Michael Jackson and the use of classical music in his art

Hi music lovers, today I want to tell you how the King of Pop, Michael Jackson has been capable of creating some pieces of fine art by integrating pop music with classical music and visual arts. I will discuss deeply this topic and the meaning he gave to the outcome of this magistral work and the craftsmanship behind these works of art!! Let us start with this analysis!!

It was between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s when Michael Jackson began to create his third studio album, Dangerous and among all the songs we can find in this work Will You be there is characterized by a very peculiar incipit/introduction. Honestly thinking about the Dangerous album as whole, we could have expected to listen to something more oriented to pop and RnB but Michael Jackson loved to surprise the public and his fans, so he decided to add “Will You be there” to the album as the 11th track. As we all know Michael Jackson was an eager lover classical music. Not only did Michael appreciate this music genre but he also had a deep knowledge of it and was a keen connoisseur of classical music and all its artists. Additionally Michael Jackson was blessed with such a brilliant mind, and his creative genius took him to use such a monumental incipit in the song I mentioned. Regarding the introduction to this masterpiece, Michael used the last part of Beethoven’s Symphony 9 in D Minor (op. 125), most commonly known as Ode to Joy. As I said Michael had an extremely precise knowledge of classical music, for this reason I can affirm that he had a precise motivation to use that precise segment of the Symphony. Therefore the most accurate question should be: Why would Michael use that segment of the 9the Symphony? Why did he choose Beethoven’s 9th Symphony? In my opinion the King of Pop was extremely aware of the deep meaning contained in the Symphony which gets along extremely well with the lyrics of Will You Be there. To understand better this topic and to have a better view of the reason why Michael used Beethoven’s 9th Symphony Ode to Joy for the introduction to his song, we need to discuss about the story of the Symphony, and its meaning!! Friedrich Schiller wrote the Ode to Joy in 1772 and in 1808 this poem was released. Beethoven composed the Symphony 9 in D Minor between 1822 and 1824. Regarding Schiller’s Ode to Joy, as we can see from its words, it is a hymn to peace, love for one another, joy and freedom. On the other hand, Beethoven for the last movements of the Symphony chose to take Schiller’s poem and transform it into music, for the fact that it was putting into words the composer ideals values, such as freedom, love, brotherhood and friendship. The outcome of the Symphony 9 in D Minor is therefore a monumental hymn to peace, love for one another, friendship and brotherhood. We also need to take into consideration the historic time the Symphony and the poem were composed and written: it was the 19th century which corresponded to the Romantic age, so we can’t be surprised about all the values and ideals these two works are expressing!! Going back to Will you be there by Michael Jackson, after this brief analysis of Ode to joy, we can affirm that Michael Jackson was aware of what the Symphony stood for, so he decided to use it to introduce Will you be there. In addition as a big fan of Michael’s, I can say as i mentioned, that all the values and ideals he stood for such as peace, love, brotherhood and freedom especially, are extremely evident and clear in this song and since Michael shared the same values and ideals expressed in the Symphony, here it is the reason why he elected the Ode to Joy to craft the introduction to his song, for example in Michael’s words “But they told me/A man should be faithful/And walk when not able/And fight till the end/But I’m only human” in these few lines it is clear that the artist was asking for freedom, another example of how this song is expressing a message of love and friendship “Carry me/Like you are my brother/Love me like a mother/Will you be there?/When weary/Tell me will you hold me/When wrong, will you scold me/When lost will you find me?”. As we can see the lyrics of this masterpiece are extremely eloquent, and clear.

