The Wake

To shimmy, hop, or rove in cohorts with music is to indulge in blissful joy. However, the followers of many genres have turned this idyllic concept of carnal expression into a rationale for squabble. Case in point: classical music vs. anything modern. Stereotypes suggest for example that classical elitists and techno drug addicts should have no grounds to come together – no singular musical weapon of solidarity. Wrong. Despite such a seemingly accurate situation, there is at least a tarnished lining to this dilemma of classical crossover. That lining is Bond. Not that one.

This Bond is a group of four string instrument players who have formed a unique niche in classical music that threatens to bring together the musical masses. The group recently released “Classified,” an album which takes the age-old joy from classics like Pachebel’s “Canon in D Major” and combines them with a techno, house, or dance beat. Most of these revamped classics require a double take and allow for adequate bopping. Perhaps the tale of a love triangle near a tobacco shop never intrigued you, but once the remix is played you realize; it is possible to get down with George Bizet. That in mind, “Classified” validates that opposites can coalesce.

Imagine then, soft, twinkling piano music anger and viscosity that will tremble your socks, shake your booties; music which at no point was generated digitally by GrooveMaker 2.5. The quality of techno in Bond’s music is not in question though. What is up for consideration, to all those that love a good beat, is the generally poorly perceived classical genre. Bond makes an admirable pitch while straying for the traditional, and making Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” mainstream.

A more abstract approach was taken by John Cage when he composed a song titled “4.33.” It is four minutes and 33seconds of silence, to make of what you will. Further abstraction was pursued by Charles Ives by using polytonality, or playing in two keys at the same time. If more groups further populate this genre by combining such innovated or abstract ideas and mainstream concepts music would indeed be making strides.

There would no longer be two sides. There be no one-sided sponsorship of the elitist, “only traditional classical” viewpoint, and there would be no parallel bias toward music perceived as popular. The mixing of genres should bridge gaps and bring together fans of Manson and those of Cash without a melodramatic piece devoted to such dedication. The world of music genres should exist symbiotically as clown fish and anemone, as lid and container, and as carrion beetle and phoretic mite. More often than not the chord progressions from old will sneak up on you. Countless times repeated patterns are found, as when Green Day was influenced by “Canon in D.”

Music should be considered respectively without putting the nut before the bolt. When the ox must come before the cart there could be no Beatles without Vivaldi. The give and take should at the very least be appreciable without violent acts, and hopefully upon indulging on such groups as Bond, you can take a step back, stuff your stereotypes and agree to peaceful co-existence.