MTV Video Music Awards, Opening Act

Press

The 13th Century And Hip-Hop

ROBERT BASS, the conductor of the venerable 100-voice Collegiate Chorale, had just settled in for two weeks on Fire Island when the telephone rang at the beginning of the week. The call was from MTV, the cable channel that specializes in just about everything but the classical music that Mr. Bass specializes in. The caller said that MTV wanted Mr. Bass and the chorale to be the opening act at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 9.

Listening to Mr. Bass as he recalled the call later, one could not resist asking: Had he ever watched MTV? Long pause. ''Maybe once,'' he said.

He said that the producers of the awards telecast want the chorale to sing an arrangement of the opening of ''Carmina Burana,'' a cantata composed by the German music educator Carl Orff in the 1930's around a group of 13th-century ballads. As Mr. Bass has learned, it figures in the hip-hop works of NAS and SEAN (PUFFY) COMBS.

''They did this hit called 'Hate Me Now,' '' Mr. Bass said. ''The first music you hear is 'Carmina Burana,' so everybody in that world knows that music.''

By JAMES BARRON, The New York Times - August 27, 1999