Music, Style & Culture
| Print : Web : Radio : Mobile

Adagio For Modern Classical Music

Everyone's heard the concerns of the ‘death of guitar music’ but let's not forget the violins. El Hunt explores her relationship with the modern classical movement.

Posted 16th February 2012, 11:31am in Blogs by El Hunt
El Hunt

El Hunt

Writer

Adagio For Modern Classical Music Everyone's heard the concerns of those lamenting the ‘death of guitar music’ but let's not forget that the violins, pianos and harpsichords are all quietly going strong in the background. Modern classical music, the trendier, beret-wearing younger brother of Mozart and Bach, is going through a really exciting time at the moment. I just wish I’d caught on earlier.

My lack of interest in classical music first stemmed from a hatred of the clarinet; an instrument that I spent many a painful hour producing ear-splitting squeaking noises out of. In my early teens I always heard my sister - a cellist - practicing away with more talent than I could ever dream of mustering. I sat in the next room, resentfully listening to Elgar and my particularly evil nemesis Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings in various states of completion. Every time I heard the opening sequence of Beethoven or Vivaldi’s 'Spring', I would groan to myself, and turn up Green Day instead – determined that I would never become one of those stuffy elitist classical music fans. I wanted music with solid, distortion-riddled chord progressions, and no namby-pamby piano twinkling. That kind of thing was for wusses, after all. My only forays into the scary world of orchestral music came in the shape of Walter Murphy’s 1976 disco version of Beethoven’s 5th.



Fast-forward a couple of years, and I’d stopped listening to Green Day, and mercifully also been allowed to give up the clarinet. Thank the heavens; I’d developed something that loosely resembled ‘music taste’. Grizzly Bear, Bonobo and Yann Tiersen’s music from Amélie all replaced my embarrassing pop-punk phase, and 'To Build A Home' by Cinematic Light Orchestra gave me goosebumps. Max Richter’s 'On The Nature Of Daylight' once made me cry. Goodness me, was modern classical making me go all weak and soft in my old age?



Making my first baby steps into Neo-classical music, I found out it was about far more than just French beardy guys who wear sunglasses and write about love - although Sebastian Tellier does just that beautifully in 'La Ritournelle'. It was about songs swelling with emotion, with none of the sexuality-for-sexuality’s-sake lyrics that haunts pop music. There' no need to title a song 'Ass Milk' (the imagination of Odd Future, of course) or 'Swagger Jagger' (ex-X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd) when you can write a piano score as incredible as the work of Ólafur Arnalds. It seems a travesty that the likes of One Direction, LMFAO and Tyler the Creator stole the limelight in 2011 when a flawless album like 'Living Room Songs' came out almost entirely un-noticed the very same year.



Modern classical music is going through a very exciting time at the moment. A few years ago, the only mainstream airplay classical music got was as swooping background music on nature documentary’s panning shots; now you’ll hear Einaudi sound tracking the This is England TV spin-offs and being played alongside Top 40 artists, following its recent charting after a campaign by Radio1's Greg James. It isn’t just Einaudi who’s going from strength to strength – and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by Youtube either. In 2008 Tan Dun (who penned the crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack) wrote a score for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and the result was the decidedly modern 'Internet Symphony No. 1 'Eroica'. The response to classical music on YouTube says it all – a new audience is beginning to listen to classical music. The comment sections are filled with dubstep converts, people exchanging artist tips, people sharing their experiences of why the piece moves them. Gone is the usual abuse that tediously jams every single pop music video, in fact, for once, everyone seems to be getting along without squabbling. Maybe the unifying quality of modern classical is a testament to the music.



