GAAAHHH!! The Robert Shaw Chorale singing 'The Lion King' is NOT Classical music

The BBQ Pit
1

Or whoever it is, some serious choral group on my CLASSICAL music station, rockin’ and rollin’ their way through the soundtrack to The Lion King. Helloooo? this is WILL-FM in Champaign-Urbana, Central Illinois’ finest classical music station. Yes? Not Top 40. Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, not Elton John.

“Everybody look right…
Everybody look left…
Oh, I just can’t wait–to be king…”
GAAAAAHHHHHHH

And as long as I’m here, neither is Rodgers and Hammerstein “classical music”, you clod of a programming director. Who are you? Come out from behind there, I see you skulking back there! I DO NOT WANT to hear a lot of white-bread classically trained singers attempting to shimmy and shake their pathetic way through the carefully scored jazz elisions of “Hakuna Matata.” Sixteenth notes all over the place, oo-oo-oo-oo.
And what gets into people like this, that they have to RECORD this kind of stuff.

Big finish, big finish, AHHHHHHH. AHHHHHHH. AHHHHH…

Finally it’s done, race into the kitchen to see who perpetrated that.

Ah. Perfect. :rolleyes:

The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers.

God Bless America.

2

I guess it’s probably bad form to crack up in the Pit, but, DDG, that was one of the funniest things I’ve read all day! It brings back memories of hearing 101 Strings or whatever playing Devo’s Whip It…

3

Well if the Univ of Illinois can’t field a decent football team…what makes you think they can discern classical musical? :smiley:

…d&r… <go Hawks>

4

…frickin keyboard…never types what I want it to…“musical” should be “music” of course…

5

Welcome to one of my pet peeves.

When I go to MP3.com’s selection of Classical music, I see the following among the options:

Baroque
Film Music
Medieval

What’s wrong with this picture? THEY AREN’T CLASSICAL!

6

Every year on April 1, I always look forward to the local classical station playing the entire soundtrack to “What’s Opera, Doc?”.

Kill da waaa-bit…Kill da WAAA-bit…

7

Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been Fred Waring. :wink:

At least on the classical radio station in Philly they had a Broadway afternoon on Sundays where they’d play one entire pre-1970’s show - “Carousel,” “King and I,” etc. Yeah, it wasn’t classical, but where else are you going to hear it? There’s a market for it, so they play it.

Sadly, “classical music” no longer just includes the classical period - anything from chant to 20th century composers is fair game. Me, I like the variety, but there you have it…

(Besides, I also listen to country! :eek: )

Esprix

8

You purist. I guess that Bernstein’s, Charles Ives’ or Stravinsky’s works are too modern for your notion of classical.

9

Robert Shaw Chorale? Is that the reef where the shark crapped out Quint’s remains?

10

FTR, the term “classical music”, as generally used by classical music lovers everywhere, does not mean merely “music from the classical period, i.e. Beethoven through Brahms”.

It means music that is not:

Rock
Pop
Rap
Country
Jazz
Folk
EZ Listening
Muzak
Movie soundtracks
Broadway musicals.

Gregorian chant performed by monks is classical music.
Gregorian chant performed by a synthesizer perked up with a hip-hop drum machine is not.

Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphony #3” is classical music.
Leonard Bernstein’s “Suite from West Side Story” is not.

J.S. Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” performed on an organ is classical music.
J.S. Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” performed on a Moog synthesizer by Walter Carlos is not.

Music of the Medieval period is classical music.
Music of the Renaissance period is classical music.
Music of the Baroque period is classical music.
Music of the 20th century is classical music.

Charles Ives is classical music.
Stravinsky is classical music.

Pachelbel’s “Canon” is classical music.
Vitamin C’s “Graduation (Friends Forever)”, which, in case you aren’t familiar with it, was a Top 40 hit in May 2000, and which, Borg-like, assimilated Pachelbel’s “Canon”–is not.

The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers performing Bach’s Mass in B Minor is classical music.
The Indiana University Singing Hoosiers performing “Suite from The Lion King” is not.

The definition of classical music is like the definition of obscenity–I know it when I see it, or in this case, when I hear it.

And–trust me–the the Indiana University Singing Hoosiers performing “Suite from The Lion King” is obscene.

11

Wendy!! Gah!

