Coming up: "I'd Love To Turn You On: Classical and Avant Gard Music that Inspired the Sixties Counter Culture Vol. 2"

Out Oct. 22.

Details:

While preparing ‘Rubber Soul’, ‘Revolver’ and ‘Sgt Pepper’ – major artistic achievements that would change popular music forever – The Beatles drew on a wide range of eclectic influences; from the outer limits of jazz (John Coltrane, Ornette Colenan, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler) and from the audacious sound experiments of modernist composers including John Cage, who believed all sound to be music and Pierre Schaeffer who pioneered musique concrète. Looking to strike a balance, George Martin contributed a more formal classical understanding which proved essential in creating such productions as ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’. Literary enthusiasms also played a part – with Lewis Carroll a less than distant echo on ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ and ‘I Am The Walrus’ – as did a certain playful irreverence derived from the anarchic humour of The Goons.

With psychedelia in its infancy and with everything possible, many other popular artists, brought up on blues or beat felt encouraged to embrace music from further afield. In 1965, live performances of David Bowie’s group, The Lower Third, came to a screaming conclusion with a feedback-laden interpretation of ‘Mars’ from ‘The Planets’. The fantasy quality of Syd Barrett’s songwriting for Pink Floyd’s debut ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’, drew on the nonsense verse of Hilaire Belloc. Pete Townshend was introduced to the music of the 17th century English composer Henry Purcell by his manager Kit Lambert. The ‘Gordian Knot Untied’ uses a series of suspended chords. The sadness and sophistication of the chord suspensions made a strong impression on Townshend and he began incorporating the idea into his work, with the intro to ‘Pinball Wizard’ being the classic example. In America, Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention’s revolutionary debut, ‘Freak Out!’, connected modernist composition to pop citing Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Boulez and Varèse under the heading “These People Have Contributed Materially in Many Ways to Make Our Music What it is”. The album was both without precedent and of great influence. Not for nothing did Paul McCartney reportedly call ‘Sgt Pepper’ “our ‘Freak Out!’.”

Track Listing:

DISC ONE:

DAVID BOWIE / SYD BARRETT – PINK FLOYD

GUSTAV HOLST

1 Mars, the Bringer of War (Allegro), from The Planets, Op. 32

BBC Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Malcolm Sargent

THE BEATLES

DYLAN THOMAS

2 To Begin at the Beginning, from Under Milk Wood – A Play for Voices

Read by Richard Burton

THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET

3 Greensleeves

DELIA DERBYSHIRE

4 Time On Our Hands (Titles and City Music)

ALBERT AYLER QUARTET

5 Spirits

OSCAR WILDE

6 The Picture of Dorian Gray – Scene One Read by Hurd Hatfield

JOHN CAGE

7 Aria with Fontana Mix Cathy Berberian: voice

ORNETTE COLEMAN DOUBLE QUARTET

excerpts from Free Jazz: A collective improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet

8 Ensemble Introduction to Charlie Haden / Charlie Haden – Bass Solo

9 Ensemble introduction to Scott LaFaro / Scott LaFaro – Bass Solo

SUN RA

10 Advice to Medics

EDGAR ALLAN POE

11 The Raven

Read by Basil Rathbone

PIERRE SCHAEFFER

12 Objets étendus from Étude aux Objets (Study of Objects)

LEWIS CARROLL

13 Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Alice Through The Looking Glass

Jane Asher as Alice PIERRE SCHAEFFER

14 Variations Sur Une Flûte Mexicaine (excerpt)

THE GOONS

15 I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas

DISC TWO:

JOHN CIPOLLINA – QUICKSILVER

CARLOS MONTOYA

1 Malaguena

THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET

2 Take Five DAVID BOWIE IGOR STRAVINSKY

3 Ragtime for Eleven Instruments – Columbia Chamber Ensemble/Conductor: Igor Stravinsky RICHARD STRAUSS Four Last Songs

4 Frühling (Spring)

5 September

6 Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep)

