walking upstream…
The Nice
The Nice
The Nice formed in London in 1967 as singer P.P. Arnold's backing band before splitting off to record on their own. Fronted by Keith Emerson's increasingly violent showmanship at the Hammond organ — stabbing it with knives, riding it like a bronco — the band ransacked the classical canon, reworking Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius's orchestral works, and Bernstein's "America" (whose performance, complete with a burning American flag, got them banned from the Royal Albert Hall) into extended rock arrangements. Albums like Ars Longa Vita Brevis and the orchestra-backed live album Five Bridges built the template of the classical-rock suite. The band splintered in 1970 when Emerson left to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer with Greg Lake and Carl Palmer.
the sound in question
1968
AmericaThe Nice
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Johann Sebastian Bach1720s · Baroque / Classical
The Nice folded Bach directly into their live sets, splicing his "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" into a cover of Bob Dylan's "Country Pie" on 1970's "Five Bridges" — a literal collision of Baroque counterpoint with rock and folk that let Emerson show a classically-trained organist could sit inside a rock trio without diluting either side.
listen: upstream & here
1721
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major, BWV 1051Johann Sebastian Bach
1970
Country Pie / Brandenburg Concerto No. 6The Nice
listen forHear the interlocking, dance-like viola lines of Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 6" recur almost verbatim inside the Nice's "Country Pie / Brandenburg Concerto No. 6," with Emerson's organ standing in for the original strings.
Jean Sibelius1890s–1900s · Classical / Romantic / Nationalism
The Nice's most enduring classical arrangement was of the stately Intermezzo from Sibelius's "Karelia Suite," first recorded on 1968's "Ars Longa Vita Brevis" and later performed with a full orchestra on "Five Bridges" — an early, unusually reverent example of a rock band treating a 19th-century nationalist tone poem as source material rather than novelty.
listen: upstream & here
1893
Karelia Suite, Op. 11: IntermezzoJean Sibelius
1968
Intermezzo (from the Karelia Suite)The Nice
listen forCompare the stately, march-like theme of Sibelius's "Karelia Suite: Intermezzo" with the Nice's own version — the melody and orchestration barely altered, just carried by Emerson's organ instead of strings and brass.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky1870s–80s · Romantic / Classical / Ballet
On the same "Five Bridges" album, the Nice reworked the driving third movement of Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" Symphony, retitling it simply "Pathétique" and performing it with the Sinfonia of London — one of several full-orchestra classical arrangements the band undertook, treating 19th-century symphonic material as raw material for a rock trio much the way other bands treated blues standards.
listen: upstream & here
1893
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1970
'Pathétique' Symphony No. 6, 3rd MovementThe Nice
listen forLine up the insistent, march-like third movement of Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" with the Nice's own "Pathétique" — the same driving brass theme, now carried by Emerson's organ over a rock rhythm section.