Hmmmmmmmmmm............Part 3: Just because nobody has been able to doesn't mean it can't be done

"When you play a great lick that you haven't played before, it's amazing, because it feels like it's been handed down to you from the heavens. It flows through your fingers, onto the strings, to the pickups and out the amp, and suddenly you hear this great thing. You recognize it as the entire creative process..........I know that vibrations connect all of these things.........I buy into the string theory of physics. The basic principle is that everyting in the universe is made of these vibrating strings. It's nice to think that the cosmos is essentially a huge guitar and inspiration comes when I'm tuned into it." (1)

"For me, music is vibration, and the universe seems to be created based on numbers and vibrations. If you want to get down to quantum physics, string theory and aother dimensions, it seems to me that vibration is what holds the entire universe together. The fact that we're musicians and we use vibrations to conjure up moods, atmospheres, emotions, thoughts and concepts-well, a lot of times I think musicians are magicians in that sense!" (2)

Metallica's Kirk Hammett, speaking to Brad Tolinski and Brad Angle on the pages of Guitar World about the universal forces that align when great music is created.
(1) "The Phoenix," December 2008 Issue
(2)"Metal Alchemy," April 2009 Issue

So while I'm no longer pondering whether one of the most haunting death melodies ever written has been improved by adding the words 'oh baby' to it, I'm still going 'hmmmmmm....' over the link between the music written and played by virtuosos of past and present.  Past virtuosos wrote operas and concertos, present ones play guitar.  They are so different, and yet they aren't. 

For purposes of this exploration, a few assumptions need to be established. 

1) First and foremost, cosmic forces that are beyond any persons' comprehension are at work in the creation of great music.  I don't need to dive too deep to make this point hopefully.  Explain harmony, why some notes harmonize with others and enhance music, while others completely clash and hurt the ears.  Somebody or something decided long before we named notes from A to G that some combinations of sounds would work together, some would not, and some, when combined the right way would either kick your ass, stir your soul, or do both at the same time.

2) Second (and this isn't really an assumption), music in the classical days of yore, not unlike today, was filled with a depressing majority of composers who suck.  We only know of a handful of greats, but we don't hear about their 'not so great' colleagues from the day.  Conclusion, most people who write music (or do anything else for that matter) absolutely suck at it.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.  By definition, being above average means you are in very exclusive company.  The difference between yesterday and today is today we are still sorting out what doesn't suck.  For purposes of this exploration, my takeaway is, it doesn't take the J.S. Bach of today to attempt bold musical experimentation.  What is absolutely necessary to succeed though is sincere motives, enough talent and the right inspiration.

3) Third, and sometimes most important: relationships matter.  The relationship from artist to artist, artist to audience, and audience member to audience member must all align in some form or fashion or we have failure.  Either great work does not get recognized as such, or absolute crap is mounted on a pedastal because it was commercially viable.  Either option is unfortunate.

So with that said, how do we fuse classical music with heavy metal?  First we have to answer the question of whether we 1) take heavy metal and make it sound classical, or 2) we take a classical piece and play it as heavy metal.  Metallica has tried #1, and Evanescence has tried #2.  Both came up short.  I won't repeat Evanescence in this post since I've already linked to what they've done to Mozart before, but I will add Metallica's orchestral adaptation of their classic instrumental The Call of Ktulu.

At the risk of going totally uber cliche, I'll just say that Eddie Van Halen's Eruption has provided the most classical metal guitar sound that I've ever heard at what begins at the :57 sec mark here:



The question for me at this point is how do we fuse the crisp and piercingly sharp sounds with the full bodied richness and granularity of Baroque and where does a guitar like Eddie's fit in with this:



Both examples fulfill #1 above.  With all of that said, I move into uncharted territory.  I've got a few more nuggets to go and explore, and I'll report back soon.