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

[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.

[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"?