“You play violin in an orchestra? That’s ‘ dead’ music. “You play rock guitar? That’s for morons!”
Thankfully the above statement would be unlikely to be said today. Over the last twenty years (?) there has been a fantastic crossover in music and an interesting fusion/blending of styles which is mutually beneficial to the musicians in terms appreciation, knowledge and contacts that lead to friendships and possible future work.
East is East, West is West and Never the Twain shall Meet!
Like the old corporation days of the beeb (BBC) crossing to commercial channels was frowned upon. You were either BBC or the rivals. You were expected to stick with the beeb and show loyalty.
Slowly over the years, the mighty ‘beeb’ has lost its sheen, with deregulation and various scandals. Deregulation brought a breath of fresh air and new blood and saw a crossover of staff from both the commercial sector and BBC and this helped lose some of the stuffy attitudes and snobbery, in case you don’t know, the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation was the official media and propaganda organ of the united kingdom before commercial tv began.
OLD BOYS NETWORK
The beeb was known for its public school, oxbridge types with their superior snobby attitudes and as the years rolled by they were still woefully out of touch with societal changes. It was really in the 70’s that visible change had occured and forms of music and art other than classical and ballet began to surface.
In the 70’s most pop ballad singers appeared with orchestras on telly due to Musicians Union rules and crossover was an hitherto unknown word or concept until (if I’m correct) the band Deep Purple brought out an album with orchestral backing “Deep Purple in Rock.”
Since then, there have been multitudinous projects involving crossovers.
SISTERS (AND BROTHERS) ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES…ENTER THE DOLLIES AND DUDES!
Over the last ten or twenty so years orchestras have gotten visibly younger and gender balaanced. Whereas previously it was primarily the domain of men with the odd one or three ‘token’ females, orchestras nowadays are mixed, young and vibrant!
No longer is classical music seen by some as dull, snobby or dead music and equally, by the same token, rock musicians at the top level are seen as equals in the same brother/sisterhood. In other words, talent is talent, whatever the genre.
Yehudi Mhenuin was a great admirer and friend of the equally virtuosic jazz violinist Stefan Grapelli. The classical composer George Gershwin had a penchant for jazz too. Modern composer Michael Nyman has worked with various rock bands in live orch/band gigs and YES’ ‘Symphonic’ dvd (which I bought) features a youhful orchestra of young professionals all dancing and enjoying the band’s music at the end of the performance.
A BEAUTIFUL COLLABORATION FOR THE FUTURE
So, I’m excited for the future of music and pleased as punch that musicians of all genres are mixing and sharing respect for and enjoyment of music in its glorious totality.
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