Is there a classical music equivalent to karaoke?

[koganbot]

Is there a classical music analogue or equivalent to karaoke? (Doesn't have to be vocal.)

The reason I ask (though this doesn't have to influence your answer) is that I was wondering if it were possible to consider classical music that's really popular to be "folk music." My initial response was "Only if there is some classical music equivalent to karaoke." But that's not true, actually. The first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth are folk music if only for their use as an aural V For Victory symbol. (WTIC in Hartford would play those notes in four quick high-pitched beeps every hour to mark the hour; this was when I was growing up - from the mid '50s to at least the early '70s, when I left home - and presumably had been played/beeped since the early '40s, when the U.S. entered WWII.) But even without V For Victory those four notes are in the lexicon as "Big Instantly Recognizable Notes That Represent ______" (er, whatever it is they represent). Wagner's Ride Of The Valkyries would be folk music, given that Elmer Fudd sang a variant on it. And Mendelssohn's "Wedding March," Wagner's "Here Comes The Bride," and Chopin's "Funeral March." Classical music that has gotten played at sports events over the decades would be folk music, I'd think, if there is any. Classical music that's getting the order of attention/involvement on YouTube that "Chicken Noodle Soup" got would be a candidate, though to be "folk" the attention has to last more than a couple of years.

(Folk music: Eric Weisbard once told me that a certain sociologist - unfortunately I forget the guy's name - was asked to define folk music, and instead of giving a definition the sociologist gave the song "Happy Birthday" as an example. But "folk music" can mean a variety of things, obv.)

Comments

[koganbot]

Somehow - by stream of association - this post was inspired by Tom's excellent writeup for "Come On Eileen."

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

the space for amateurism in classical music is quite a lot larger, and better catered for -- as well as more clearly delineated -- than it is in non-classical music, i think: to scratch the vocal karaoke itch, you'd join some local amateur choir, surely? (and by extrapolation, karaoke string trio i think you'd cobble together your own little trio and work on that...)

(of course, church music aside, the classical song repertoire is actually a lot less well known to the lay public, relatively, than a lot of other classical music: 100 years ago there was a repertoire of parlour songs and sheet music that you'd bellow out next to a piano, but VERY little of this is in the classical repertoire -- "o, for the wings of a dove?" maybe? popular offcuts from some operas or operettas or oratorios?)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

that's not very clear -- what i mean is

in classical, the continuum goes:
professional musician ::: amateur musician

in non-classical, the continuum goes:
band ::: karaoke

but these don't really map onto one another in terms of their likely social context

[koganbot]

Well, I'm not being very clear in my own mind either, since I'm thinking of some songs being folk ("Happy Birthday") but also of some contexts being folk (karaoke) no matter what the song.

I'm glad you brought up choirs, because my impression is that they're hugely attended but don't get much cultural attention except from the attendees.

Opera going/folk ways?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

and the attendees' long-suffering families/friends!

we have like 8-10 incredibly well-attended choirs here at my college, the most popular seemingly the "can't sing" choir...

[koganbot]

Is classical music ever used in aerobics?

[koganbot]

And Christopher Small would probably argue:

weddings = ritual
birthday parties = ritual
attending classical music concerts = ritual

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday To You, written by Patty and Mildred Hill, 1893, still in copyright. We teach new dudes that on day 1.

[koganbot]

But it's a folk song nonetheless.

(I'm surprised that 1893 keeps it in copyright. When's the cutoff date?)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

They basically keep extending it, perhaps to keep "Happy Birthday" copyrighted?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Extending the legal limit on copyright, that is.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

For compositions it's 70 years after the death of the composers in the UK (50 years in the US I think). I think Patty died in like 1908 or something but Mildred hung on until the 1940s. Or perhaps it was the other way round?

For recordings it's 50 years after release (hence all the Elvis reissues a few years back desperate to cash in before they become cheap as chips to put on compilations). I guess 'folk' songs could be songs where the original recording/arrangement isn't particularly important?

[koganbot]

"Folk songs" include, among other things, songs that are embedded in the way folks do things (e.g., celebrate birthdays). Maybe national anthems are a bit too top-down and official, but most other songs that have a conventional role in rituals, celebrations, etc. would count, and "Happy Birthday" is a definitive example.

[koganbot]

But anyway, original recordings that become embedded in conventions, habits, and rituals would be folk songs too, even though the original recording/arrangement is still in use.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Hm...haven't delved into dubdob's comments but it seems to me that traditional parlor piano, in which an easier arrangement of a popular classical piece might be more simple for a beginning pianist (for instance) might count. Also, "My Humps"?

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

So I guess my answer to that would be "popular arrangements are as close as you can get to karaoke without any words."

Also, this should count: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgvJg7D6Qck

[koganbot]

What about mashups (your link being a live equivalent of one)? A classical tune frequently used in mashups would be a folk song, whereas one could call mashups in general "folk music," again no matter what the music that's being mashed. Of course, this doesn't preclude the music being called "art" or "pop," either. Has to do with perceptions of how the music is being used and justified, and who's using it, rather than anything technical about how the music is made. (And, of course, pop has been thoroughly infiltrated by folk and art perceptions of how it's being used and justified, so it's not as if you can simply classify a work or a context as one or another or another.