Popular Music inspired by classical

1960s-70s

Progressive Rock

Art Rock

Classical Rock

Merging Rock and Classical

• adding orchestral instruments to rock band

• writing classically-inspired works

• “elevating” rock music?

The Moody Blues

“Nights in White Satin” (1967)Nights in white satin,

Never reaching the end,Letters I've written,

Never meaning to send.

Beauty I'd always missedWith these eyes before,

Just what the truth isI can't say anymore.

'Cause I love you,Yes, I love you,

Oh, how, I love you.

Gazing at people,Some hand in hand,

Just what I'm going thruThey can understand.

Some try to tell meThoughts they cannot defend,

Just what you want to beYou will be in the end,

And I love you,Yes, I love you,

Oh, how, I love you.Oh, how, I love you.

Nights in white satin,Never reaching the end,

Letters I've written,Never meaning to send.

Beauty I'd always missedWith these eyes before,

Just what the truth isI can't say anymore.

'Cause I love you,Yes, I love you,

Oh, how, I love you.Oh, how, I love you.

The Mellotron

Protocol Harum

• “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967)

• 1) they liked its laid-back sound, man

• 2) orchestras were expensive and unwieldy

• 3) its sound could be digitally manipulated

Why did bands like the Moody Blues turn to

the Mellotron?

Jethro Tull

• “Bourée” from Bach’s Lute Suite in E minor

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Modest Mussorgsky

• Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)

• Pictures at an Exhibition (ELP, 1971)

• 1) Yes

• 2) No

• 3) Other

Does ELP successfully capture (and/or update)

the spirit of Mussorgsky’s original?

Pop Music and Theatre

David Bowie

Major Tom

Ziggy Stardust

“Space Oddity” (1968)

Ground Control to Major TomGround Control to Major Tom

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major TomCommencing countdown,

engines onCheck ignition

and may God's love be with you

This is Ground Control to Major Tom

You've really made the gradeAnd the papers want to know whose shirts you wear

Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground ControlI'm stepping through the door

And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

For hereAm I sitting in a tin can

Far above the worldPlanet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles

I'm feeling very stillAnd I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Tell my wife I love her very much she knows

Ground Control to Major TomYour circuit's dead,

there's something wrongCan you hear me, Major Tom?Can you hear me, Major Tom?Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Can you....

Here am I floating round my tin can

Far above the MoonPlanet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do.

Which is a modern-day artist who depends a great deal upon

theatricality?

• 1) Taylor Swift

• 2) Lady Gaga

• 3) Celine Dion

Queen

“Bohemian Rhapsody” (operetta, 1975)