There ’s a wonderful scene in the classic mockumentary , This is Spinal Tap , where mockumentarian , Marty DiBergi ( Rob Reiner ) , is interviewing Spinal Tap songwriter , Nigel Tufnel ( Christopher Guest ) , seated at a pianoforte . Nigel is explaining his fascination with the paint of D - minor as he finely fingers the keyboard , farm a few bars from a new musical trilogy he ’s been composing .
Marty : It ’s very pretty .
Nigel : Yeah , just simple lines intertwining . You know , very much like I ’m really influenced by Mozart and Bach . It ’s sort of in - between those , really . It ’s like a Mach slice .
Marty : What do you call it ?
Nigel : Well , this piece is called “ Lick My Love Pump . ”
You do n’t have to have it off a matter about the music of Mozart or Bach to get the joke , right ? The sense of humor is simply in the juxtaposition between the rarify , classical composition and its raunchy , in - your - face title . But would it hurt to know a little bit about the music of Mozart or Bach ? Would it detract from your hipness to comprehend the vast difference between their two styles ? We are , after all , talking about a divergence in sound , fashion and attitude that excel comparisons between Ozzy Osborne and Burt Bacharach , or Mary J. Blige and Peter Frampton .
Bach , for starters , drop a line almost all his euphony on an organ , while Mozart compose on the pianoforte , an instrument that was n’t invented until after Bach died . Then there ’s the deviation in hairstyle . While both have on long - haired wigs , Bach opted for the colonial look , while Mozart generally sported something much more Frank Zappa circa 1976 .
Beethoven , who , contrary to the thinking of my right friend ’s girl , was not just an overgrown St. Bernard , but one of the greatest player of all time , read with Mozart , briefly when he was a youthful , not - yet - indifferent lad be in Vienna . He took one flavour at Mozart ’s wig and decided that when he grow up , he ’d just let his hair grow out , of course . And so he did , starting a musical fashion trend that , as we well know , continues through today .
But have ’s return to Spinal Tap for a moment .
In another classic conniption , the band is onstage performing their hit song , “ gruelling Duty”—a severely - rocking travesty of the weighed down - metallic element phone pop in the mid - to - late 70s . Suddenly , in the center of the song , they plunge into Luigi Boccherini ’s cosmic string Quintet in E major , written more than two hundred year ago . As the name imply , Luigi intended his while to be play by five stringed instruments : two fiddle , two genus Viola and a violoncello . It ’s very dainty and refined , seem often on compiling CDs with titles such asLight Overplayed Classical FavoritesorThe Complete Bridezilla ’s Guide Wedding classic .
Here again the humor in the aspect get through juxtaposition : Spinal hydrant cranking out Boccherini ’s delicate tune with gruelling alloy mogul chord and blacken lead guitar . But it ’s onlytrulyfunny if you ’re familiar with the original chain quintet . And therein lies the point of these Charles William Post : to familiarize you with hundreds of geezerhood of rather amazing medicine and player you do n’t have it off squat about , all while at the same time critiquing their fantastic getups and hairdos .
It ’s true : Most common people , even extremely cultivate tribe who hump a smattering about art , lit , and history pre - WWII , have n’t a hint about music chronicle . They do n’t experience how music suit in and affect culture over the years .
But ask them if they ’d like to and four out of five time the answer will always be a resounding , yes . ( The fifth guy being the same dental practitioner who turn down torecommend Trident for his patients who chew chewing gum . )
twelvemonth ago , when I was still a pimpled nineteen - twelvemonth - old student of medicine , I often find myself bored silly , reread the same passages in my music account book over and over , render desperately to comprehend , say , the meaning of Beethoven ’s hearing loss on his study , or , better yet , 16thCentury record-keeper techniques . Not that 16hCentury record-keeper techniques are n’t interesting , because they most certainly are ( lying ) , but surely , I call back , there must be some agency to train people about them , while simultaneously entertaining them .
And therein dwell the distributor point of these posts forme : to unload everything I learned as a music major in college — including an inanely dull main study on the operas of Richard Wagner , spar you the trouble , to say nothing of the immense tedium , I had to suffer . A $ 75,000 note value , yours for free on this blog !
It ’s been say that medicine hath charms to comfort the savage breast , to cushion rock'n'roll , or turn away a knotted oak tree . One tone at the news show these days is enough to hump we ’ve get plenty of savages running around in desperate need of solace and plenty of rock in pauperization of damp . If Elton John , sorry , SirElton John ca n’t do it , perhaps Bach or Mozart can . But first things first : we require to get train . We need to realize and apprize Beethoven before we can hear his influence oneverycomposer who come after him , include songwriters like John Lennon and Paul McCartney . We need to know who the original long - hirsute monstrosity were , before any soothing can take place . So let ’s get on with the show already …
As the boys from Spinal Tap would say : Hello Cleveland !
## [Be sure to tune in next Wednesday for Part 2]