YouTube publicity gimmicks and radio plugging aside, there’s a lot more modern classical music around. Sylvain Chauveau writes beautiful short pieces – snatches of piano and strings strewn with a residue of dust and post-punk influenced haze. Keith Kenniff is another fantastic composer, and you might well recognise his 'Orchestral – Goldengrove v2' from the iPhone 4S advert. He writes under several monikers including shoegaze band Mint Julep, and the more classically-minded projects Goldmund and Helios (see, it’s not just the electronic producers who get cool alter-egos). Each spin-off produces something a little different – whilst Goldmund deals in deceptively stripped back solo piano scores, Helios could easily be classed under the large, and increasingly welcoming umbrella term ‘indie’ with it’s easy listening feel and the kind of fuzzy ambience we’re equally used to hearing from the likes of Grimes and Four Tet. Maybe the increasingly ‘polystylistic’ (that’s musically eclectic to you and me) nature of modern classical can help to explain its resurgence. After all, with the likes of Grizzly Bear peddling classically minded wares on 'Foreground', and pick n’ mix world music influences fueling the latest Beirut album, perhaps our mind is finally in the right place to head into that dark, uncharted corner of HMV better known as the ominously titled Classical Music Section.

Once you’ve found the courage to venture into the unknown, you should probably start by heading straight to ‘J’ and picking up anything by Jóhann Jóhannsson – probably one of the best minimalist composers around at the moment. Near that will be an album called 'Riceboy Sleeps', a side project by Jónsi (of Sigur Ros fame) and his partner Alex. Any fans of Jón’s ethereal music in Sigur Rós, will be all over this like a rash, as it cranks the minimalist influences up to the level of smooth, ice-cold drone. Another Icelandic band called múm are well worth a listen if minimalism seems a little glacial – 'We Have A Map Of The Piano' is a warm, jangly song with enough wacky instrument use and pop-friendly vocals to melt any iceberg. Explosions In The Sky are another band who bridge the gap between ‘popular’ and ‘classical’ music with ease, writing score-worthy songs of epic aspiration - absolutely chocka-block with the intensity that sometimes only comes from classical music. Peter Broderick also occupies the warmer side of the spectrum, but with the odd folk influence a la mandolins and gently picked guitar managing to creep in. The truth is that modern classical has become an umbrella term in itself. Musicians can’t fail to be tinged by classical music in some shape or form – it is, after all, music’s starting point, and it’s weaved it’s way up through jazz, blues, rock and electric ever since. The only difference is that now, in the 21st Century, musicians are far happier to wear their influences on their sleeves.

If you’re still not won over (silly you!) you’ve probably been listening to classical music by accident anyway. The Verve’s 'Bittersweet Symphony' is packed out with a dramatic string section, and Biffy Clyro ends 'That Golden Rule' by flying off on a classical tangent. The euphoric 'One Day Like This' by the Mercury Prize winning Elbow would be nothing without that incredible violin part. If you look very carefully, there’s a hint of German Baroque influence in Oasis, even if it is initially hard to picture Liam Gallagher sitting quietly through a concert without heavily offending someone in the nearby vicinity. Just take a listen to this:



So even if you live in a lead-lined bomb shelter with limited musical guidance, the flowery violin piece 'Canon in D Major' by Johann Pachelbel will ring a few bells. Now try singing, “look inside the eye of your mind” over the top, and don’t you know you might find, that yes, Liam and Co have nicked the tune. It also appears that during all those years I spent defiantly listening to Basketcase, I was inadvertently listening to the very same set of famous classical chords – the Canon Progression. There’s seemingly no escaping classical music. For every die-hard fan of Philip Glass or Michael Nyman, there are ten accidental fans, people who utter the eternal phrase “I don’t normally like classical, but...” Surely that has to say something special about the music. Modern classical composers don’t provide us with the petty band dramas that keep us hooked. There are no arguments or break-ups, and you’ll never see Brian Eno throwing a strop before he goes on stage. The truth is, if composers spent as much time faffing around as rock bands, they wouldn’t have time to write mind-blowing scores like this:



Maybe you’re in awe of Yann Tiersen because of the way he subtlely incorporates French folk music and makes it minimal, or because you think he’s the modern Chopin. Perhaps, like me, you couldn’t care less. Classical music just sends that shiver down the spine that you only get from listening to a perfect song, and that’s enough, isn’t it? I’m pleased to say that after years of rehabilitation, concerts and clarinet aversion therapy I've managed to revise my ill-conceived opinions; 'Adagio For Strings' is now one of my favourite pieces of music.

Click like to get the latest music news, hottest tracks and more via Facebook.

Comments