# Ever wondered how a rock audience would react to "modern" classical music?



## Ravn (Jan 6, 2020)

In case this question has ever crossed you mind, the video below will give you the answer. The video is a concert of five works of Varèse, performed in New York in 1981 with no other than Frank Zappa presenting each work during the changeovers. The pieces are performed by The Orchestra of Our Time, conducted by Joel Thome. Other than the anthropological aspect of the audience's behavior, the concert is quite interesting in its own right, with good performances and decent sound quality.

The pieces performed are 
- Ionisation
- Density 21.5
- Intégrales
- Offrandes
- Déserts


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Then there was E. Power Biggs playing Bach, calling it Heavy Organ, at Fillmore East for a bunch of hippies, including a light show.

I still think that everyone likes classical music; they just don't know it yet.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

The Fillmore audience were probably so stoned that they perhaps thought it was a jam on _In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida_ or something. I'm glad he went down well, though.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I just saw an old interview with Robbie Robertson where he professed his love for Penderecki's music. Caught me off guard a little bit, but I think that love of modern classical in the rock world is not exactly outré.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

Yes - when I read of a rock musician's genuine appreciation of classical it was usually someone from a prog band.


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## Duncan (Feb 8, 2019)

"Classical music quotes from rock musicians" -

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/rock-quotes-classical-music/

"10 TIMES ROCK AND METAL ARTISTS COLLABORATED WITH CLASSICAL MUSICIANS"

https://www.kerrang.com/features/10...rtists-collaborated-with-classical-musicians/


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Duncan said:


> "Classical music quotes from rock musicians" -
> 
> https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/rock-quotes-classical-music/
> 
> ...


Aside from Zappa's quote, these are superficial and uninteresting. Zappa was partly right about classical and top 40 adhering to formulae, but if I am not mistaking, at least in the former's case-the formula was mostly abandoned in the late 19th/20th centuries.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Duncan said:


> "Classical music quotes from rock musicians" -
> 
> https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/rock-quotes-classical-music/
> 
> ...


Meh, for a lot of these when they think "Classical Music" what they're mostly thinking of is playing Bach or Paganini as fast as they can on an electric guitar and some of these quotes reflect that.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Back in the day and during a period in my social life when rock music was my main musical diet it was generally agreed among my friends that Stockhausen and a few other avant garde composers were great. The German band, Can, were said to have been influenced by him (although I could never hear it, myself). At the same time, Tippett's Midsummer Marriage had obvious appeal to hippy types.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I attended Virgil Fox concerts in college with lots of rock music fans. They went nuts over it. Virgil was a great entertainer. He played fast, loud upbeat stuff, no Bach chorales.


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## Andrew Kenneth (Feb 17, 2018)

What happened when our rock and classical critics traded jobs? =>

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/29/mahler-versus-slowthai-pop-rock-classical-critics-trade-swap-jobs-kitty-empire-fiona-maddocks


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Manxfeeder said:


> Then there was E. Power Biggs playing Bach, calling it Heavy Organ, at Fillmore East for a bunch of hippies, including a light show.
> 
> I still think that everyone likes classical music; they just don't know it yet.


We know you meant Virgil Fox, not E Power Biggs...and yes, that was quite a big deal back then. Never caught on though.


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## TMHeimer (Dec 19, 2019)

The question reminds me when I had a college job as a security guard at age 22 (1976). Two other guards disagreed on music. Willie, 46 favoured big band stuff and 20 year old Barry liked rock. They asked me which is best since I was the music major. I went into a long spiel about how each style was diatonic, same as something written by Mozart. So they have similar tastes as opposed to some 20th century "classical" music which may have little or no tonal center at all. I liked to stir up things.....


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

violadude said:


> Meh, for a lot of these when they think "Classical Music" what they're mostly thinking of is playing Bach or Paganini as fast as they can on an electric guitar and some of these quotes reflect that.


Yeah, I think it's people like them who make comments,

_"Headbanging, Baroque style."_

on videos like this:


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