Experiments in style: More musical variations
Experiments in style: More musical variations
Why?
Greetings!
In the last ‘experiment in style’ I looked at musical variations, for the simple reason that the original idea — Exercises in Style, by Raymond Queneau — had been inspired by Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
In this post I wanted to explore this a little further, and raise a couple of questions. But mainly the purpose of this post is to share more examples of variations, for your enjoyment.
Do they always work?
I think the answer to this depends on what the musician is trying to achieve. For instance, although the Hooked on Classics rendering of well-known classical pieces isn’t as good as the originals, if they were intended to get people interested in exploring classical music for themselves then perhaps they were a good idea.
Do they work musically?
I think some do, and some don’t. However, it does show what amazing music the originals were to be able to reworked and mangled and yet still be, in most cases, listenable to!
I’d love to know what you think of some or all of these variarions. One of them is, in fact, a parody, which isn’t quite the same as a variation. It still works very well though in my opinion.
And now, for some music
The music featured here comprises:
Hooked on Classics.
Curved Air’s Vivaldi.
Asturia’s Vivaldi.
Bach’s Air on a G String.
Jacques Loussier’s Air on a G String.
Dudley Moore’s Beethoven Parody.
Victor Borge playing the William Tell Overture backwards.
A disco version of Beethoven’s Fifth.
A mash-up of Vivaldi and Led Zeppelin.
Les Dawson getting “Oh you beautiful doll” badly wrong.
Hooked on Classics
Curved air’s Vivaldi
I think the beginning and ending of this isn’t too bad, but the middle is cacophonous. It’s a hard rock version.
Asturia, electric strings quartet playing Vivaldi’s Storm
Bach’s Air on a G String (original)
Bach’s Air on a G String — jazz version
Dudley Moore’s parody of a Beethoven sonata
He captures perfectly Beethoven’s tendency to say, “I’m finishing now; hang on, I’m definitely finishing this time; wait a sec…!
Victor Borges plays William Tell backwards
A Fifth of Beethoven, by The Walter Murphy Band
2Cellos play a Beethoven and Led Zeppelin mash up
Les Dawson’s version of Oh you beautiful doll
Well, what do you think?
I’ve scheduled another variation of the ‘Bang on the head’ story for 14:00 UK time on 21 January 2024. See you then.
The first notes of the first piece, Hooked on Classics, immediately took me back to 1987 when I first took an aerobics class, complete with a bouncy floor, mood lighting, lots of mirrors, leg warmers, and albums on a turntable for the music. Hooked on Classics was used for warming up. 😄
Bach's Air on a G String was part of my family's "Sunday music": my mom made sure classical, baroque, etc. music filled our house on Sundays. Thanks for that lovely memory - this was one of my favorite examples.
All this to say that more than listening to each piece in its own right, I was overtaken by memories of specific times in my life when I listened to many of the examples you included. "Do they work musically?" was your question. My answer is, music works in and through me in ways unexplainable, tied to memories more than the musicians or style or genre. Music works if I remember something I haven't thought about in a long time, initiated by the music. Great post.
This is fascinating, Terry!
I remember listening to 'Sky' albums as a fairly small child - you know, the instrumental rock group - and played 'The Ride of the Valkyries' on Sky 4 over and over and over and over again. Must have driven my parents round the bend - although they only have themselves to blame for buying the record in the first place! 🤣