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Nice topic. Although i think you talk about romantic classical and not classical in general e.g. the classical Baroque, or the modern american minimal because not all types of classical invoke this instrumental "story-telling" you describe. A very good example would be the frech "impressionistic" school of Debussy, Ravel and Satie. From what i have red (and listened) these composers didn't care so much about the structure and the detail and hence a particular linear theme that would be representative of a kind of "storry-telling". What they were actually trying to achieve was to create a somewhat "dreamy", "hazy" feeling in their compositions. Examples are the very well known "Bolero" by Ravel, where clearly there is no story telling or any particular direction at all, just some abstract emotional expression that derives from the repeatitive structure. Another example would be the absolutely fantastic "Prelude A La Apres Midi D'aun Faune" (Prelude of a Faune's afternoon sorry for my french-correct me if i'm wrong)by Debussy. As the title suggests, this was intented to create an abstract (mystical/mythical/dreamy) emotional feeling and while there is a continuous complex development in the melodies and patterns, there is no clear story-telling or whatsoever..(although there are some trully beautifull ethereal themes popping here and there through-out the tune).
Another example would be the minimalistic school (modern classical) of steve reich and philip glass, where the repeatitive (somehow "trancey-in case of reich"-)patterns are very abstract, dreamy and even primitive with no particular intentions or somekind of higher-order structure. Even the staccato melodies of the baroque composers such as Vivaldi's four seasons are probably out of this "perfectly-structured-long-epic-thematic-worked-to-death" classical music category, from the romantic or/and neo-romantic eras. (Spunning both the 19th and 20th centuries). Oh, irrelevant Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" is awesome!One of my favorite pieces of music of all time!
Now for trance, it will be very difficult, especially nowadays, to find this kind of feel you are looking for as most of todays "uplifting/epic/melodic" trance is full of generic 3 or 4-note melodies. take a look at the other thread where a producer accussed some other producer that he "stole his track". The "accused producer" defended himself that this couldn't be true(the act of stealing), because "he just used some random notes, pressed the automatic arpeggio button" and hey presto!-another modern trance tune was born!This probably reflects very well the zeitgeist of trance (and maybe most of today's music in general) where there is no particular direction, pattern, creativity, artistic-perception, or hell any serious contribution other then "lets just hit a few notes in fruity loops, create a dancefloor-bomb, get played by all the big names and get famous".
Now sorry for my long post (i just had some thoughts) but there is a kind of trance that has some themes and nice melodies. I don't know if you know them (i have suggested them again numerous times) they are Planisphere and their album is called "Lektrophony".The tracks are very long, but they have some absolutely stunning melodic breakdowns and lead-lines, which will surely bring to mind a beautifull classical adagio.You can find samples here:
http://www.4djsonly.com/4DJ/index/p...roductID=101878
You have to create an account and this is very easy to do.Pay attention to "NYE", "Moonshine" and "Symphotek" they are particularely nice. I don't know though if you find these to be "thematic" enough.Also check-out staff by Airwave such as "Alone in the Dark" and "Revelation" (or something like that it was called). Check-out "Reflections" and "Touched" by Firewall as well, they are the most thematic tunes i've heard in epic trance (together with corsten's remix of Barber's adagio for strings-which actually is not originally trance but classical), dramatic, epic "classically-edged" melodies which could have been featured in a movie soundtrack.Even typical trance such as Gouryella's "Walhalla", solar stone's "seven cities" , fire and ice's "neverending melody" are quite thematic in relation to the majority of standard epic trance, but i don't know how much you are exposed in 90s epic trance. If not i suggest you start exploring it, especially old compilations by Paul Oakenfold such as "GU-New York" and even Armin's "Boundaries of Imagination".
p.s. Sorry for the long post!
Last edited by PETRAN on Oct-31-2006 at 00:10
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