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In a recent LJ post, [livejournal.com profile] athenawindsong mentioned that Lacrymosa, one of the songs on Evanescence's new album, The Open Door, actually uses the music from Mozart's Requiem. (Unfortunately, it's not credited in the liner notes.)

Other bands have used classical music in their songs. Renaissance and Emerson Lake & Palmer come to mind. I'm far from being a classical music expert, so I can't name the music that either band used unless I read the liner notes. That is, if they're even credited.

And Spinal Tap played a version of Boccherini's "Minuet" in the movie.

What other bands/performers have used classical music as part of their compositions?

Date: 2007-02-27 05:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peteralway.livejournal.com
Let's see. I remember some 70's top 40's tune whose title was probably "renegade" that used a snippet of Dvorak's New World Symphony (4th movement) as an opening. Was that Barry Manilow that had a song based on a Chopin piece--I think the lyrics went something like "Could this be the magic at last." ANd of course, one of the local oldies stations has been playing this motown tune "Lover's concerto" which is a frustrating adaptation of Bach's Minuet in G. And there was a pop instrumental that was just called "joy" in the 1970's based on Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring." OK, technically it was Bach's countermelody to the older (written by Martin Luther not-King?) hymn of that name.

And of course, Procol Harem's "Lighter Shade of Pale," which everyonone thinks is based on a Bach piece, but isn't.

Date: 2007-02-27 05:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ocean-star.livejournal.com
Isn't classical music now public domain? Doesn't make it right, but it could be the reason why it's uncredited.

Date: 2007-02-27 05:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bikergeek.livejournal.com
I keep hearing "Whiter Shade of Pale" every time I hear Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over".

There was a disco version of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain back in the 70s.

Yngwie Malmsteen recorded Paganini pieces on electric guitar.

And if you want to be kind of loose about the idea of a song being based on a classical piece, watch the Pachelbel Rant.

Date: 2007-02-27 05:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] filkerdave.livejournal.com
There was the entire album "A Fifth of Beethoven"

And "Hooked on Classics"

Date: 2007-02-27 06:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hawklady.livejournal.com
> Was that Barry Manilow that had a song based on a Chopin piece--
> I think the lyrics went something like "Could this be the magic at last."

That's from Prelude in C Minor by Chopin, I *think*. Don't hold me to it.

Date: 2007-02-27 06:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hawklady.livejournal.com
One of the songs I point to as an early example of filk ... Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda ... TTTO of Dance of the Hours by Ponchielli.

Sting used classical music in a couple of recordings ... "Russians" had a haunting line from the Romance bit of Sergi Prokofiev's "Lt Kije Suite". And he used a Bach cello concerto for "All This Time".

Rachmaninoff piano concerto #2 has had different bits taken for different songs: "Full Moon and Empty Arms" and "All By Myself"

There's a whole lot more, although most isn't as obvious as the above.

Date: 2007-02-27 06:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hawklady.livejournal.com
> Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda

Forgot to give credit - Alan (Allen?) Sherman

Date: 2007-02-27 11:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zorya-thinks.livejournal.com
Apollo 100, "Ode to Joy". Totally Beethoven.

Date: 2007-02-27 12:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] athenawindsong.livejournal.com
Only if the composer has been dead for 70 or more years. This means Aaron Copland, John Cage, Philip Glass, Leonard Bernstein, the Gershwinn brothers - most 20th Century composers are off limits.

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