{"id":48072,"date":"2024-10-04T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/feba54a6-f66e-4d29-85dd-a34e4f3714b5"},"modified":"2024-10-04T12:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T10:07:15","slug":"were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco\/","title":{"rendered":"Were Bach, Vivaldi and Rossini the real pioneers of disco?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Friday, 04 October 2024 at 08:30 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover how Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Rossini were the original disco divas…<\/strong><\/p>

Disco sounded a clarion call of liberty, sexual freedom and the pleasure principle as political protest in the 1970s, a generous invitation to collective delirium that took over the world. And in the sounds that disco made \u2013 trance-like rhythmic repetition, some of the most lavish instrumental arrangements ever created and its commitment to keeping the moment of ecstasy going as long as possible \u2013 it was a new sound of irresistibility in musical action.<\/p>

Hooked on Classics: how Mozart and drum machines took classics to the disco\u2026 and the bank<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Reich, Glass and Eastman… hypnotic rhythms<\/h2>
But in 1970s New York, there was something in the air in disco\u2019s musical ideas, and not only in music made for the clubs: in the minimalism of Steve Reich, Philip Glass<\/a><\/strong> and Julius Eastman<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 whose Stay On It<\/em> is more disco than disco \u2013 you\u2019ll hear another vision of what happens when you repeat rhythms into the infinite and hypnotically focus on a handful of sumptuous harmonies.<\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Julius Eastman’s Stay On It<\/em> at Switchboard Music Festival, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/steve-reich-s-best-works-percussion\">Steve Reich’s best works for percussion<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Baroque rhythms and beats… disco 18th-century style<\/h2>And yet centuries before, the disco principles were already out there. I\u2019m not saying that 18th- and 19th-century composers were writing club tracks before Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, but if you want a precursor of the ideas that define disco, you can hear so much <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/baroque-music-guide\">Baroque<\/a><\/strong> music, in particular, sharing disco\u2019s obsessions with rhythmic repetition, harmonic sensuality and instrumental richness. <\/p>And if you experience <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\">Bach<\/a><\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/george-frideric-handel\">Handel<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/antonio-vivaldi\">Vivaldi<\/a><\/strong> not as music made for reverential contemplation, but instead take their dance movements seriously as invitations for our bodies to feel and to get moving, so the music flows through you, and you just can\u2019t resist the beat: you\u2019re doing disco, 18th-century style.<\/p>Take Bach\u2019s Sixth Brandenburg Concerto<\/em>, in a performance like Reinhard Goebel\u2019s with Musica Antiqua K\u00f6ln \u2013 you\u2019ll hear the pounding rhythms of the first movement, making a four-to-the-floor banger that trips along at about double the BPM of most disco classics. <\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-js-bachs-brandenburg-concertos\">The best recordings of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>Or take the fast movements of Vivaldi\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/violin-history\">violin<\/a><\/strong> concertos: no need to remix them with beats behind them, as that\u2019s what the basslines and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-continuo\">continuo<\/a><\/strong> parts are doing already. While for sheer vocal sensuality, long lines arcing over dazzling accompaniments, Handel\u2019s arias for his star sopranos and castratos got there before the disco divas.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rossini… intoxication and guilt-free pleasure <\/h2>Walter Murphy\u2019s A Fifth of Beethoven<\/em> turns <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/ludwig-van-beethoven\">Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s rhythmic onslaught into a disco classic, but there\u2019s more in the music of the 19th century that burgeons with disco possibility. And towering above them all is Rossini\u2019s Petite Messe Solennelle<\/em> and, in particular, the \u2018Cum Sancto Spiritu\u2019 fugue. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"[Chamber Choir] Cum Sancto Spiritu (Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bJ28H6jI44A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’ from Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>You don\u2019t need a bass-drum and a snare: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/gioachino-rossini\">Rossini<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s got the rhythmic principles of disco right there in his chugging strings, off-beat timpani and a tune so heretically pleasurable in its evocation of the Holy Spirit it should be riding into Studio 54 on a white horse. Disco\u2019s principles, of intoxication and guilt-free pleasure: Rossini got there first.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/operas-best-dances\">Opera’s best dances<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Published: Friday, 04 October 2024 at 08:30 AM Read on to discover how Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Rossini were the original disco divas… Disco sounded a clarion call of liberty, sexual freedom and the pleasure principle as political protest in the 1970s, a generous invitation to collective delirium that took over the world. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":48073,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/were-bach-vivaldi-and-rossini-the-real-pioneers-of-disco.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Friday, 04 October 2024 at 08:30 AM Read on to discover how Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Rossini were the original disco divas… Disco sounded a clarion call of liberty, sexual freedom and the pleasure principle as political protest in the 1970s, a generous invitation to collective delirium that took over the world. 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