Crossover: The Avant-Garde in Rock

If you asked me a week ago to name a “crossover” work, I would probably have come up blank, but examples in the text about bands like the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Yes, and the Who branching out from their rock roots provided some relatable examples for me since I am familiar with the music of these mainstream groups.  

The Beatles' Stockhausen-inspired tape collage Revolution No. 9 from their "White Album" provides a good springboard for venturing into the crossover realm.

It amuses me to imagine great popular artists swarming the record stores to buy recordings from composers like Varése, Stockhausen, Penderecki, Webern, Cage, and Feldman, and then citing this music as a significant musical influence.  Frank Zappa drew extensively upon avant-garde artists like Varése for inspiration in addition to more popular sources, such as 1950's Rhythm and Blues.  A lifelong autodidactic learner, his self-taught compositional style reflects his unique fusion of jazz, orchestral musical, and musical concréte.  This video of "A Zappar Affair," which was recorded by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in 1984, reflects a style of orchestration that strongly alludes to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."  (Admittedly, the cover art is also very suggestive of a pre-modern, possibly pagan sacred rite.  The image of the bull summons mythological connotations as well).

A contemporary example includes the collaboration of Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood with Polish composer Penderecki.  The recent album includes Penderecki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” and Greenwood’s orchestral adaptation “Popcorn Superhet Receiver” and “48 Responses to Polymorphia.”  If you would like to check out this album, here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00722ZH5W/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=ateasearadisit00&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B00722ZH5W&adid=1X73485GH6PDARYR6A4G.

In the Classical world, we currently see accessible composers like Michael Daugherty writing music in a crossover style.  Daugherty's music employs parody and humor in pieces like "Dead Elvis."  "Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra" (1993) includes bassoon, violin, Eb clarinet, trombone, contrabass, and percussion, and most notably requires the bassoonist to dress as an Elvis impersonator.  Works like "Dead Elvis" easily fall into the crossover category, but it is dubious that the spirit of this particular piece falls into the realm of the avant-garde.  On the other hand, I have chosen to include it in this blog since the theatrical elements, unique instrumentation, and use of irony allude to practices used by conceptual artists.  (As is the case with most post-1960s works, it is hard to imagine a "Dead Elvis" or a Michael Daugherty without predecessors like John Cage and George Rochberg).