Classical music with hip hop, old chap?

Classical music with hip hop, old chap?

13 July, 2007 | 5.58AM

• Section: Music News
• Written by: Terry Church

I say, this hip hop nonsense isn’t so ghastly after all. The worlds of hip hop and classical music are set to collide in the strangest of ways when scratch master DJ Yoda joins a full orchestra to scratch his way through the premiere performance of a new pioneering turntable concerto.

The premiere performance of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables & Orchestra will take place on July 26th at The Scala in London, and DJ Yoda has been given samples of orchestral instruments so that he can scratch and play along to The Heritage Orchestra.

The special concert is part of car manufacturer Audi’s Remastered music project.

“Coming from a background of DJing at clubs and festivals, and very much working by myself – to suddenly find myself scratching with an entire classical orchestra to crowds like this will be a real eye-opener, and an unforgettable experience,” said DJ Yoda.

He admitted, “It’s not like anything else I’ve ever done before.”

And you thought classical music was for old rich people who smell of whiskey and cheese.

Whilst the concert is certainly pioneering, composer Gabriel Prokofiev is keen to stress that his peers in the classical fields have always mucked around with recorded sounds, the jolly fools.

“From Edgard Varese’s experiments with reel-to-reel and ‘organised sound’, to the proto-sampling of Musique Concrete, led by Pierre Schaeffer in the 1950s, classical composers have a rich history of manipulating recorded sounds, that stretches back long before Kool Herc or Grandmaster Flash scratched their first records,” he sniffed.

Warp Records’ glitch masters Plaid, who have a history of hanging out with orchestras, will also play on the night.

Percussion pair O Duo will also lend a hand or four to the musical mix, and visuals will be provided by SeaBuzzard for what promises to be a spiffing night. 

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