Whiter Shade of Pale-- classical melody?

[MatthewJ18]

I have been told that the song, A Whiter Shade of Pale uses a classical melody.
If this is true, who wrote it and when?

Matt
Matth...@aol.com

[Michael A. Abelson]

MatthewJ18 wrote:

Not an actual melody, but an emulation (so to speak) of the Air from J.S. Bach's
Orchestral Suite #2 in D.

I'm tempted to say that the 20th century version is more beautiful than Bach's.
Written by Keith Reid and Gary Brooker of the group Procul Harum.

Along with Jim Webb's "MacArthur Park," this incredibly evocative song is one of
the high points of contemporary lyrical writing. No, I am not kidding.

Mike Abelson

[Déwald Swanepoel]

I can really see only a very slight correlation between Bach's "Air on a
G string" and "Whiter Shade of Pale". In fact, I think the only
similarity is the bass line.

I am not all that great a Bach fan but I really feel that his "Air" is a
very good work of art and that it exceeds "Whiter shade of pale" in
emotion by far.

[L'Crowe]

Bach's 'version' is more satisfying to my ears. When I listen to modern
rock compositions, the only ones that really knock me out for complexity's
sake are Led Zeppelin's, Metallica's, and Jimi Hendrix's, in that order.

Talking about Zeppelin, all doubters should hear these songs:
The Song Remains the Same
Ten Years Gone
and of course, Stairway to Heaven.

For Metallica,
the whole Master of Puppets album.

For Hendrix, one must hear
1983...a Merman I should turn to be

Déwald Swanepoel wrote:

--
`> a crowe by any other color is still a crowe `>

[Bill Kinkaid]

<somebody opined>

>I can really see only a very slight correlation between Bach's "Air on a
>G string" and "Whiter Shade of Pale". In fact, I think the only
>similarity is the bass line.
>

The organ part to WSoP sounds like it could be a variation on "Air".
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine sang "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" to
the tune of WSoP. It worked pretty well as a solo, better than the Passion
Chorale melody, a mediocre melody line which finds its life and strength in
Bach's vocal harmonies.

Another friend of mine has arranged "Seek Ye First", usually one of my
least favourite contemporary choruses, with the chord progression from
Pachalbel's Canon in D. It works very well, especially with guitar and
recorder.

Bill in Vancouver
(delete EAT-SPAM-AND-DIE
from e-mail address to respond)

[jerry and judy]

In article <36a8123a....@news.bctel.ca>,
kin...@eat.spam.and.die.bc.sympatico.ca wrote:

><somebody opined>
>
>>I can really see only a very slight correlation between Bach's "Air on a
>>G string" and "Whiter Shade of Pale". In fact, I think the only
>>similarity is the bass line.
>>
>

Check out this site

with the score of both

http://www.basistech.com/bach/awsopafg.htm

Does A Whiter Shade of Pale quote Bach?

A look at the notes by Bernard S. Greenberg
4 July 1997

Here is the opening of A Whiter Shade of Pale, in C Major, the key it is
performed on Procol Harum's first album,
the dotted rock-bass rhythm removed from the bass to show the latter as
quarter notes (I have left the passing
tones), and the turns and other ornaments written out in full. The
analysis of the harmony is shown as a figured
bass (the numbers under the score -- follow this link if this is unfamilar
to you), which I have "spelled out in full"
for the benefit of those not familiar with the usual shorthands used in
that notation. (Note also that the bass is
being played by a bass guitar, i.e., an octave lower (16'), so the
figuring of the final chord is correct, and that we
have cut all note-values in half from usual rock notation to better
illuminate the parallels at hand.)

[Jem33]

"Michael A. Abelson" <mabe...@telerama.lm.com>
on --: 1999/01/19 wrote:

I agree about the high regard for this beautiful immortal song! But the
Bach-like melody played on the organ was composed by the organist Matthew
Fisher (who's thus far uncredited but it's never too late to correct that
oversight). Fisher's unique melody was influenced a little by Air on a G
String and -- more strongly -- a section of the uptempo cantata Sleepers Awake.
Come visit the Page devoted to that song -- especially its section entitled
"The Music" -- for more info, including a Link to Bernard Greenberg's Bach
site that others have mentioned:

http://www.procolharum.com/awsop.htm

And also click on the photo of the anniversary cake at the bottom of the Page
for some interesting musical notation -- Fisher's musical signature (and the
musical signature of AWSoP) in ascii format -- from a post of his in a 1995
newsgroup, while he was studying math(s) and computer science at Cambridge
(but still mindful of the masterpiece he created).

Best,

Joan :-)

[June C Zydek]

So *that's* why I have always confused that tune with "Air for the G String"
which I have always favored!!

June

MatthewJ18 wrote in message <19990118202634...@ng134.aol.com>...