London Philharmonic Orchestra
Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd and Kashmir: Symphonic Led Zeppelin
Nov 21, 2006
Are you a classical musician who is also a closet rock fan? Or perhaps, on the flip side, are you embarrassed to disclose the fact that you own albums of classical symphonies and concertos? Perhaps picking up a few copies of some classical music versions of rock will solve the apparent disparity between the genres: the London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a few albums that pay tribute to "rock legends." In addition to their numerous performances of classical music standards, the British ensemble has also recorded Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd (1995) and Kashmir: Symphonic Led Zeppelin (1997).
Is this an unusual move? Metallica has also experimented with the union of heavy metal and symphonic orchestra, but then again, heavy metal and 19th-century Romantic music share many stylistic values. The elements of fantasy, horror, virtuosic performance, and aggressively intense emotive display pervade both genres. You could even compare the extensive guitar solos in metal with the Paginni-inspired violin fireworks that characterized the latter half of the 19th-century. So a symphonic/metal fusion really works because of the similarities between the two originals.
But in the case of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's cover of rock music, however, the albums are not really a fusion of two genres. Instead, one ensemble (the orchestra) pays tribute to another group (the rock band) but remains pretty squarely within its own performance style. The disparities between the groups are accordingly made more apparent, especially in areas like orchestration. A rock band is a smallish ensemble, a handful of musicians, whereas the larger numbers of the symphonic orchestra makes it capable of more expansive sound, richer in sympathetic resonances. Most of the instruments in the orchestra are acoustic, again changing the timbre of the original. The distinctive vocals of the rock band are also eliminated in the symphonic version and replaced by instrumental lines.
So there are several ways to bring classical music and rock together: one way, like Metallica, is to capitalize on the similarities between two genres. The other way, like the London Philharmonic, is to highlight the differences. Either way has its bonuses: the Metallica version comes across as more congruous. The London Philharmonic version, on the other hand, demonstrates how an ensemble can reinterpret very familiar music through the strengths of its own particular style.
