January 17, 2005

• Well, let's get the staggeringly obvious Barber's Adagio for Strings out of the way good and early. (From Platoon, in case anybody didn't know.) Simple, effective, staggeringly clichéd. Right. Now somebody who really knows about classical music can actually be of some help.
• I just downloaded Carmina Burana and you wanna talk about cliched. I'll check Adagio for Strings out. Thanks flashboy.
• Heh :-) ... well, at least I didn't say Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Now that's what I call a spare, plangent, stirring, and very, very obvious suggestion...
• I actually thought about making a similar video, but my iMovie-fu is weak... Totally sappy and leading, I know, but my choices were either Karma Police by Radiohead or Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver.
• Vivaldi Spring..
• because chicks did it.
• My opinion on the Barber Adagio is that it's a little hackneyed in this context, precisely because of its use in Platoon. That being said, it's still a very evocative piece. Here's a suggestion: Samuel Barber did a choral version of Adagio for Strings titled Agnus Dei. It uses the "Agnus Dei" text from the Ordinary of the Mass, and the words work very well when wedded to the transcription of the Adagio. The Robert Shaw Festival Singers did a wonderful recording of the piece, found on the album Evocation of the Spirit. Friede auf Erden by Schoenberg and the Magnificat by Arvo Part are also on that CD and might be compelling alternate choices. IIRC Friede auf Erden is something of an anti-war piece, but I have no way to immediately check that as my ex got custody of that CD. If you do decide to use the string orchestra version of the Adagio, my personal preference is the slower the version, the better. You can look at the running time of the track to get an idea of the tempo... if the piece lasts 9 to 11 minutes, it's probably being performed at a suitably slow tempo. I'm partial to the Bernstein recording.
• If you don't mind voices, and it's a slow-and-thoughtful piece as opposed to a hard-n-harsh piece (and the possible Christian connotations weren't an issue - they were written as church music - but in context I can see that might be a problem) there's lots of very moving things by Thomas Tallis - I'd suggest either Salvator Mundi, Salva Nos or Miserere Nostri, both quite appropriate titles given the theme, I suppose. (side note: if you're not familiar with his stuff, I so highly recommend it. It's probably not right for your project, but Spem in Alium is the most glorious piece of music I know. Sends shivers down my spine every time. Find a recording by the Tallis Scholars if you can) Or Versa est in Luctum from Tomas Luis de Victoria's Requiem, conditions apply as above. Or Adagio from Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor. Or there might be something in Schubert's Death and the Maiden which might do. Paging Pallas Athena to the thread...
• 2nd movement (Andante) of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E flat major, K 364 (320d) Get this recording if you can: Isaac Stern & Pinchas Zukerman, with Daniel Barenboim conducting the English Chamber Orchestra recorded 11/1971, EMI Studios, London available on Isaac Stern: A Life In Music - Box I, released 05/16/1995 Sony Classical Catalog #: 67193 also check out the Mozart Requiem and Verdi Requiem 2nd movement (Largo ma non tanto) of the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, S. 1043
• 2nd movement (Andante) of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola in E flat major, K 364 (320d) Get this recording if you can: Isaac Stern & Pinchas Zukerman, with Daniel Barenboim conducting the English Chamber Orchestra also available on Isaac Stern: My First 79 Years
• Carmina Burana is totally hackneyed and totally overwrought. Spring is too light for your subject matter. If you need to go Vivaldi, go with autumn or winter. Much more weighty. The Requiem suggestions are also very good ones. Though I'm still a fan of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth", but you run into copyright issues and the obvious Viet Nam images.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff: Trio Elegiac. Has nothing to do with the war, but is extremely powerful. (listen to sample in above link)
• phil ochs -" is there anybody here" or... "I ain't a marching any more"
• How much is the film going to comment on 9/11 and terrorism and that whole mess as an entree into the current war? If not at all, disregard this comment. But if that's a part of the focus of the piece, you might consider the ironic use of one of the uber-patriotic songs to come out over the past couple of years. (Though I can't name anything but "Have You Forgotten" off the top of my head, I'm sure you could come up with something apt with little research.)
• If I had a Rocket Launcher,, http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/iiharl.html Not to be confused as "If I had a Rocking Lawn Chair"
• How much is the film going to comment on 9/11 and terrorism and that whole mess as an entree into the current war? A whole shit load, but we have to be careful what we use since we are trying to raise money and I'd love to stay in the public domain if at all possible. I like your general idea though.
• What is the mood you are looking for? Martial? Dirge or requiem? Dark and stormy (like Winter)? I would think towards Requiems, myself. Would Britten's War Requiem be in public domain yet, or is it too new? It certainly would fit thematically.
• The booming cannons from the finale of 1812 Overture might also have a place for the entree - especially the initial bombing of Baghdad. The contrast with the sound of cluster bombs going off (if footage is available) could be interesting.
• Oh, and, you might want to include a bit of John Philips Souza's patriotic music as required. Or, maybe that's too obvious.
