Punk rock and classical would make a kickass combination

There are some punk/hard-rock bands that have attempted playing classical pieces. For example Scatterbrain released a stunningly good version of Mozart's Sonata Number 3. It's on their album Here Comes Trouble, and it's also on an Australian single they released including a live version where the vocalist blames a guy in the crowd for stuffing up the guitarist's solo.

It's mad, it's frantic and it works.

---

_{Thanks to Segnbora-t for the suggestions and corrections.}

Actually, a lot of what you're talking about sounds like a branch of post rock headed by Canadian moguls Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Dirty Three and also Scotland's Mogwai. Not very many vocals, though, but the same churning epic melodies that usually denotes classical music.

In fact, Godspeed You Black Emperor! did Adagio for strings on their EP Slow Riot for New Kanada. So it's been done, and done well.

Though combining rock and classical music usually leads to disaster, you might want to try 20th century minimalist composers like Steve Reich, John Adams, and Philip Glass.

Hopefully I'm not overgeneralizing, but these composers abstract many rock-related musical concepts--for example, layering and repeating short musical themes to create hypnotic sonic mantras--in interesting ways.

Though I haven't heard Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians," that's one of his most popular pieces. I like "Four Organs" myself, but it's arranged for four organs and maracas. Don't know much about Adams and Glass, though.

The main problem with minimalist compositions is that they tend to sound like theme songs from TV news shows. You have to spend some time with them before the compositions start talking to you on their own terms.

If you absolutely have to hear classical/indie rock hybrids, you might want to try bands like Rachel's or the Threnody Ensemble. I wouldn't recommend them, though. Those bands use cellos & violins quite a bit, but they often sound like minimalism lite.

It's not possible for a combination of punk rock and classical (Not even The Fall's 'The Classical' does it). Punk rock values speed and simplicity (I'm being a bit basic here, but it illustrates my point), classical usually appreciates technical skill and complex songwriting. They're as different as chalk and cheese - punk up classical music a bit and it stops being classical, and vice versa. It's mathematically impossible (mind, I'm no mathematician) - You'll end up with something that is neither punk *nor* classical, definitely not both. Granted, Phillip Glass, Karlheinz Stockhausen are classical composers, but are nowhere near punk. Bands which are closer to the rock end of the spectrum who embrace elements of classical music might be Spiritualized or John Cale, but they are definitely not punk. Even the friggin' Beatles used an orchestra, so does that make them a classical/rock combination? No.

A good question is; why would you want it to work? punk is (or was, if you're from that school of thought) about something fresh and exciting and provocative. Classical is an old music (as if you couldn't tell from the name), and hence pretty much goes against everything that punk stands for.

Alex-K and ymelup, who mention some punk bands doing a Beethoven Sonata or whatever; a punk band doing a classical cover does not make a punk/classical hybrid band. To put it so more users of E2 would understand, does a PC running an arcade emulator make the system some sort of arcade/computer hybrid machine?

Genres separate out for a reason.

As John Peel says about the Afro Celt Sound System; "...although it's true those things are cross-cultural, multi-fusion sort of things, they can also be bollocks. 'What you need is reggae with bagpipes'. No you don't." - Same goes (IMHO) for classical and punk.