# Olympic Closing Music



## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Well, the Olympics is done for another year :wave: I watched some of the closing ceremony and was as bored as the dog sleeping on my fireplace. I sometimes wonder whether I am merely prejudiced against pop music, but I must admit I was genuinely completely uninterested from the Beatles to Muse to Queen through some people I'd never heard of :guitar:. However, I thought I'd "look on the bright side of life" (which I did enjoy) and wondered what I'd put on if I were in charge of the ceremony, and thought I'd make a thread on it. _Ode to Joy_ is a bit cliched. I thought perhaps all the Pomp and Circumstance marches, with Land of Hope and Glory at the end, would be enjoyable and also English for the nationalistic side of things. Of course, Haydn's _London_ symphony would also be pretty good, as well as suitable, if a little less jingoistic 

So what music would you have chosen for the big closing ceremony?


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

It was pretty underwhelming that's for sure.
Be prepared for some very silly answers to your question. Including the inevitable "anything by Ligeti" from you know who.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> So what music would you have chosen for the big closing ceremony?


Shostakovich String Quartet No. VIII


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

Petwhac said:


> Be prepared for some very silly answers to your question. Including the inevitable "anything by Ligeti" from you know who.


I am waiting for Ligeti, Tristan (I dread to think), and everything  I've even done Haydn at least it was quite relevant I thought.

Also, you haven't said what _you_ would put on


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Sydney in 2000 closed to Wagner and Mahler. They know how to do fireworks in Sydney.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Yes - it's unfortunate. I kind of hope that foreigners who have come to witness the Olympics don't think we all have crass musical taste in crappy boy bands and establishment based formula pop/rock. It was just utterly cringe inducing. Watching crappy boy bands mime on a moving articulated vehicle is not a reflection of the traffic jams witnessed in the greatest carpark of Europe in the M25 around London. Neither is watching the metaphor of 'hip' ethnic stereotypes doing drumbeats with rubbish bin lids moving like miniature King Kongs on stage very inspiring. 

You know - after listening to it all, I just wish they'd stopped the closing ceremony after the National Anthem. It just went down the pan, inviting newspaper journalists to make comparisons with the Empire.


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

Petwhac said:


> Including the inevitable "anything by Ligeti" from you know who.


Was that really necessary? You know that's very provocative yet you still post it.

Anyway, Elgar's Enigma Variations (probably Nimrod) would seem appropriate.


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## Petwhac (Jun 9, 2010)

Ramako said:


> I am waiting for Ligeti, Tristan (I dread to think), and everything  I've even done Haydn at least it was quite relevant I thought.
> 
> Also, you haven't said what _you_ would put on


To be honest, dunno. For Britishness an Elgar medley with some Enigma, Cello Concerto, Symphonies and Gerontius. Purcell.
How about Steve Martland's Street Songs-they're very good. Some of Michael Nyman's better stuff might be tolerable.
Umm.... I'd need to think if you wanted a serious answer.
If we're going with the pop angle...
Where were Pink Floyd when you need them? And I thought Jagger might have strutted on for a cameo as he is in the global british pop icon category I would have thought.


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## StevenOBrien (Jun 27, 2011)

Toddlertoddy said:


> Was that really necessary? You know that's very provocative yet you still post it.


Well, it's not like he's quiet about his opinions.


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

Toddlertoddy said:


> Was that really necessary? You know that's very provocative yet you still post it.
> 
> Anyway, *Elgar's Enigma Variations (probably Nimrod)* would seem appropriate.


The bait has been set.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

For those who didn't win medals, we might go with Purcell: "Remember me! But oh, forget my fate!"


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I think I would have ended it with the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel so everyone could stand and leave after. 

Kevin


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

StevenOBrien said:


> Well, it's not like he's quiet about his opinions.


But if you ignore it and stop recognizing it, it goes away.

Just like racism. (At least that's the theory).


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## Toddlertoddy (Sep 17, 2011)

pjang23 said:


> The bait has been set.


Wow, I just realized how stupid I am to say that. I didn't follow the Olympics, so I had no idea that it was played in the opening.


