The pop side of classical: Evanescence, “Lacrymosa”
2006 Evanescence – Lacrymosa
It takes some courage to draw on none other than Mozart’s “Requiem” to make a pop song! Evanescence, an American group born in 1994 from the meeting in a Christian summer camp between singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody – she was 13 years old, he was 14 – had a long apprenticeship before achieving success. For years they played live as an acoustic duo in coffee shops and bookstores, but dreamed big, as Amy explained: «We didn’t have the means to play our music as we would have liked…». Strings, choirs and sounds «dramatic and cinematic» were musical desires that could not materialize because they were «just two guys in a basement».
Over the years they have developed their style, inspired by soundtracks and mixing symphonic music and hard rock, creating some self-produced records in very few copies; they bounced around from label to label until they finally released their first “official” album in 2003. Fallen. Evanescence’s music is initially promoted by their label in the Christian market, but Amy Lee and Moody make it clear in an interview that they are not a Christian rock band, prompting label president Alan Meltzer to send a letter to Christian radio stations and outlets, explaining that despite the «spiritual foundation that has sparked interest and enthusiasm in the Christian religious community», Evanescence are «a secular band, and as such they consider their music entertainment».
This is just to understand how, in 2006, the band managed to create a song from “Lacrimosa”, one of the moments of greatest dramatic inspiration from Mozart’s “Requiem”, considered the spiritual testament of the composer, completed by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr after his premature death. Having left the band Ben Moody, his place is taken by guitarist Terry Balsamo, co-author together with Amy Lee of most of the songs on the album The Open Door. The two also appear as authors of Lacrymosaalthough, as we have seen, the song incorporates large parts of the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s “Requiem”, resulting in a very particular – and fascinating – fusion of classical, gothic rock, progressive and electronic music.
Amy Lee had started writing Lacrymosa in 2004 for the film’s soundtrack The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobebut the song was rejected by the studio for being “too dark”. In love with Mozart’s work, the singer said she had always wanted to make Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” a modern song. «I saw “Amadeus” when I was nine and fell in love with Mozart. The part of the “Requiem” entitled “Lacrimosa” is my absolute favorite piece – he said in an interview with the TV station VH1 – I’ve always wanted to be able to do it again, but with programming and guitars, and make it cool. (…) Terry wrote some riffs and turned it into this amazing metal epic».
The lead vocals were recorded in a Seattle chapel, with a 22-piece orchestra conducted by David Campbell, while the choral parts are performed by the Millennium Choir. Lacrymosa has gotten generally positive reviews: in a 2021 article fromEvening Standardin which classical music artists recommend pieces of music as an introduction to classical music, conductor Kalena Bovell recommended Lacrymosa as an example of classical music’s influence on a band, writing that «Lee’s celestial voice is hypnotic, soaring over a dark melody that is elevated by the use of a polyphonic choir».
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This sheet is taken from the book “Rock Me Amadeus. The pop side of classical music, the classic heart of rock. When Classical meets Pop, Rock and Disco” by Davide Pezzi (Youcanprint, 252 pages, €19.50, available here) courtesy of the author.
What happens when Mozart, Bach or Beethoven come down from the podium of great music and find themselves among electric guitars, synthesizers and disco lights? “Rock Me Amadeus” explores the fascinating (and sometimes surprising) universe of pop, rock and disco reinterpretations of famous classical songs.
The book offers a journey that is both historical and curious, spanning decades of experiments, contaminations and revisitations. There is no shortage of pages dedicated to the less successful versions – testimonies of an era and a taste – which help to understand even better the inexhaustible strength of classical music as a source of inspiration.
With an accessible and documented style, the author guides the reader through anecdotes, records, musicians and arrangements, showing how the dialogue between apparently distant musical worlds can generate new forms of creativity, between genius and (sometimes) naive clumsiness.
