After listenning to GF Haendel's "Messiah" (a baroque version by Ensemble Mathéus with A.Schoenberg choir), it seemed obvious to me that Haendel and Purcell have, in a way, defined the aesthetic of British music.
It's quite hard to define, but I just can't count how many times I've been thinking of those two great composers, while listenning to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and especially entire pieces of Queen 70's album (SHA, ANATO, ADATR)...
For me it's in the colouring of sound, the use of harpsichord
or maybe it's just that those two great composers were so ahead for their time, and would have be able to have major hits, nowadays!
I was wondering if I was the only one hearing it...
cheers, and sorry for not being able to post a topic in one shot...
I try my best, but I mostly play the Viola (classical musicians will know what I mean...), even if I try to look like a guitar player...
It's mostly because they were ardent proponents of classical harmony, which still defines most popular music. But I think this is primarily a psychological thing. You can find a whole host of influences for every composition in the history of mankind, if you look hard enough. Händel and Purcell are unlikely to have been conscious inspirations for the rockers you named, as their interest in classical music would focus more on the Romantic era.
"For me it's in the colouring of sound, the use of harpsichord"
That is a purely individual association; the instrumentation, and thus timbre, of Purcell's and Händel's orchestrations bear little if any resemblance to rock-arrangements like those of the artists you mention.
ThomasQuinn wrote:
"For me it's in the colouring of sound, the use of harpsichord"
That is a purely individual association; the instrumentation, and thus timbre, of Purcell's and Händel's orchestrations bear little if any resemblance to rock-arrangements like those of the artists you mention.
I'm not sure you get me well:
I meant that I can hardly think of any non-british rock band has ever used harpsichord in their arrangement
when you can hear some (occasionnaly) in songs by groups I mentionned (and others)
and when I write about the colouring of sound, it's in lack of a better word, I'm talking about what I feel about the way the harmony moves along...
of course the influence isn't of a direct type, but I really think Purcell and Händel helped defining some kind of british sound (as well as Haydn is quite typical of a Viennese classical sound), and that they had, in this way, influence way past over music genders...
Harpsichords are used by many artists internationally. To name but a few non-British who used harpsichords: The Beach Boys, The Mamas And The Papas, Björk, Arcade Fire. Modern classical composers who have used it include Poulenc, Philip Glass and Yannis Xenakis.