Neo-classical metal

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Neo-classical metal
Stylistic origins:	Heavy metal Classical music
Cultural origins:	1970s - 1980s, Great Britain, Sweden, United States
Typical instruments:	Electric guitar, Bass guitar, Drums, Keyboards
Mainstream popularity:	Some popularity amongs metal and classical fans, mostly popular amongst guitar players or fans of Shred
Other topics
Timeline of heavy metal

Neo-classical metal is a subgenre of the heavy metal music very influenced by classical music in its style of playing and composing. It contains complex musical structures - analogous to progressive rock - and the use of elements from classical music and/or by famous classical music composers.

[edit] Definition

Neo-classical metal is a distinct concept from neoclassicism in music. Neoclassicism refers to the movement in musical modernism in which composers drew inspiration from the Classical period, popular during the years in between the two World Wars. This type of music can be seen as a direct reaction towards the prevailing trend of 19th Century Romanticism, and of the music of Richard Wagner in particular. Composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith fused elements from the music of Classical composers, such as a return to "common practice" harmony and strict adherence to form, with their own unique "advanced" harmonic vocabularies and (perhaps most importantly) rhythmic variety.

On the other hand, Neoclassical Metal music does not restrict itself to a return to classical aesthetic ideals, such as equilibrium and formalism. Actually, it has more influences borrowed from the Baroque and Romantic periods than from the Classical period in music, which roughly spans from 1750 to 1810 and has among its notable proponents Mozart, Haydn, and the early Beethoven. Therefore, it is not a form of Neoclassicism by its traditional definition, what may cause confusion and span discussions. Neoclassical Metal treats the suffix "Classical" as roughly what most people understand as classical music- the repertoire from the Baroque to the Romantism and early Modernists-, and not as a revival of the ideals from the classical period, as it is accepted in Classical Music. Due to this confusion, many see the label "neoclassical" as improper, misleading and even pretentious. For further discussion, see the Controversy section in the end of the article.

[edit] History of the genre and influences

Although Yngwie J. Malmsteen is probably the form's best-known proponent, and the '80s decade which saw the ascension and consolidation of the genre, classical elements used in Heavy metal and Hard rock date back to Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple, Uli Jon Roth and Randy Rhoads's innovations in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and Progressive Rock musicians have, since the origin of the genre in the late '60s, incorporated classical elements in their music. Many are classically trained, such as Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman and guitarist Steve Howe. The popularization and growth of Neoclassical Metal is closely related to the ascension of the Guitar Shredding movement, as many Neoclassical Metal guitarists took inspiration from the impressive violin solos of Niccolò Paganini.

The classically-trained Randy Rhoads displayed classical influences in his playing and was one of the first notable players to actually incorporate Classical playing techniques to innovate his guitar playing and overall technique. For the introduction to 1982's "Diary of a Madman", Rhoads borrowed heavily from Cuban classical guitar composer Leo Brouwer's "Etude #6". Like many other metal guitarists in the 1980s, Rhoads quite earnestly took up the "learned" study of musical theory and helped to solidify the minor industry of guitar pedagogy magazines (including Guitar for the Practicing Musician) that grew during the decade. The shredding movement was made popular by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who would transcribe and adapt classical music for the electric guitar. As a result, Neoclassical Metal developed as a standalone metal sub-genre.

Queen has also been cited as a major influence on the genre by Yngwie Malmsteen.

[edit] Characteristics of the playing

Pedal point (repetition of a note or group, with a scalar, melodic line played alternately),
Ostinato (strict repetition of a single phrase or idea),
Scale sequence (a stylized way of ascending or descending through a scale or mode, where a set pattern is observed),
Fast Arpeggios
The frequent use of Tritone (musical interval that spans three whole tones or six semitones). This is common in many types of Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock music due to its dissonant sound, seen as of "evil nature" in past ages.
Fast solo cadences.
Emphasis on ornamentation, such as strong and frequent vibrato.
The use of instruments and timbres that resemble classical music, such as piano, harpsichord, violin and orchestra sounds, emulated or not by synthesizers.
Analogy of the electric guitar to traditionally classical instruments, specifically the violin.
The transcription and/or adaptation or emulation of Classical pieces - mostly violin ones - to formations involving the electric guitar as the soloist.
The frequent borrowing of harmony, motifs and themes from specially well-known classical pieces.
The two previously mentioned features are usually coupled with the use of the reference to iconic pieces, such as the Requiem and Turkish March by Mozart, the Adagio by Albinoni, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm (BWV 565), Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and 5th Symphony, Pachelbel's Canon in D, and Chopin's Nocturne no.2.
The central role of Guitar Shredding playing techniques, many of them inspired by Paganini's style of playing.

