Contemporary Classics June 25, 2019 - All You Need Is Love-The Beatles in Contemporary Classical Music

Today is Global Beatles Day.   So tonight’s Contemporary Classics is called All you need is Love – classical music associated with the music of the Beatles. As it turned out the Beatles used classical music references in their music – mostly tap loops of music from classical compositions.  They really appreciated many 20^th century composers and used clips of their music or musical phrases in their songs.  Tonight we will explore some of those connections.  Lets start off with the Beatles' first overtly psychedelic track  "Tomorrow Never Knows," which is full of sounds that you couldn't possibly identify by ear. One of those sounds happens to be from Sibelius's seventh symphony.  Let listen to Jan Sebelius’s Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105  It is in 4 movements .   Here is a performance Herbert von Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker            Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 4-7; The Swan of Tuonela; Tapiola            Deutsche Grammophon

The most famous orchestral moment on a Beatles record is probably the shattering, dissonant crescendo that appears twice throughout "A Day in the Life." Using Witold Lutosławski: Symphony No. 2 as an inspiration there was also opportunity to improvise.   Here is the inspiration Witold Lutosławski: Symphony No. 2  in two movements Hesitant & Direct with Antoni Wit & Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra            from the album Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 2; Piano Concerto  NAXOS

Edgard Varese was one of the key musique concrète pioneers, and yet another avant-gardist that Lennon cited as an inspiration for "Revolution 9."   Here we have Edgard Varèse: Deserts which is a theme with 3 electronic variations

Among music fans who aren't inclined towards 20th-century avant-gardism, Karlheinz Stockhausen will always be most notable as one of the faces on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But, he meant something considerably more to the Beatles themselves. Their use of tape loops of Stockhausen’s music in “Tomorrow Never Knows” was largely inspired by McCartney's love for Stockhausen's musique concrète work, Gesang der Jünglinge.

Gesang Der Junglinge            13:04            Karlheinz Stockhausen            A Young Person's Guide to the Avant-Garde            LTM Recordings

Lennon was also a fan, and cited Stockhausen as a key inspiration for "Revolution 9" from the White Album. Music from Sibelius’ seventh appears in “Revolution 9”.    So this is the second reference to Sibelius’ seventh symphony in Beatles Music.

Turn around is fair play and indeed John Cage was a fan of the music of the Beatles.   Twenty years after the Beatles had finished integrating avant-garde notions like sound collage into popular music, the reigning king of musical avant-gard.  John Cage near the end of his life and by this point in poor health and paid the Beatles a tribute with this collage of melodic snippets from Beatles records called The Beatles 1962-1970.  If it sounds a bit random, that’s because that was what John Cage did.  He emphasized the role of chance in music.  So we will close tonight’s show of the connection between contemporary classical music and the Beatles with John Cage’s “The Beatles 1962-1970”  with Steffen Schleiermacher on the piano from the album Cage: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 6   Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm