Letters To An
Overseas Friend.

This post is a reply to this comment.

Your Sigur Ros comparison relating to The Canon, though not at all inaccurate, I think ignores or misses out on some more meaningful comparisons that would have come about by instead saying “Brian Eno Canon in D is like Pachelbel done by Johann Johannsson.” Eno’s version might very well be by Johannsson for all my ears can tell. The major take away is that Eno’s and any imagined Johannsson version would be rooted in contemporary classical music (minimalism mostly) and both make it clear that baroque elements are a part of their sensibilities. While both composers are still touched by and have a foot in the world of pop music*, Sigur Ros is essentially a popular band with a pop sound**. Specifically, I mean screeching guitars, emotive vocals, hooks, and an emphasis on beat by way of percussion. While I can hear minimalist and certain classical elements in their music, those themes I feel are a small part of the Sigur Ros oeuvre. Unlike Johann Johannsson. Unlike Brian Eno. Of course, this is all a generalization. I’m very open to hearing a few pieces that might break my notions. While listening to Eno’s The Canon, “This could be Sigur Ros,” is exactly what I thought too. But that was well after I thought, “This could be Johann Johannsson.”

Re: Guitar Vivaldi. Love that stuff. I’ve been down the Michael Angelo Batio Youtube rabbit hole a few times. This is fun but no guitar face for the camera? Somewhere not in Sweden Yngwie Malmsteen is thinking the kids have lost their way. Metal guitar lends itself so well to baroque and romantic era classical music. Maybe because the complicated and difficult to play harmonics are begging for virtuosity? That is what they do.

Why The Canon and not the Four Seasons? Well, the obvious answer is that The Four Seasons is a 40+ minute full concerto while The Canon Prelude is a 4 minute song. But that might be glib. I’ll assume by Four Seasons you mean the first couple of minutes of Spring (or anywhere else the famous motif repeats for a while). Even if so, think about all the movements and complexity in that first part of Spring. There’s that part the two little sounding violins take over and do their thing for a while. The part where the cellos do that attacking thing and almost drown out the violins for a while. There’s a lot going in Spring for the sake of a narrative. The Canon does no such thing. It’s basically just a round. The Row, Row, Row, You Boat of classical music. It’s all about the effects of repetition, variation, and imitation. In this way, scope is limited and therefore more bite size. That is probably the number one reason why, amongst those in the classical-know (professionals, scholars), The Canon is considered a very pedestrian piece. There’s just not much going on there. And perhaps the basic melody is just too saccharine for them. I think I get that, but those are some of the reasons why I like it too. As I’m sure does Coolio. And Vitamin C. And The Farm. And so on. Why The Canon and not the Four Seasons? Because it’s bite size, catchy, and accessible while at the same time leaves room for pondering the interplay between the elements if you choose to do so.

Nadia and I were listening to CBC Radio one time. Every few songs, I’d ask, completely in earnest, “Is this Mumford and Sons?” It was not. So if The Canon might as well be the Four Seasons, I hear you. There’s a reason they both appear on Classical Chill Out Vol. I.

Without clicking on the link, I’m hoping it’s The Hook. If so, yeah!

*I’m using the term pop music in a very general sense. I know it when I see it. I think you can too?
**With the last album I think they have comfortably plopped themselves down amidst the current sound. Although, I’ve only heard it once. And haven’t found a reason to play it again.