me. Happily, he succeeded in what he attempted, absorbing the Bach keyboard style and added some updates. His father was an engineer and classical pianist; his brother Alexander became a conductor in Europe. Looking forward to knowing more of Billy Joel's classical work.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Roger Knox said:


> I like this one. It has energy and conviction. Billy Joel as classical composer is new to me. Happily, he succeeded in what he attempted, absorbing the Bach keyboard style and added some updates. His father was an engineer and classical pianist; his brother Alexander became a conductor in Europe. Looking forward to knowing more of Billy Joel's classical work.


Yes, *Billy Joel* is one of the truly successful crossovers from Popular Music to true Classical Music.

Um, I thought of another, although it's a crossover into _film_ music:

*Trevor Rabin*, very successful in South Africa with his band *Rabbitt*, and subsequently internationally with the band *Yes*. After leaving Yes he went into film and TV scoring, and has been quite successful. I didn't bring him up before because of the controversial debate of Film Scores vs. Classical Music. He's scored over 40 feature films, and he orchestrates his own scores.

Probably his best known film scoring work is from *Remember the Titans*, which has been used for broadcasts of football games, the Olympics, and Sports TV shows, sometimes without his knowledge. You can even purchase a version for marching band.

Here's that suite and a few others:


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Johnny Greenwood, lead guitarist for the band Radiohead, is classically trained.

2004’s _Smear_ was premiered by the London Sinfonietta and in the same year Greenwood was announced as Composer in Residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Here is some of his classical music.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Oh, almost forgot:

Chick Corea

I just posted about his Septet: A Beginner's Guide to Classical Music


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Lead guitarist of the US band, The National, Bryce Dressner is classically trained. He received his Master's degree in music from Yale University, having studied classical guitar, flute and composition.


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## RandallPeterListens (Feb 9, 2012)

I too heard the Billy Joel piece ("Aria" I think it was called). Didn't know that he tried his hand at concert piano pieces. I liked the first few bars, but then it sort of it just rambled on for way too long. It just drifted - he got away from the melody, went off into different tacks that didn't quite seem like variations or connected to the main theme.
As to your original question, I would suggest Jon Lord's (ex of Deep Purple), "To Notice Such Things". This is spoken word over orchestral music. I found this quite a nice and moving piece. Kind of classical "lite", but quite listenable. Certainly not a composer manqué like, say, McCartney.


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## FrankE (Jan 13, 2021)

I quite like some of 坂本龍一 's work.
Some of the producers I worked for / helped promote were at conservatory.


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