Metal and classical convergence

[Conservationist]

I think this should be one of the main goals of this site. Both share the same philosophy: good or evil be damned, epic/interesting/architectural is what matters!

Some recent newsbits:

Many years ago, we read members of Judas Priest and even Metallica claim that heavy metal is based in classical music, and we laughed. "Classical music was for wusses," we thought. "And clearly nothing on Master of Puppets or Screaming For Vengeance could be mistaken for Mozart or Beethoven. Sure, guitar wankers like Yngwie Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine paid homage to dudes like Paganini and Tchaikovsky, but their music wasn't really metal. Yeah, it was loud, but it was also unlistenably pretentious. Then came the Internet and a couple of musicians from Taiwan and we were forced to admit that maybe Priest and Metallica knew what they were talking about, after all.

For anyone that hasn't seen this video of a South Korean teenager playing a ripping heavy metal version of "Pachelbel's Canon in D" by Johan Pachelbel, here's the 411. The song was originally arranged by Taiwanese compose Jerry Chang, but this popular Internet version -- which has been viewed over 24 million times -- is played by Jeong-Hyun Lim, who goes by the name FunTwo.

Divide Between Metal and Classical Music Narrows

The riff, they would call it "ostinato", is very common in many forms of classical.

Heavy metal fans and classical music aficionados have always considered themselves worlds apart but new research suggests they have more in common than they might think.

A study of more than 36,000 people worldwide showed that although the two groups may not share a taste in clothes or come from the same age demographic, their personality traits are "virtually identical".

"I was struck by how similar fans of heavy metal and classical music really are," he said.

"Apart from the age differences, they were virtually identical. Both were more creative than other people, both were not terribly outgoing and they were also quite at ease."

Prof North, head of the university's department of applied psychology, said he thought both types of music had a sense of theatricality about them which may appeal to similar types of people.

But he said a number of musical stereotypes were confirmed.

"Fans of country and western tend to be more hard-working, fans of reggae were more at ease and fans of jazz were more creative.

"It's as though they're choosing the music to tell the world something about themselves."

Heavy metal and classical music fans find common ground

Makes this morning's Respighi -- the dominating, brutal, overpowering Church Windows -- even more fun.

[Eleison]

In terms of musical theory metal and classical are completely different, metal theory is closer to early music in terms of style, mode etc.  On a more subtle level we can observe similarities in the construction of metal songs and classical pieces, not so much in terms of structure (ABA ind of crap) but in the inter-relationships between ideas manifested as themes.  I think classical theory leaves a lot to be desired in terms of its range of expression, it certainly falls short of early music and eastern music in this regard, so metal really has the best of both worlds.

[Necrophiliac]

Many years ago, we read members of Judas Priest and even Metallica claim that heavy metal is based in classical music, and we laughed. "Classical music was for wusses," we thought. "And clearly nothing on Master of Puppets or Screaming For Vengeance could be mistaken for Mozart or Beethoven. Sure, guitar wankers like Yngwie Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine paid homage to dudes like Paganini and Tchaikovsky, but their music wasn't really metal. Yeah, it was loud, but it was also unlistenably pretentious. Then came the Internet and a couple of musicians from Taiwan and we were forced to admit that maybe Priest and Metallica knew what they were talking about, after all.

I literally cannot find words to express the brazen idiocy of the person who wrote this.

[Humanicide]

Many years ago, we read members of Judas Priest and even Metallica claim that heavy metal is based in classical music, and we laughed. "Classical music was for wusses," we thought. "And clearly nothing on Master of Puppets or Screaming For Vengeance could be mistaken for Mozart or Beethoven. Sure, guitar wankers like Yngwie Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine paid homage to dudes like Paganini and Tchaikovsky, but their music wasn't really metal. Yeah, it was loud, but it was also unlistenably pretentious. Then came the Internet and a couple of musicians from Taiwan and we were forced to admit that maybe Priest and Metallica knew what they were talking about, after all.

I literally cannot find words to express the brazen idiocy of the person who wrote this.

Typical dumbass of the crowd.