Was Classical Gas truely classical?!
Question: I'm not particularly fond of classical music. I think a lot of people who are into classical music are a bit snobby. But I loved Mason Williams' Classical Gas. I often wondered if hoyty toyty classical music lovers considered Classical Gas a song worthy of classical music distinction. Would they ever consider an instrumental featuring a guitar as classical music? Or did they think that Classical Gas was merely a fraud of Rock Music?
Many of the classical music lovers I've met over the years poo poo rock or pop music. They say classical music is like great literature and liken rock and pop to the comic book level. Well are there any of those hoyty toyty people out there who can answer my question? Is Classical Gas really classical or is it a comic book?
Answers: I'm not particularly fond of classical music. I think a lot of people who are into classical music are a bit snobby. But I loved Mason Williams' Classical Gas. I often wondered if hoyty toyty classical music lovers considered Classical Gas a song worthy of classical music distinction. Would they ever consider an instrumental featuring a guitar as classical music? Or did they think that Classical Gas was merely a fraud of Rock Music?
Many of the classical music lovers I've met over the years poo poo rock or pop music. They say classical music is like great literature and liken rock and pop to the comic book level. Well are there any of those hoyty toyty people out there who can answer my question? Is Classical Gas really classical or is it a comic book?
technically its not Classical, but its good for a classical guitarist to play; i should know, i...well...okay, i played it at a Classical guitar masterclass with Slava Grigoryan two years ago. "embarrassed look". It seemed a good idea at the time. It seems somewhat of a happy medium, i must say, between rock and classical
I don't see how calling "Classical Gas" a non-classical piece would mean that the person saying it thinks it's a "fraud of Rock Music".
Most of my fellow classical music lovers (who are mostly my fellow music students at university) love everything from Mozart to Brahms to Duke Ellington to Eric Clapton to The Doors to Metallica etc, etc, etc. We appreciate many forms of music. However, most of us will correct people if they improperly label a piece of music as Classical (just as I'd correct someone who might label Aerosmith as a Hair Band or Good Charlotte as Punk), and I really don't see a problem with that.
All of that being said, "Classical Gas", while it employs a nice classical guitar sound and uses an orchestra, is not classical music.
Oh, and Classical Guitar is an instrument studied by many musicians, and there is quite the "classical" repertoire available for the classical guitar.
Edit: Mason Williams wrote it.
Although, I enjoyed the melody of the tune. I really could'nt "approach its statistical density in its basic form."
It's not really what I would consider "rock music" just like I don't exactly consider "Love Is Blue" by Paul Mauriat as being rock either. Both songs were hits at around the same time. I think those snobs who dismiss it are of the type that consider music to be "classical" if it's at least 100 years old. It never seems to occur to them that newer music can be written and performed in that style.
Classical music lovers are not as snobby as you think. Actually we are just the quirky band kids you thought were weird in high school. We probably come across snobby because we know that people like you don't appreciate the art that is classical music as much as we do. Musicians kind of speak their own language, and usually others don't always get why we are so fixed on one simple chord in a piece or whatever it may be. Adding a guitar into classical music is not fraud it is creative. The piece itself is not considered true classical because it was not written in the 1700's. Music of the 1700's and early 1800's ending with Beethoven's death were the true classical pieces. Music written later on was pieces like this in the new age/neoclasscism era. This is the era where new instruments and sounds were being produced. It is not a comic book, it is art.... and it is art of the modern world.
No, it is NOT classical music. It is a pop song. It does not sound anything like classical music.
It does not matter when it was written ; it just not classical music.
Here : listen to some classical guitar :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlXlaOeYl...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJfigIzhI...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szY7jmWHX...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvmcNaMLY...
And some of those pieces are recent compositions too.