[edit] Typical elements

Harmonic minor scale (Aeolian mode with a raised 7th scale degree),
Melodic minor scale (Aeolian mode with a raised 6th and 7th scale degree),
Diminished arpeggios (a series of minor 3rd intervals stacked one on top of the next),
Cycle of fifths (a chord progression where each chord becomes the dominant of the next e.g.: Am, Dm, G, C, F, Bdim, E, Am),
suspensions (cadences or "chord progression endings" where the true harmony chord is pushed out or "suspended" by another, non-harmony note and then reasserts itself. Examples: 4th replaces 3rd; 6th replaces 5th; 9th replace 8th or octave).

The chord progressions, arpeggios, and fast scale runs of Neoclassical Metal are inspired for the most part from Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Niccolò Paganini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, particularly the first three.

[edit] Controversy

Since its early foundations, Neo-classical metal has attracted a great number of very loyal listeners and admirers - especially among guitar players - but, nevertheless, faces extensive criticism from both popular and classical musicians, listeners and scholars. Some of the most common controversies:

[edit] Naming controversy

The use of the term "Neoclassical" to this characteristic genre of metal continues to generate polemical debate. The Western music traditionally entitled "Classical", in contrast to the so-called "Popular" music - which is generally defined as a spontaneous popular manifestation of music - spans from a period roughly consisting from the Low Middle Ages to our days. Inside this genre, exists a period called the Classical Period, which happened after the Baroque period and before the Romantic period. Neoclassicism in music is a 20th century approach, by modern composers, to bring some of the aesthetic ideals from the Classical Period - which was marked by simplicity, "clean" harmony, and formalism - into modern music. In a similar fashion Neoclassical art and architecture tries to recover the ideals of proportions and equilibrium - which have originated in Ancient Greece - as synonyms of supreme beauty. Neoclassical metal, however, uses the word "Neoclassical" in a complete different way, covering the whole Western Classical Music. This is also the subject of another controversy, as such labelling supposed that the production of Classical Music has ceased today, while this is not true.

[edit] Iconic references

Neo-classical metal usually makes use of popularly iconic references from Classical Music. Widely known names such as Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Paganini and Vivaldi are extensively mentioned and have their motifs, harmony and other elements from famous pieces copied. While this is not necessarly bad, many argue that it has become a commonplace, with many musicians and bands using exhaustively the same elements. To many, this is a sign that the genre's proponents have little actual knowledge of and experience with classical music. Lesser-known composers and works would bring greater credibility to the genre among mainstream critics but are largely ignored.

[edit] Depth of the classical music influence

In a very valuable process, popular music has been borrowing elements from classical music since the Middle Ages, and the contrary is also true. Famous and important composers have been using elements from folk and popular extensively, and popular musicians have always transposed rich ideas from classical music.

In neo-classical metal, influences are generally present in the form of copied motifs, harmony, and scales. According to some, rarely do Neo-classical Metal musicians make deeper use of classical elements. For example, according to some detractors of the genre, seldom the allegedly Bach-inspired players make use of the complex counterpoint which is so central to Bach. For many, "neoclassical" is a too pretentious name for a genre that, according to them, only has pale resemblances with classical music. The undiscriminated fusion between the works from different periods and the use of the same composers as references also may be seen by some as a negative factor. There is also the recurrent accusation that Neoclassical Metal players and musicians of being stuck to the same modes, scales, harmonic fields and homophony.

[edit] Clash with different genres of metal and popular music

Popular Musicians who are detractors of the Neo-classical metal Genre frequently argue against neo-classical metal using the points which are usually directed against Guitar Shredders. Some of this criticisms, however, are the same used by the proponents of the Punk Rock against the supposed excesses of the progressive rock in the late seventies. Among these criticisms, the most frequently mentioned ones are that "Neo-classical metal is pure technique and fast-playing and therefore sounds dull", that "Neo-classical music is nonsense as it is hard to be assimilated". Neo-classical metal fans and musicians defend the genre arguing that it sounds dull for many - just like classical music - as it is harder to be appreciated and understood, since it supposedely needs a more developed musical perception, and therefore appeals less to the general public, which is usually used to less complex, easy-to-assimilate music.

[edit] Neoclassical metal performers

[edit] Bands

[edit] Soloists

[edit] References

[edit] List of classical pieces of which notable elements are used

Paganini's Caprice No. 24 and Caprice No. 5
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 9
Mozart's Symphony No. 25 and Requiem
Vivaldi's Four Seasons, particularly "Winter"

[edit] Related articles

[edit] Related musical genres

[edit] Preeminent soloists within the genre

[edit] Composers commonly used as reference and / or source of inspiration within the genre

[edit] Baroque

[edit] Classical

[edit] Romantic

Heavy metal
Black metal - Classic metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Folk metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Grindcore - Industrial metal - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Post-metal - Power metal - Progressive metal - Speed metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal
Regional scenes
Scandinavian death metal - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Bay Area thrash metal
Other topics
Fashion - Bands - Umlaut - Slang

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