Recently, I ran across an interesting post by Kathryn Judd, a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s marketing team, called Rachmaninoff Goes Pop. It showcases famous Rachmaninoff melodies which were turned into pop songs.This got me thinking about how many other melodies from classical music have found their way into pop music.
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]Stranger in Paradise[/typography]
The first music to come to mind was the Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor by the Russian Romanticist, Alexander Borodin (1833-1887). First listen to this beautiful melody as Borodin wrote it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YabEfOQRG3U
The 1953 musical Kismet adapted Borodin’s music. Here is how it sounds as Stranger in Paradise:
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]A Groovy Kind of Love[/typography]
You wouldn’t think that the Rondo from Sonata No. 5 by Clementi (1752-1832) would be ripe pop song material…
…But it became A Groovy Kind of Love, released in 1965 by Diane and Annita, and later covered by Phil Collins in the 1980’s:
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]Apocalyptica’s Hall of the Mountain King[/typography]
Here is In The Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDi8Smb4KeI
The Finnish progressive metal band Apocalyptica created its own version of the Grieg. The descending chromatic intervals in the melody and the chord progression seem at home in the rock genre:
[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]What Do You Think?[/typography]
In the Baroque era and earlier it was common to “steal” melodies. Handel used popular melodies, as well as recycling his own. Later, composers paid tribute to existing music and sometimes influences subconsciously crept into their writing. Leonard Bernstein made a clear reference to the end of Stravinsky’s Firebird in Make Our Garden Grow in Candide.
This kind of musical adaption can work as long as the new creation brings its own unique slant and as long as it’s done with musical integrity. When classical music is dumbed down and sanitized (a melody stripped of its original rich harmony), it is a true desecration. What do you think? Are the examples above musically successful? Should pop musicians look to classical music for ideas? What other pop songs do you know which draw inspiration from classical music?
Totally agree – I was interviewing Dreadzone (grew out of Big Audio Dynamite) the other day and several of their tracks are classically inspired. Also how about Procul Harem’s Whiter Shade of Pale (Air on a G String). Glad you mentioned Apocalyptica as if you hadn’t I would have done! I’m about to start doing a classical music programme on radio once per week and was already thinking that one of the programmes would be classical music used in pop – ‘crossover’ music. What’s classical music education like in the States? I’m trying to get it back on the curriculum over here in the UK!
When I was a naive teenager (many moons ago), I mentioned to a work friend that I liked Manfredd Mann’s ‘Joybringer’. He said that I should listen to ‘the real thing’ and brought me in The Planets (this was pre CD days).
I got home that evening, plonked it on the old Fergusson gramophone and I’ve never looked back!
Nowadays about 70% of my collection is classical music.