Rychard the Lionheart Wrote:...It would be interesting to know what type of music Mozat or Bach, even Beethoven would have written for the electric guitar...
Assuming they chose to write for it, I wonder how much the considerations of today's market-driven arts world would have made a difference? I think Mozart would have been an innovator, a brilliant player and a superb showman. He'd have taken the guitar into territories the rest of us could not even dream about. I'd see him as a performer/composer in the spirit of Jimi Hendrix or Nigel Kennedy. Bach (JS presumably?) would probably have written several volumes of technical exercises that would keep the likes of Steve Vai amused for hours at a time and which, in two hundred years' time, would come to be known as the greatest guitar music ever composed. He'd probably spend his nights playing in his local jazz club. Beethoven? I'm not sure about him. Maybe he would have joined the Wyld Stallyns and helped bring about world peace, although maybe he would have been just as likely to have been disenchanted with the whole music scene and gone to live in the Hebrides in splendid isolation.
Very interesting observations Marshlander, which composer do you think would have writen music for heavy metal or electronic/new age? And how would they react to people like Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre?
fredv3b Wrote:Marshy, would anyone in today's world employ Haydn as the Esterházy family did?
Maybe, but he'd probably be freer to do his thing with Arts Council grants. Stranger things have happened though. I was talking to one of PA's colleagues last week who tells me that her ex has just been appointed to be the official photographer with one of Western Europe's royal families. Peter Maxwell Davies is the current Master of the Queen's Music (and he does live in the Orkneys ), but I doubt that he earns anything approaching a living wage from that position.
Matt, music is a personal choice, different people like different music. Don't worry about it, just keep them coming.
Marshlander, I like the thought of today's rock musicians trying to play a classical piece as a classical piece. Elton John playing harpsichord, Phil Collins on kettle drum, just a couple I can think at present. You could probably find some better examples then me.
I don't know if it's fair to define musicians solely by the way they make most of their money. I work with musicians from many fields of music and am privileged to have one of the country's top classical violinists in my ceilidh band. My keyboard player is a formally trained classical pianist, but his main love is jazz and he can turn his hands to playing anything (for example, we were playing an arrangement of a traditional Romanian tune at a gig on Tuesday night and in the middle he burst into a Cuban montuno rhythm that worked perfectly. At a party we were at a couple of years ago he sightread his way through a Gluck sonata that the violinist handed him). The drummer in another band I'm in is a classically trained percussionist with lots of orchestral experience, but we play Cuban music together. My formal musical diplomas came through being a recorder player, but I earn much more of my income as a relatively untrained percussionist - I have to work quite hard to make up for my lack of experience.
Many musicians who have made their livelihood through rock and popular music have been through a formal music education. Many are music conservatoire graduates. My violinist was at the Royal Academy just as Annie Lennox was leaving, I believe. The quality of training for all musicians is higher these days than it has ever been. The UK's musicians are renowned and sought after by orchestras around the world because they are often very versatile and have excellent sightreading skills. In addition places like the Guitar Institute provide an excellent level of training for people who prefer to specialise in rock and pop music from the outset, the University of Newcastle has a folk music degree that has raised the game in folk music immeasurably in recent years and Leeds has its jazz specialism, York and Norwich electro-acoustic and new music and so on.
As a fan of the band, Sparks, for 37 years my proudest moment was seeing Ron Mael play Kurt Weill with an ensemble from the wonderful London Sinfonietta a few years ago.
Good choice ... now this is a work you MUST see and hear live to get the real wash of the strings! Did you know this movement was written years after the first three?
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And how would they react to people like Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre?
), but I doubt that he earns anything approaching a living wage from that position.
