“Pocket symphonies”: 12 examples to listen to
“Pocket Symphony” is the definition coined by Derek Taylor, the Beatles press office, for “Good Vibrations” of the Beach Boys. The happy name is used to name a job that deals with identifying and examining the numerous occasions in which classical music, with its stylistic features and forms, is served by a model and inspiration for “not cultured” music.
The work of Gabriele Marangoni is meticulous, the examples mentioned numerous (some of them were completely unknown to me), and this makes the reading of the first four chapters very instructive even for those of rock have good competence.
I asked the author a selection of songs representative of the content of his book, and below you find them presented and listened to.
Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice, “Superstar” (1969)
When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice think following the lucky “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” fantastic on a possible work inspired by Moses. But there are only a sketched melody and a text that reads “Samuel, Samuel, this is the first book of Samuel”. He will become “Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Who are you? What you have you sacrified?”, The refrain of one of the most celebrated musicals of all time, the ideal meeting point between the sacred and the profane, between cultured music and consumer music.
Leonard Bernstein, “A Simple Song” (1971)
Leonard Bernstein have never hidden his love for popular music and for less obvious combinations (this is demonstrated that he is one of the first supporters of the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble of a very young Michael Kamen). It is the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy who commissioned the composer a sui generis mass that with his endless staff and his innovative form remains one of the most original and little known testimonies of the artistic and cultural ferment between the 1960s and seventies.
Tito Schipa Jr., “L’Alba” (1973)
The first and most important Italian rock work born as a reinterpretation of the myth of Orpheus is due to Tito Schipa Jr., son of the famous tenor and actor Tito Schipa. The musical direction of “Orpheo 9” is entrusted to Bill Conti, the still little known arranger intended for the Oscar for the soundtrack of the film “Rocky”, and is characterized by orchestrations with an American taste that counterbalances the melodies most properly linked to the Italian lyrical tradition signed by Schipa Jr. Among the interpreters they also appear Loredana Berté and Renato Zero, at the beginning of the respective curses.
Rondò Venetian, “La Serenissima” (1981)
If you call you Gian Piero Reverberi and you made the fortune, among others, by Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti and the footsteps, nobody prevents you from composing instrumental songs vaguely inspired by Angelo Branduardi, with an international breath but with an Italian touch. Thus were born the Venetian Rondò, a very successful ensemble that looks to classical and baroque music (also in the clothing) embracing pop and rock sounds, conferred by the rhythmic section consisting of battery and electric bass. In the enthralling “La Serenissima”, Disco Music influences appear for the first time which will characterize many of the subsequent releases.
Ray Manzarek, “The Wheel of Fortune” (1983)
Who would have ever expected from the former Doors keyboardist an album of transcriptions of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”? The merit is of the gorger Michael Riesman (trusted collaborator of Philip Glass) and of an still little known Adam Holzman, a keyboard player already at the service of Miles Davis and today a fixed presence in the studio and on stage alongside a certain Steven Wilson. The disc is curious but enjoyable, well represented by the aftermath that combines illustrations by Hieronymus Bosch, Jan Van Eyck and modern musical instruments including guitars, batteries and amplifiers.
Freddie Mercury, “Guide Me Home” (1988)
Not happy with the results obtained with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “It’s a Hard Life”, in 1986 Freddie Mercury relies on Mike Moran and Monserrat Caballé to create an entire album in pure “Classical Crossover” style. The now sick singer concentrates the few energy left in the various recording studios that host him in the period between “Barcelona” and “Innuendo”. “Guide Me Home” is the most poignant episode of the album, and the magical agreement between Mercury and the Caballé is sealed by Moran’s superlative pianism, the true deus ex machina of a successful project, ambitious and perhaps not yet completely understood.
Elvis Costello, “The Birds Will Be Singing” (1993)
The moving song wanted by Elvis Costello’s father for his funeral is part of a four -handed album with the English Brodsky Quartet. Only when during one of their concerts the songwriter finds the courage to approach the musicians (who lively are temporarily engaged in the execution of Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert’s repertoire) discovers that they are his sincere fans. “The Juliet Letters” is a modern and successful collection of Lieder with a vaguely Shakesperian plot, which stands out for the excellent performance of the ensemble and for the intensity of Costello’s interpretation.
Art of Noise, “Born on a Sunday” (1999)
Publishing a pop disco focused on the music of the Frenchman Claude Debussy in 1999 might seem a gamble. But it is not for Trevor Horn, a multi -printed manufacturer known to most for his militancy in the Buggles (“Video Killed The Radio Star” bears his signature), in the “drama” Yes and, in fact, in the Art of Noise. The always too underestimated Anne Dudley takes a lot of his album that puts Drum and Bass, Opera, Hip Hop and Jazz to a system, described by the same formation as the potential soundtrack of a film about the composer’s life.
William Orbit, “Adagio For Strings” (2000)
William Orbit begins to work on what is the natural heir of the famous “Switched-on Bach” in 1995, but the album released in the name The Electric Chamber is withdrawn from the market at the request of Arvo Pärt, who has not previously approved the arrangements of his songs. We must wait for 2000 for the publication of “Pieces in a Modern Style”, album from the particularly daring lineup where several synthesizers of the seventies and eighties make a fine show, also protagonists in “Adagio for Strings”, a classic of American music of the twentieth century originally composed by Samul Barber.
Pain of Salvation, “Pluvius Aestivus” (2004)
“Be” lends itself well to the motto of Gustav Mahler for which “a symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything”, thanks to its intricate concept and the mix of heterogeneous influences worthy of a Hollywood Kolossal. “Pluvius Aestivus”, in particular, combines the elegance of Michael Nyman with the essentiality of Philip Glass, and the hypnotic arrangement marked by the piano of Fredrik Hermansson seems to suggest that suspended, algid and almost imperceptible atmosphere that recalls the incipit of the Mahlerian “Titan”.
Two Steps from Hell, “Heart of Courage” (2008)
It is “stage music” for the new millennium that composed of the Norwegian Thomas Jacob Bergersen and the English Nick Phoenix, who in 2006 unite the forces and publish the first music auditions for film trailer. The formula is based on epic and muscle arrangements, embellished with choirs, percussion, arches and brass, with small exotic and electrical concessions in the best kinematic tradition inaugurated by Hans Zimmer. Harmonies are often modal, closer to popular aesthetics than to the classical tradition. “Heart of Courage” was also chosen by Alberto Angela as an abbreviation of “Ulysses”.
The Dear Hunter, “Melpomene” (2016)
The last standard bearer of the “pocket symphonies” comes from the United States. His name is Casey Crescenzo, and in recent years with his Dear Hunter he has rewritten the rules of a game that can no longer be separated from the autopromeration and a careful use of social networks. Very difficult to frame, in its songwriting, the most noble progressive rock emerges, the most elegant orchestrations, the most catchy melodies and a certain taste for non -discounted solutions, also in contexts now abused as in the case of the concept album, of which remains one of the most lucid exponents.