7 Im Abendrot (At Sunset)

Soprano: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Horn solo: Dennis Brain

The Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Ackermann

ELGAR Selections from the Nursery Suite

8 Aubade

9 The Wagon Passes

PETE TOWNSHEND – THE WHO

PURCELL The Gordian Knot Untied, Z.597

10 Overture

11 Air (Moderato)

12 Rondeau Minuet

13 Air (Allegro)

14 Jig

15 Chaconne

16 Air (Allegro)

17 Minuet

STEELY DAN – TOMITA

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

18 La Cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) Walter Gieseking: piano

RAY DAVIES – THE KINKS

PERCY GRAINGER

19 My Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone Eastman-Rochester “Pops” Orchestra / Conductor: Frederick Fennell

DAVID CROSBY – THE BYRDS

ENSEMBLE OF THE BULGARIAN REPUBLIC

selections from The Music of Bulgaria

20 Vetcheryai Rado (Come to Supper Tonight, Rada)

21 Polegnala E Todora (Theodora is Dozing) Conducted and arranged by Philip Koutev RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

22 Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis The Boyd Neel String Orchestra/Conductor: Boyd Neel. Gramophone première recording, made under the supervision of the composer

DISC THREE:

FRANK ZAPPA – THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION

IGOR STRAVINSKY L`Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) – Suite de Concert

1 Marche du Soldat – Airs de marche

2 Premier Tableau: Airs by a Stream

3 Deuxième Tableau: Pastorale

4 Marche Royale

5 Petit Concert

6 Trois Danses: Tango, Valse, Ragtime

7 Danse du diable

8 Grand Choral

9 Marche triomphale du diable

Columbia Chamber Ensemble/Conductor: Igor Stravinsky

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16

10 Vorgefühle (Premonitions)

11 Vergangenes (The Past)

12 Sommermorgen an einem See (Summer Morning by a Lake: Chord-Colours)

13 Peripetie (Peripeteia)

14 Das obligate Rezitativ (The Obbligato Recitative)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Rafael Kubelik

Selections from MUSIC ON THE DESERT ROAD: A Sound Travelogue by Deben Bhattacharya

15 Turkey: Automobile on mountain road – Central Anatolian Dance

16 Iran: Rhythm of a Train

17 India: Raga Zila from Varanasi

18 India: Temple Bells And Drums of a Bengali Kali Temple

ROBERT FRIPP OF KING CRIMSON

BELA BARTOK Selection from String Quartet No.4

19 Allegretto pizzicato Végh Quartet

JIM MORRISON – THE DOORS

JACK KEROUAC

20 San Francisco Scene (The Beat Generation)

ROBBY KRIEGER – THE DOORS

SABICAS

21 Bronce Gitano (Solaeres)

GRACE SLICK – JEFFERSON AIRPLANE

MAURICE RAVEL

22 Bolero

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Conductor: Eduard van Beinum

DISC FOUR:

ROD ARGENT – THE ZOMBIES

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

1 Osanna in excelsis from Sanctus from Mass in B Minor

The Münchener Bach Orchestra and Choir / Conductor: Karl Richter

JON ANDERSON – YES

JEAN SIBELIUS

2 Symphony no.5 in E flat, Op.82

First Movement: Tempo molto moderato – Largamente – Allegro moderato – Presto Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

CARLOS SANTANA

ALI AKBAR KHAN

3 Introduction by Yehudi Menuhin

4 Rag Sindhi Bhairavi

SYD BARRETT – PINK FLOYD

HILAIRE BELLOC

5 Matilda, from Four Cautionary Tales Read by Robert Speaight

ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM

OSCAR PETERSON TRIO

6 Jet Song from “West Side Story” PHIL LESH OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD/ JOHN BARRY

GUSTAV MAHLER

7 Symphony No.9 in D major : First Movement: Andante Comodo

Columbia Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Bruno Walter

MARIANNE FAITHFULL

COLE PORTER

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