Pop music played by an orchestra, is that classical music?
 

Hey,

I was wondering... If pop music gets played by a symphonic orchestra, can you call it classical music? Where is the line from then on?

No, it's still pop music, but a variation of it. Classical music is a very broad genre, but pop doesn't fall under that umbrella.

adapation
 

but I suppose if the arrangement of such songs are partially rewritten, you are in some way composing a new song that can turn in to a classical piece, even if the original is a pop song?

Why would changing the arrangements suddenly make it classical?

What about pop or rock songs that already have orchestral elements to them when they're originally written?
That doesn't suddenly make them classical music does it?

So the answer to your original question the answer is no, it's orchestral music.
If I were to play Sex Farm Woman by Spinal Tap on a mandolin that doesn't suddenly make it a folk song.

What categorizes it is not so much the instruments used but by who wrote it. Since the song was written by either a professional songwriter or a one or more band members (and not by a composer for orchestra instrumentation) it falls under the mega-umbrella of Popular music. It's still a pop song, it's just that it has been transcribed to be played by an orchestra or for solo, duo, trio, quartet, etc etc performance.

No, the fact that "Sex Farm Woman" is a old Welsh mining song is what makes it a folk song.

More often than not it makes it Muzak

I would think if the arrangements are modified in such a way that the new 'classical' version becomes a piece of it's own, in some cases you can start to speak about a classical piece.

What Night of the Proms does: invite pop artists and have their music played by an orchestra (and choir) (notp.com), this clearly doesn't make it classical music.

But if you go one or a couple of bridges further than that, it must be possible to result in a classical piece, even if the original is a pop song?! (can anybody name examples of this last scenario?)

So would you guys consider this classical?

Jose Feliciano - Flight of the Bumblebee

@DwnWthVwls - Flight of the Bumblebee was composed in 1899 by the Russian Rimsky-Korsakov.
Originally it is supposed to be an orchestral interlude for the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
To me this is indeed classical:



The version you posted is an arrangement of an orchestra work.
It's not originally composed for the guitar, so this is an interpretation.

For me, most definitely not.
Of course one could argue and harangue each other with endless variations of the definitions of classical music and whether simply a form of orchestra, symphony, sonata or whatever of a piece makes it classical or whether it has to have been written before C20.:finger:

Pop music can be arranged in a classical style. I am not sure whether that makes it classical music. Is Gerswhin's music classical? Or is it jazz music arranged in a classical style? I think his intentions play a large part in the decision. He wanted to write classical music. Then maybe it is up to us to change our attitude to the subject. If someone intends to write classical music using ideas from another genre, maybe we should give them a fair hearing.

Hell no! I don't even think new "classical" compositions nowadays should be named Classical since it's not classical.

"Classical" is a finicky term. To many, it means, "that old music, like Mozart and Bach and stuff. It has Violins." To Classical Music junkies, it often means music from the Western classical tradition, but specifically from the Classical period, ie, post Baroque, pre-Romantic, with Beethoven included or excluded ambiguously... To any musicologist, "Classical" music is just the music of the 'educated' musicians, anything that is passed on by strict, theorized, often notated pedagogy, rather than pop or folk....

BUT, we can probably agree that we just mean, "Western-Styled Music from the Classical Tradition."

In which case, it depends. If you mean the Boston Pops, then no. It is not classical any more than The Beatles were classical when they hired an orchestra. On the flip side, it's perfectly possible to compose classical music for drum set, two guitars, bass, and a pop singer.

If the music itself is "pop" in nature, then it remains "pop" even if "classical" musicians perform it.

And, not to be a pedantic snark, but there IS a big difference between "classical" and "Classical," as regards music. Lowercase, it is very broad, and signifies any music that comes from a musically literate tradition, be it European, North African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. Lowercase, it differentiates only from "Folk" and "Pop."

Capitalized, it refers specifically to the period, you know, after-Bach, before-Chopin. Many also extend the term to apply to earlier and later composers who don't stray too far, thereby including Guillame de Machaut and Palestrina as well as Wagner and Debussy, etc.

It's a tricky term, but I think we know what the OP was really asking about!

TLDR; Classical is a tricky term, but Orchestral Pops and the currently trending "Epic" filmscore are not really classical in ANY sense of the term.

yes! even if playe dby orchestra pop music is orchestra music still.!

Mr. Feliciano's version is total surf music. It doesn't sound very good though.

Whether it turns into Classical music or not depends upon the way it was "recomposed". If it's done adhering to composing principles of one or another style of Classical music (maybe add a basso continuo or whatever), it is classical, as much as a song that takes Classical music and turns it into a rock ballad is actually rock.

Yes!


There is a classical 50 Shades of Gray version of Beyonce's Crazy in Love and it is also played by a classical orchestra.