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## Ivanovich (Aug 12, 2012)

http://www.classical-music.com/news/britain-land-without-music-knowledge


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Head_case said:


> Yes - it's unfortunate. I kind of hope that foreigners who have come to witness the Olympics don't think we all have crass musical taste in crappy boy bands and establishment based formula pop/rock. It was just utterly cringe inducing. Watching crappy boy bands mime on a moving articulated vehicle is not a reflection of the traffic jams witnessed in the greatest carpark of Europe in the M25 around London. Neither is watching the metaphor of 'hip' ethnic stereotypes doing drumbeats with rubbish bin lids moving like miniature King Kongs on stage very inspiring.
> 
> You know - after listening to it all, I just wish they'd stopped the closing ceremony after the National Anthem. It just went down the pan, inviting newspaper journalists to make comparisons with the Empire.


I don't know about boy bands, some of them were geriatrics.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

A bit long-winded, but I enjoyed most of the music, in particular Brian May. It was a good overview of British music of the past five decades. The main disappointment for me was that after all the rumors Kate Bush did not perform live.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

why should classical music be welcome at this event. the snobs are usually mocking anything remotely modern.

i thought the music was fantastic and well used. the dancers and lighting matched the music well. it flowed very smoothly given the amount of things going on.

something from the present, the 90s, 80s, 70s and 60s.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

The closing show was dedicated to pop music.

I think they did, in this case, a good job. I got chills when i saw imagens of Freddie Mercury...but they had to wreck it with that girl singing "We will rock you". I smiled with the Spice Girls also, i confess. Unfortunately i do not know much of the new "singers". Any other music than pop music would not be appropriate (whether baroque music or black metal)

But if the Olypimcs reunite the best sportmen and sportwomen in the world, if the Olympics not only gathers everyone to see the best in sports, why shouldn't the music match it?

Although i love listenning to The Beatles, etc. in the music universe, the human race has reached so far and it is a bit disappointing to see how we'd rather play pop music. But hey! That's life. Bieber is rich and mozart died poor hehehehe


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Ivanovich said:


> http://www.classical-music.com/news/britain-land-without-music-knowledge


Surprising, considering GB is the land of the Proms. Maybe here across the pond, we think it's a bigger event than it really is.

Brian May has been a favorite of mine for well over 30 years and I follow his blog regularly.
http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssb.html


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> The closing show was dedicated to pop music.


Yes, but it was described as 'A Symphony of British Music', so it really didn't have to be just pop - and indeed it wasn't, unless you count the London Welsh Male Voice Choir and Julian Lloyd Webber as 'pop'. It was, however, a very poor representation of British music as far as I'm concerned, but I'd have kept the John Lennon 'Imagine' thing if only for the opportunity to get this verse across to a huge audience which would include those who need to listen: 
"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace" (How many of you are now going 'yoo-hooooo-oo-oo-ooo' in your minds?)
Also, I'd _definitely_ have included 'We Are the Champions' after the 'We Will Rock You' song by Queen, after all the people who took part in the Olympics are all champions. They're not heroes, but they are champions.


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

There was actually a Proms concert for the close of the Olympics. The piece was Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. I don't know why they picked that piece in particular, but it's a more imaginative choice than the one for the start of the Olympics, which was Beethoven's Ninth.


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## bassClef (Oct 29, 2006)

Let's be honest anything classical would have held the average person's attention even less than the pop/rock held yours - the music they chose IS more popular, like it or hate it. I hated some (spice girls ESPECIALLY) and liked some. The musical segment in the opening ceremony was better.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

bassClef said:


> Let's be honest anything classical would have held the average person's attention even less than the pop/rock held yours - the music they chose IS more popular, like it or hate it. I hated some (spice girls ESPECIALLY) and liked some. The musical segment in the opening ceremony was better.


It doesn't have to hold people's attention. It has to make the whole ceremony more cultural, more classy. I think people appreciate that even if they don't want to dance to it.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Toddlertoddy said:


> But if you ignore it and stop recognizing it, it goes away.
> 
> Just like racism. (At least that's the theory).


It won't go away I can assure you!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Lunasong said:


> Surprising, considering GB is the land of the Proms. Maybe here across the pond, we think it's a bigger event than it really is.
> 
> Brian May has been a favorite of mine for well over 30 years and I follow his blog regularly.
> http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssb.html


The Proms were on and still are. It's the biggest music festival in the world/
I don't think culture is really wanted for the closing ceremony.
It was dire and so after the three guys had got their marathon medals, i switched off.


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