12

Samuel Barber’s ‘Adiago for Strings’ performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra is, arguably, classical.

What about Samuel Barber’s ‘Adiago for Strings’ as performed by William Orbit? No drum machine or upbeat tempo, no ‘re-interpretation;’ it’s every bit as heart-wrenching as the original, only performed on a synth.

Is the latter still considered classical?

If so, is ‘classical’ merely a matter of the instrument used?

13

Dammit. “Adagio”.

14

Hey! Brahms is ROMANTIC!

You meant “Haydn through pre-Eroica Beethoven,” dintja?

– Ukulele Ike, the Perfect Wagnerite

15

But DDG was referring to a work (“Switched on Bach”) that was done under the name “Walter”.

This leads to an interesting manners question: if an artist changes names (or anything else), does one refer to their earlier work by the new name? Prince’s Purple Rain remained Prince’s Purple Rain even after he changed his name to that glyph. And for example, if Tom Clancy changed his name to Natty Bumppo, would we refer to it as “Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October” or “Natty Bumppo’s Hunt for Red October”?

If we are unable to come to a resolution, I shall write Miss Manners (in blue or black ink) for her ruling on this matter!

Ever striving to be proper,

Fenris

16

Fenris - I thought she insists on blue-black ink?
On the same lines as the OP:

One of our classical stations has taken to playing not only “non-classical” music (soundtrack to Chocolat, Andrea Bocelli’s “Con te partiro”, et al, ad nauseum), but is now playing “corporate classical”. This is classical music that businesses can play in their stores or on hold, without jarring their customers [no Ives, Bartok, Stravinsky, vocal opera (instrumental suites are okay)]. In addition, they play only part of a larger collection: e.g., playing only “Jupiter” from Holst’s The Planets, without playing the other pieces. Kind of like displaying the "Mona Lisa " with the left eye, upper lip and hair digitally erased.

Oh god, an even worse thought: the “Mona Lisa” as painted by Thomas Kinkade.

I’m gonna go play some Mahler, for my own sanity.

17

Having a sex change operation in mid-career does not entitle one to go back and erase the collective memories of millions of classical music lovers. “Switched On Bach” will ever and ever in my mind be associated with the name Walter Carlos, and if Wendy has a problem with that, too bad.

I don’t object to classical music performed on odd instruments as long as the finished product is faithful to the spirit of the original. I don’t care whether it’s the Boston Pops or Master Dance Remixer Orbit performing the Barber “Adagio”, as long as the resultant music doesn’t make you wanna get out on the dance floor and strut.

And I will admit that Bach doesn’t sound half bad on a Moog. My objection to “Switched On Bach” was mainly the “Hey, lookie here!” aspect of it, as though Walter/Wendy and the recording industry had just discovered Bach all by themselves. “Hey, there’s like this really groovy cat named Bach, lived a long time ago…”

Us classical music lovers didn’t need a “Bach revival”, because as far as we were concerned, he’d never been away.

18

I agree, “The Lion King” is not Classical.

Most of the Classical radio stations I am familiar with have a special hour each week to play film music, and show tunes. This is fine. Actually, I am a big film music fan, so I am never offended to hear a little bit of Bernard Herrmann or Jerry Goldsmith on a Classical station. Usually they are small pieces used to fill in an hour’s program. (At least that’s what they did on L.A.'s late Classical KFAC.)

I also understand that there is a distinct line between “West Side Story” and “Symphony #3”, but what about Prokofiev’s “Lt. Kije”? This is film music. As is Copland’s “The Red Pony”. Are they to be forever forbidden on a Classical station because of this?

I personally prefer a bit of latitude on programming for Classical stations. I mean, if “Under Fire” by Jerry Goldsmith is going to be played anywhere, it’s going to be played on a Classical station. No other radio format would play it. And I think it deserves to be heard - it’s fabulous, and certainly would fit in fine (IMO) with most of the other “Classical” music being played on such a station.

19

Bach was considered passé after his death. Mendelssohn was instrumental (haha) in reviving his music, even if they did get a little schmaltzy with the dynamics and overly-holding the fermatas.

Never had the Walter/Wendy Carlos albums, but I do miss my old LP copies of The Swingle Singers “Back to Bach” and “Bach’s Greatest Hits”. (Note - that is not me selling it.)