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Saturday, 05/07/2008, 09:13 (GMT + 7)

The Unlimited symphony


Rock band Unlimited and HCMC Conservatoire Orchestra rehearse for next month’s Unlimited Symphony show, the first fusion of heavy metal and chamber music in Vietnam

A local progressive rock band and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory Orchestra will play Vietnam’s first rock-symphony concert on August 9.

Unlimited, one of the country’s most popular rock bands, has been rehearsing with the orchestra under the baton of the conservatory’s conductor Do Kien Cuong, a rock fanatic who studied classical music in the US and has also played in rock bands.

The unconventional pairing is preparing a 20-minute progressive rock remix of the pre-war epic Hon Vong Phu by composer Le Thuong.

Hon Vong Phu, composed before Vietnam’s independence wars began in 1945, tells the heart-wrenching story of an ancient folktale in which a woman waits in solitude for her husband, who has left home for years to defend the country against Chinese invaders.

Progressive Rock, also known as Prog Rock or just Progressive, has its roots in the music of such 1970’s bands as Yes, who expanded conventional rock music with the heavy use of synthesizers and classical orchestras.

Today, the Prog Rock torch is carried most notably by American band Dream Theatre, Unlimited’s favorite artists.

The upcoming HCMC show will feature the Vietnamese rock band’s popular renditions of songs from The Phantom of the Opera featuring opera singer Ngoc Tuyen, one of Vietnam’s premier young vocalists.

“Such a combination is not new on the world music scene,” says Cuong.

“We are doing what other countries did 30 years ago. We’re lagging behind.”

Deep Purple, an English rock band considered pioneers of heavy metal and modern rock, married rock with classical music when it joined hands with the British Royal Symphony in 1979.

The Scorpions, a hard rock band from Germany, marked their comeback from obscurity and moderate success with Moment of Glory, a concert in 2000 with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

Metallica, one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history, played alongside the San Francisco Symphony in their “S&M” concert, which became a successful live album, in 1999.

“When I studied at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in the US [2003-2006], such performances were common at the school’s theatre,” says Cuong, an oboe teacher at the HCMC Conservatory.

Two voices, one sound

According to Cuong, rock and symphony music have strikingly compatible sounds.

Viet Thanh, Unlimited’s vocalist agrees, saying that his band mostly plays power metal, a genre of heavy metal that began in Europe by placing traditional metal within symphonic context.

Classical and rock music share similar characteristics because they are both traditionally European sounds, Thanh said.

“But in rock, it’s quite common that cadences in a few musical phrases are wrong and this is unacceptable in chamber music,” Thanh says.

“But Cuong deals with such contrasts flexibly, and our cooperation is seamless.”

Cuong says that though this is the first time he has mixed an orchestra with rock, the similarities in the music make his musicians feel more at ease than they did when they worked with a cai luong (a form of Vietnamese opera) ensemble on the play Chiec ao thien nga (A Swan-Feathered Coat).

“This time we feel more comfortable and inspired.”

“I played in a rock band before, so I can easily relate to Unlimited’s style,” the composer says.

The show will be put on by rock concert promoters, Da Lua Company, at the Nguyen Du Sports Complex, 116 Nguyen Du Street, District 1.

Source: thanhnien

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