MEAVY METAL "Cello Sonata"

[YellowJacket]

For those of you who are unaware, I am a Doctoral student studying music composition at a University. When I started my studies this fall, my new instructor was asking me why I write like Bach or Brahms. He was curious why my Rock / Guitar influence didn't come through more in my music.

The outcome of our discussion sparked interest in a project I have wanted to do for a long time. The piece is for the cello prof at the school I did my masters at. It is for Cello and Piano but the catch is that it is basically :evil: METAL :twisted: with heavy riffing and blazing 'solos'. This is the most fun I've had in a long time!!!! NOt sure when it will be done or when it will be recorded, but I'm sure it will sound very familiar to many of you!

If anyone is interested, we can discuss compositional approach. It is definitely a curious and challenging task to resolve the discrepancy between classical and metal approach to composition. Each one has a distinct and very divergent philosophical approach. I might attempt combine them or find a compromise, but not by sacrificing my artistic vision which, in the words of my instructor, is to "Kick the living **** out of the audience" :lol:

I'm looking forward to finishing!

 

[Thundersteel]

That sounds (no pun intended) cool!

Reminds me of Alex Skolnick, who puts a jazz spin on classic rock/metal songs.

 

[YellowJacket]

Cool, I appreciate the feedback.

I don't think recontextualizing metal is the goal here. I mean if you remove pounding drums and distortion guitars, the aggression kind of vaporizes into thin air. My approach is more one of fusion. Classical music as everyone knows it is largely dead and the audience for it is dying. Nobody cares, as evidenced by the embarrassing lack of views and posts on this topic.
As a composer, one has to rethink music and part of this involves drawing on influences outside beethoven.

Some ideas I have used so far:
1) The composition is riff based and rhythmical. Much classical music relies on drama created by mutating musical ideas throughout a work. The plot is much like that of a book. On the surface, this one moves much more like rock music.

2) Using chords that attempt to mimic the noise component of the distortion guitar. Louder = more dissonant and quiet = less dissonant. Think 'clean' vs 'dirty'. I mean it isn't a literal formula being used. I don't want to be a spectralist here. . . .

3) . . . I try and recreate the 'Mood' and 'intensity' of metal. It is about intentionality. The language is different. Think of translating poetry from one language to another. You can't translate word for word, you have to rewrite it to get the point across adequately.

Now I hope I haven't sucked the magic out of my ideas with the technical talk. I have my fingers crossed that the player I am writing for will actually like it and not throw it away because it is 'pop' music, as classical players so lovingly refer to anything which isn't either Beethoven or the inane second Viennese tradition. (Look up Schoenberg, Berg, Webern if you are curious)
At least I am enjoying writing it and that is what truly matters!