Neoclassical Dark Wave - Historical Context

Historical Context

References to classical music by popular music as a major influence had been first used by music artists dating from the mid-1970s at the beginnings of the new age music movement.

In the middle of the 1980s, the bands Dead Can Dance and In the Nursery released influential albums which essentially laid the foundations of the Neoclassical Dark Wave genre. In 1985 Dead Can Dance released Spleen and Ideal, which initiated the band's 'medieval European sound.' In 1987 In the Nursery released Stormhorse, which exhibited a bold, cinematic style and a symphonic/post-industrial sound lending itself to 'being envisioned as backing music for a dramatic epic.' This music, 'clearly more inspired by the classical than the rock tradition, had a melancholy, visionary and sometimes nostalgic quality'.

Neoclassical Dark Wave makes frequent use of formal styles associated with orchestral music as well as chamber music. Many bands utilize orchestra-derived synthesizer samples, while some better-known groups such as Elend make use of chamber orchestras and other acoustic instruments. Vocals in the genre can also vary. Some bands such as Les Secrets de Morphée make use of opera-like vocals, or in the case of Camerata Mediolanense, madrigal-like vocals. Others such as Autunna et sa Rose utilize contemporary classical chamber music vocalise together with spoken dramatic monologue. Several other bands in the genre such as H.E.R.R. are notable for using a martial approach, including the heavy use of snare drum and militaristic themes. Finally, there are in the genre a small number of purely instrumental groups.