Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Professor Wagstaff) Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: long & varied pieces Message-ID: <677@pyuxd.UUCP> Date: Tue, 12-Mar-85 14:47:12 EST Article-I.D.: pyuxd.677 Posted: Tue Mar 12 14:47:12 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Mar-85 01:29:38 EST References: <650@mhuxt.UUCP> <674@druxx.UUCP> <234@ihlpg.UUCP> <454@scc.UUCP> <123@spar.UUCP> Organization: Huxley College Lines: 86 One should actually distinguish what one means by "long & varied" pieces. They seem to fall into a variety of categories, and some fall into several or none at all. But there would seem to be a variety of subtypes that typify "long & varied" pieces. 1. Extended "jams" - either of the "downhome" rock (Allman Bros., Canned Heat, Lynyrd Skynyrd) variety or the jazz-rock variety. Basically some unique motif is played by the band at the beginning and the end, and perhaps intermittently throughout, with extended so-called improvisational solos taken by various players in the ensemble. 2. Drone music - usually of the electronic/synthesizer music variety, in which a sequencer riff is played over the course of the composition, with more so-called improvisational noodling of sorts (or perhaps other riffs in counterpoint in the more elaborate pieces) "on top" of the sequencer base. Usually large sections of music like this are spliced together (often somewhat arbitrarily) and given a name (taking up one entire album side). Tangerine Dream made their name from this style, but others (mostly Europeans) have exploited it as well. 3. Slow buildup to climax - somewhat like Ravel's Bolero: take a very simple theme, arrange it in a very simple context, and repeat it over and over again, building on the arrangement with each reiteration. The final iteration represents the grandest and most pompous arrangement of all, often with a suitably bombastic ending. Vangelis excels at this style (though he also engages in (2) as well). "Does Everyone Stare?" by the Police represents a more Canterbury-ish example of this. 4. Pastiches - a la Abbey Road side 2: lots of shorter (and perhaps less conspicuous) pieces are strung together, often only for the sake of sheer pomposity and grandiosity, occasionally given a suitably banal name imbued with self-importance. Often these pieces combine examples of shorter type 1, 2, and 3 pieces. Early pre-Moon Floyd often took on this form. As did early Genesis. (Genesis probably flirted with 3, 4, AND 5 below. Much of the Enossified part of "Lamb" consisted of examples from type 3 above [e.g., "Carpet Crawlers"], but Supper's Ready and even shorter long pieces like "Cinema Show" are probably combinations of 3, 4, and 5. Since I'm talking so much about type 5, I should tell you what I'm referring to... 5. Elaborate extended compositions - these pieces were usually showcases of instrumental virtuosity, but sometimes compositional virtuosity and innovativeness crept in to make it more than just "showing off". Yes wavered between the latter and the former throughout their career. "Close to the Edge" is perhaps the primordial example of such an elaborately conceived composition: using extensive highly linear instrumental parts (Wakeman playing Howe's line at double speed), elaborate tonal colorations, sweeping attempts at Stravinskyism through sudden shocking seemingly out-of-place chordal attacks (usually implemented during polymetric sequences in opposing time signatures). "Edge" is at least part pastiche (it really consists of two actual "songs" connected by instrumental sections, with a reprise of the first song form at the end), but it differs from simple pastiches in its compositional complexity. Its predecessor, "Heart of the Sunrise", foreshadowed much of Edge's compositional form. It successors (Oceans, Sound Chaser, Delirium, Awaken, etc.) were ALL pale reflections on past glory (though "The Ancient" is the freshest thing on "Oceans"). ELP, though often more a showcase for Emerson's virtuosity, occasionally showed great compositional style: Karn Evil 9, Trilogy. Other times we witnessed blithering attempts at compositional legitimacy, designed to "show" some sort of respectability (e.g, the so-called Concerto), at the expense of Emerson's best facets as a composer. OBVIOUSLY my biases are showing, but I think we can really divide this category into two categories: original creative intense composition showing instrumental virtuosity and pigheaded flatulent showing off for its own sake. Since one person's creative composition is another person's flatulence, no one person can say (except for themselves) where the boundary is. But both categories exist. 6. "Experimentation" - this term usually means that the performer was on drugs when the piece was recorded, and that it consists of random sounds that just happened to happen during the course of a 400 hour recording session. As Ralph Records used to say in their catalog regarding submission of tapes for their perusal: "If you must send tapes, don't. But if you still want to submit tapes, don't. But if you still want to submit tapes: 1. NO ROCK 2. NO DISCO 3. NO TEN HOUR CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR FRIEND WHO IS ON DRUGS". You get the idea. Hopefully, I've offended lovers of all of these various genres equally. The point is that referring to "long & varied pieces" is as ambiguous as referring to "music". -- Meet the new wave, same as the old wave... Rich Rosen ihnp4!pyuxd!rlr