What do you think of electronic remixes of classical songs?
 

I'm rather split, as I love Dance Dance Revolution, which has TONS of techno classical mixes that are super fun. Sometimes, though.... it just sounds so wrong. Anyone have a strong opinion one way or another? :crazy:

Interesting topic, I have heard lots of great videogame music that mixes classical and techno to good effect and a fair bit of pop music too.
I've always liked the Pet Shop Boys and many of their songs have samples of classical music either in the intro or as part of the track,check out "all over the world" "left to my own devices"
and "Miracles". They also did an album called Battleship Potemkin mixing electronic music with classical its nothing amazing but does have a few interesting moments.

There has been a lot of bad electronic/classical hybrids. I heard someone made Disco-Lps in the seventies, which was a symphony orchestra playing famous themes over a discobeat... And there has been a lot of bad stuff like that. But it can be interesting. Mathew Herbert just did a remix of Mahlers unfinished 10th or something like that. And the way The Orb used Steve Reich in Little Fluffy Clouds is classic.

It's generally (generally of course) one of the laziest, most unoriginal, most self-indulgent and downright disrespectful things to do in music. ESPECIALLY when all you're doing is taking Eine kleine Nachtmusik and putting BASSDRUM-HIHAT-CLAP-HIHAT over top of it, then inserting synths and calling it your own. Electronic music is brilliant when it seeks out new ways to express previously-discovered material. Sadly, the gap between now and the days of classical music (a ****ing vague way to talk about classical music but I digress) being at its peak are so far apart that few people living today have any idea on how to sample and arrange it in an interesting way (mostly because few people take the time to actually explore the incredibly rich variety of classical music that exists and just look at it briefly and without any depth).

Unless we're talking about 20th century New York composers, in which case, go wild. The gap is small and you can likely get just as much out of it as you can jazz.

Damn, you beat me to it. I totally agree with all of that.

Although a lot less well-informed, I agree with Gregor XIII and clutknuckle too: there`s a lot more bad out there than good.

Is this the right place to mention Walter Carlos, who did some quite respectful transpositions of classical music to the moog synthesizer back in the early days of electronica ?

i don't like much merging classical with electronic

only update I did like was the disco version of Beethoven's 5th on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack - that one is cool

Sure disco/techno **** is going to do classical a disservice.

But there are many electronic transpositions of classical that are exemplary.

A fav being Kazdin & Sheperd -Everything youve wanted to know about the moog but were afraid to ask for





Tomita of course.

Camerata - The electronic Eric Satie

Kraft & Alexander - 1812 overture

I like it if this counts.

It's been a while since I've watched the movie, but I seem to remember a part of Beethoven's 9th Symphony being played with synthesizers or the like in A Clockwork Orange. But I could be completely wrong. I just remember lots of synthesizers and Beethoven.

I liked it though, whatever it was, but I'm pretty sure that it was just a transcription and not really a remix.

EDIT: I should really look more thoroughly for videos before posting. >.>

YouTube - A ClockWork Orange, Ultra Violence

I like this 're-mix' of The Slow Train, originally by the Kings Singers. Done by lemon jelly.

I also like 'Love Is Psychedelic' by Fantastic Plastic Machine. Don't know if you would call it 'classical' but I love dance music that uses an orchestra.

Oh! And I love Finished Symphony by Hybrid.

I personally like any dance music that uses instrumental instruments. I just love the sound.

P.S. i cant insert links untill I have posted 15 times. But they are all on YouTube :laughing:

is electronic mix same as house music?

If it is good, then why not? Good way to get the younger generation singing the old tunes.

Venetian Snares does classical pretty well, as far as breakcore goes. I don't know, remixing seems like it's more lazy than what Venetian Snares does. He samples. Is there a difference in definition? When I hear the word "remix", I instantly think of really lame mainstream techno. Hate to sound like a pretentious jerk, but they are more often than not "pieces", not songs. Songs have a specific definition, think "sung". Not everything that is sung is a song though. It is a reference to the form. This is very important when talking about classical music.

Check out Venetian Snares - Szerencsétlen

Those LPs are awesome. Tomita is a bit cheesy at times, but its fun.

I think
 

they are great.

I would love to hear a collab between royksopp, and a classical composer.

I like it if it's done right!
I love classical music, but I also enjoy the sound of a synth, so combined under the right circumstances I think it can be quit great!

Found this, what do people think of it? Nice ideas but maybe a bit confused. I would have liked to see it be a bit more focused. Pretty cool sounding though!!

8-Bit Variations on Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
https://soundcloud.com/gangleri/8-bi...ons-on-mozarts

I think there are a lot of good ones and a lot of bad ones.

I can't really get into the whole hardcore scene... where the bass drum just pounds the hell out of everything ... think of hardcore mixes of the russian classical song used in the Tetris game... it gets old fast.

Some electronic songs sound amazing though. If you're lucky enough to find a producer of electronic music who is willing to transpose a 5/4 classical piece into a 4/4 beat, you can have some amazing things happen.

I've personally reworked a few classical songs from midi inputs from NES/SNES chiptunes. While these aren't classical in tonality (use of digital sounds, rather than actual instruments), they are classical in design a lot of the times because due to the technology back in the 80s / early 90s... electronic music for games didn't have much tonal capabilities to what they have now due to sampling rates using so much memory in the games. Sound producers had to really stretch music back then to be interesting, and the only way they could do it was to revert to classical styles.

Most of the time it sounds like garbage, but I think sometimes if it's played live it's not bad, because the performers tend to put more actual thought into it if they're in front of a live audience.

What makes you say that?

I agree, a lot more bad then good. But then, I'd go so far as to say that most classical music in general is, if not out-right bad, mainly bland and/or derivative. Any genre, in fact. That said, composing certainly takes more dedication than remixing/adding beats.

The topic seems to have split into two topics, remixes, and classical with electronics. The former, I will agree, has to be VERY well done to be interesting.

The latter, I happen to love. If we're talking well done modern music, composed for synthetic or electronic instruments, I'm all in! (Go figure, that's a lot of what I've been writing lately...)

Anyway, there's my two cents. Re-mixes should be approached with as much taste, passion, skill, and creativity as original compositions, and I firmly believe that Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Chopin, and certainly Ravel, would have KILLED for access to even the most basic MIDI technology of today. Can you imagine what Stravinsky might have done, had he made it to the 80's, or if he was somehow still composing today???

Thanks for the interesting topic and dialectic!
-Zack

Interesting side-note, I believe it's Wendy Carlos at this point. I though they were two different people for a while...