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Classical motif used in popular music

6K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  Manuel 
#1 ·
Greetings to all! I'm a Classical music buff and at present am particularly involved in listening to Rachmaninoff and Sebelius.

At any rate, a friend of mine who is more into popular music mentioned that he heard a classical piece which had the five-note motif that is heard in Don McLean's "Vincent" - the notes are the based on the 2nd inversion of a Major 6th chord ("starry starry night") with the second note of the scale thrown in (in C - G A C D E).

I know lots of pop composers have borrowed motifs from the classics (Eric Carmen most notably; and isn't Groovy Kind of Love from Clementi? :eek: ) but I wasn't sure about this. It's such a common figure (pentatonic scale in a way) but my friend instantly recognized it in terms of how it followed the rhythm pretty closely. He's not that well versed in composers and didn't catch the info on the radio broadcast.

There may be many works that use it but off the top of my head I can't think of them. Perhaps I'm blocking it! :)

Any insights?

Great forum, btw!!!
 
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#4 ·
I know lots of pop composers have borrowed motifs from the classics (Eric Carmen most notably; and isn't Groovy Kind of Love from Clementi? :eek: ) but I wasn't sure about this. It's such a common figure (pentatonic scale in a way) but my friend instantly recognized it in terms of how it followed the rhythm pretty closely. He's not that well versed in composers and didn't catch the info on the radio broadcast.

Any insights?
Only that all western genres share the same scales and modalities so it's no surprise that many pops appear to borrow classics and vice versa. For every phrase in a pop song I'll bet you can find it in some classical work somewhere, maybe rhythmically disguised but it's there.
:)
 
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