Moreover, we can listen to how Michael used classical music in some other works of his, and another relevant example is Little Susie/Pie Jesu. This is another brilliant example of how classical music not only is used for the introduction of the song but also as an integration of this work, which has contributed to impart the song a more impactful meaning. The Symphony Michael used for the incipit to this song is the Requiem (Op. 9) : V Pie Jesu by Maurice Duruflé. As we can listen, Michael has used his own variation of the 9th movement of this Requiem. In his version, the Michael Jackson used a children choir instead of a single voice to execute this movement of the Requiem, but he kept the main melodies anyway, which is extremely important because in my opinion great melodies should never be changed!! Furthermore as we can see Michael used a Requiem for the incipit and it makes clear for the listener what kind of topic we should expect in this song. Indeed for those who do not know much about classical music, a Requiem is a musical composition or solemn chant in honor of the deceased. The song infact deals with the story of a little girl who was abandoned by her whole family, in Michael’s words “Her father left home, poor mother died/ Leaving Susie alone/ Grandfather’s soul too had flown../ No one to care/ Just to love her/ How much can one bear/ Rejecting the needs in her prayers”, and eventually the little girl after struggling to stay alive, committed suicide by throwing herself down the stairs. I do not believe this song was based on a true story, I would rather believe that little Susie is the personification of all those children who are left alone without anyone to love them. Another significant particular to support my thesis is the last part of this song “Neglect can kill/ Like a knife in your so/ Oh it will/ Little Susie fought so hard to live”, from these words we can see why this little girl died. Going back to speak about how the Requiem and Little Susie/Pie Jesu could match, as I mentioned Requiems were used to honor the dead and in my opinion the accuracy of the use of this type of composition to introduce a song that deals with the death of a little girl is extremely brilliant.

Another song in which Michael used classical music for the incipit, is HIStory. The composition the artist used is the piano concerto Pictures at an Exhibition by the russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. Like in Will you be there, there is the need to know about the story of Mussorgsky’s composition, to understand better the reason why Michael used this particular piano concerto to introduce his song. Modest Mussorgsky composed Pictures at an Exhibition as a memorial to his friend, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann, who died in 1873. After Hartmann’s death, Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of Hartmann’s paintings and architectural studies, and he felt the need to capture that experience in music. The logic of how Mussorgsky piano concerto and Michael Jackson’s HIStory are connected could possibly seem pretty odd and intricate. In my opinion HIStory by Michael Jackson is an extremely, i would say, visual song for the fact that it is very easy to picture all the lyrics and words Michael is singing, in our minds. Therefore I can affirm that as much as Mussorgsky felt the need to capture and recreate the experience in his music, so did Michael Jackson: he was extremely aware of what was happening around the world and he felt the need to capture all these images in his music as well. This is in my opinion what connects Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition and Michael Jackson’s HIstory. Moreover we can listen to how Michael Jackson had varied Mussorgsky’s Pictures, and made it more monumental by adding more wind istruments and more drums, anyway he kept each and every melody and harmony. It is pretty mesmerizing to see how well Michael knew classical music and its history, he was such a man of many surpres!!

Moreover not only did Michael Jackson use classical music in his songs, but he also used it within the songs he was performing during his concerts. Indeed in his Dangerous World Tour he used for example some pieces from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” which were used just in some dates of the tour. During his HIStory World Tour Michael used the Piano concerto Pictures at an Exhibition by the Modest Mussorgsky. Moreover during the 30th Anniversary Celebration in 2001 at the opening of the concert it was played the composition Fanfare for the common Man by Aaron Copland. Finally during his concert Michael Jackson and Friends in 1999, before his Earth Song the full Symphony Ode to Joy was played. Furthermore as we have seen in many clips taken at Neverland valley ranch, there was always classical music playing through the speaker sistem and one of the main pieces played was Bach’s Sonata for Flute in A minor. In addition in several interviews Michael Jackson said to be a great fan and connoisseur of classical music and among his favorite composers there were Claude Debussy, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov.

To sum up, with this article we have seen how it was possible to inegrate pop music with classical music and craft some creative, original and unique works of art. With this article we have seen Michael’s deep research and knowledge of the music genre. Moreover The meaning and the message Michael gave to his music is also something extremely relevant!! As Michael Jackson once said “Great music is immortal, we still listen to Mozart today, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, any of them, any of the greats. Great music is like a great piece of sculpture or a great painting, it’s forever”, and today we can say that Michael Jackson has gained a place among all the great artists he kept talking about!!

Thank you for your attention!! G❤️