• yeah, jb, I was just thinking of Britten's War Requiem. It's so damn harrowing, you'd have to make sure it didn't upstage the film footage. As far as Requiems go, Mozart's got it all-- Dies Irae for fast-and-furious, Lachrymosa for soft-and-floaty, Confutatis Maledictis for martial-sounding and doom-laden. If you're into the "single-soprano-voice-over-the-battlefield" thing, the Pie Jesu from either the Fauré or the Duruflé Requiems should do nicely. (Both of those are worth a listen, too.) Duruflé's Ubi Caritas is a tranquil, plainchant-based piece of choral music that's less well known. Another quite passionate piece of choral music that I associate with war is John Ireland's "Greater Love Hath No Man," because it's sung in most chapels on Remembrance Sunday here in Britain (the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, when the dead of both World Wars are remembered.) If you're looking for music without voices, I'm less help there, but Bach cello suites are always good, especially no. 1 in G major. Hope this helps.
• Pallas Athena - I've bookmarked this page to find and listen to your recommendations. Thank you!
• Check out Shostakovich, who spent quite a lot of time covertly mocking dictatorship and millitarism.
• For more hackneyed melodrama: The Montagues and the Capulets, from Romeo and Juliet Suite No 2, Op 64 by Sergei Prokofiev; and Mars: The Bringer of War, from The Planets by Gustav Holst. Both of these should be in the public domain in countries following only the "death + 50 years" minimum from the Berne Convention. For Berne Convention countries with extended copyright protection (eg the US) and countries outside the Convention, check your local listings. If you're going to go for recent non-public domain stuff like Phil Ochs, you can always try getting Gulf War Song by Moxy Früvous (from Barganville, 1993).
• Strauss's Metamorphosen is a moving piece written in response to a WWII bombing in Germany.
• This requires some thought, certainly, and depends on what you think of as "powerful" music. If you are looking for music that will flow underneath the talking heads without too much tinkering the suggestion of Tallis is an excellent one: Renaissance vocal music such as Tallis or Palestrina is very moving and the dynamic (volume) is pretty steady throughout: you can mix it up or down without worrying about fighting the orchestration. And the pieces (masses, motets, etc.) usually come in short sections so you might find one that actually fits. For music from that period that is a bit "bigger" (it has some strings and organ and the guy who wrote it was a bit mad to say the least) I suggest excerpting the Stabet Mater by Pergolesi. The requiem recommendations are obvious and good ones. The Mozart is full of fantastic music. If you are looking for a bit more "romantic" bombast have a listen to Berlioz's Requiem. If you want something more modern and angular then as jb and retank have suggested you would do well to listen to Britten's War Requiem. It is a draining but magnificent piece of music. That being said, the first piece that popped into my ears was the Allegretto (~11MB mp3) from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. It's a funereal piece (it was played at Beethoven's funeral if I'm not mistaken) and has an incredible intensity. The parts I am thinking of are for strings only. It is also a march, which suits your context. If you listen to the first 3 minutes or so you'll get the idea. But as with other suggestions above the intensity might overwhelm the talking heads and make it hard to mix as your timing will not match Big Lou's or Barber's or any other recordings... Depending on your deadline constraints I've been thinking about using the Beethoven 7th Allegretto (the strings, anyway) as part of my study of the orchestral sample software Garritan Personal Orchestra (demos here). I could create a ~2 minute excerpt of the Beethoven Allegretto that would be complete within itself and with a bit of tempo tinkering it could perfectly match the length of your video. For example, I would omit the initial brass harmony and might not start with the low strings but come in later when the main theme is more established. I'd be happy to do it for free (and the score is, of course, public domain) but it would take me a couple of weeks as I only have so much free time to work on learning the software (I've been using it for a few months already). If you're interested and your deadline permits my e-mail is in my profile.
• On ignored preview, outrigger's recommendation of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen I heartily second. Incredible, wonderful music. I've heard a story that he wrote it for the strings that he found in the ruins of Berlin in '44 and '45 - the ruins of the great Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He counted them and wrote an individual part for each (I think it specifies 40+ strings in the score). Amazing. But hard, if not impossible, to cut up.
• Sorry, the Beethoven Allegretto is here (~11MB mp3).
• The fugue at the end is almost an afterthought. :-)
• Err, the mini-fugue in the middle is worth attention.
• Oompah beat do it justice.
• Albinoni's Adagio in G, melodramatic as it may be, always makes me feel like someone is squeezing my heart. Strings, organ, very sad.
• Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre Eerie, dark, and really gets thundering near the end. I once heard a recording of a solo piano transcription by Franz Liszt that was amazing, but it's damn hard to find.
• It's not classical but why not something off one of the Rock Against Bush compilations?
• I don't know a lot of classical music by name, so I'm not much help on that. But. If you want, I know a guy who works as a music supervisor for films, and it's his job to fit the music to the image. He's got a good head (and plays classical). I'd also suggest looking at Creative Commons licensed pieces of contemporary music, or finding someone political who would take a pro bono commission.
• this is taking it in a somewhat different direction and from an entirely different war, but i'm terribly fond of phil klein's zippo songs. www.cantaloupemusic.com/CA21019.html klein took poems from lighters carried by soldiers in the vietnam war & set them to music. since the poems started out in public domain, he might be willing to negoiate no cost for the promotional value. also, it's not instrumental, but adrian mitchell's poem 'to whom it may concern' (tell me lies about vietnam) is one of the most powerful things i've ever heard. the version i've heard has war sounds in the background--chilling.
• Thanks for all your suggestions. I've been pretty sucessful in finding most of them on Limewire. Now I have to take a couple of hours and listen to them. Once again, thanks.
• Hey squids, you might find this AskMefi thread of interest.
• Squid, in response to your msg. to me above, maybe see if you can find some older public-domain patriotic songs (WW I? WW II?) online.