America has been called the cultural melting pot
of the world, but in the last 100 years music has become the cultural melting
pot of America. Musicians and composers continue to write, re-write,
arrange, re-arrange, create, experiment with and record many new styles
of music that have not only forever changed the course of music history
but have breathed new life into traditions and styles of music from years
gone by.
One example of tradition transcending culture
is the role that classical music has played in rock music over the past
35 years. Art rock, or progressive rock, is a style of music that
started in the late 1960's that pays omage to classical music in a way
that no one had ever heard before. Rock bands of virtuostic musicians
have used their classical music backgrounds to implement classical
forms, styles and conventions in the rock idiom, thus truly progressing
music and its medium forward into the 21st century.
Are you ready to start? Then let's begin...
Table of Contents
Content
Bands
MIDI
Files
Links
Content
*Terms and definitions*
Arranging
The adaptation of a composition
for a medium different from that for which it was originally written, so
made that the substance remains essentially unchanged.
Counterpoint
Denotes music consisting of
two or more lines that sound simultaneously.
Dissonance
A term used to describe the
disagreeable effect produced by certain intervals.
Fugue
The latest and most mature form
of imitative counterpoint.
a. always written in contrapunctal
style with texture of 3 or 4 voices
b. based on a short melody or
theme
c. as subsequent voices enter
thay are filled with freely invented counterpoint, usually unified by recurrent
motifs that work to create the harmony of the piece
Instrumentation
The art of using instruments
effectively in a composition.
Interpretation
The personal and creative element
in the performance of music, which as in drama, depends on a middleman
between the composer and the audience.
Rhythm
The whole feeling of movement
in music with a strong implication of both regularity and differentiation.
Opera
A drama in which music is the
essential factor comprising songs with orchestral accompaniment preludes
and interludes.
Style
In the arts, the mode of expression
or performance.
Twelve-Tone
Using a series of intervals
in the chromatic scale in turn so that no one note is repeated until the
other 11 have appeared.
Virtuosity
A performer who excels in technological
ability.
Bands
& Musicians
Echolyn's style has been termed updated progressive rock, due to the
band's classically trained, professional musicians - bassist and vocalist
Ray Weston, guitarist/vocalist Brett Kull, keyboardist and vocalist Christopher
Buzby, and drummer Paul Ramsey. With instrumental prowess and close
3-part vocal harmonies echolyn was signed by Sony Music/Epic Records in
1993. Following the underground success of their Epic the band took a musical
hiatus for 4 years but they have recently returned in the year 2000 with
a highly acclaimed new release and a new member, Jordan Perlson,
joining Paul Ramsey on drums and percussion.
Example #1 - Arranging
Entry 11-19-93
Example #2 - Counterpoint
As the World
Example #3 - Dissonance
The Wiblet
Example #4 - Instrumentation
Never the Same
Example #5 - Interpretation
Sentimental Chain
Example #6 - Rhythm
American Vacation Tune
Example #7 - Style
Prose
Example #8 - Twelve Tone
Only Twelve - row 1
Only Twelve - add row 2
Only Twelve - add row 3
Only Twelve - all rows; full clip
Only Twelve - recapitulation
of rows
Example #9 - Virtuosity
Human Lottery
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Formed in 1970 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, Emerson, Lake &
Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock
press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded
in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands
into tens of millions of listeners, creating a major radio phenomenon as
well. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best
work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers
could compete for that same arena-scale audience. Over and above
their own commercial
success, the trio also paved the way for the success of such bands
as Yes, King Crimson, and Gentle Giant, all of whom would become their
rivals for much of the 1970's.
Examples #1-4 - Arranging and Interpretation
#1
- Fanfare for the Common Man - (Copland)
#4
- Pictures at an Exhibition - (Moussorgsky-Ravel)
Gentle Giant
Formed at the dawn of the progressive rock era in 1969, Gentle Giant
seemed poised for a time in the mid-'70s to break out of its cult band
status, but somehow never made the jump to super-stardom. Close in
spirit to Yes and King Crimson than to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, their
unique sound melded hard rock and classical music, with an almost medieval
approach to singing. With a combined 37 instruments played between
the 5 members of the group Gentle Giant set all new standards for virtuosity
and musicianship in the rock band concert arena.The music of Gentle Giant
continues its ground-breaking ways in the rock world as their entire catalog
has recently been re-issued on the Cema/OneWay Records label.
Example #1 - Fugue
On Reflection
Example #2 - Counterpoint
Dog's Life
Example #3 - Rhythm
Knots
Example #4 - Style
Raconteur Troubadour
King Crimson
In 1973 and 1974 KC was doing its own thing. The band drew mainly on
a European vocabulary both for its writing and improvising. KC was
a band that thrived on improvisation in order to stay alive as that was
its life blood. But it didn't show much in their studio albums.
In concert, it shined though, as it stepped sideways and jumped. KC's music
went places where other musicians of that rock generation mainly avoided.
KC looked into the darker spaces of the psyche and reported back on what
it found. And while the violin is not an instrument of heavy metal,
even hard rock, it found its place in KC for several album releases.
Example #1 - Dissonance
Easy Money
Eample #2 - Rhythm
Larks' Tongues in Aspic
The history of Renaissance is essentially the history of two separate
groups. The original group was founded in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds members
Keith Relf and Jim McCarty as a sort of progressive folk-rock band, who
recorded two albums but never quite made it, despite some success in England.The
band went through several membership changes, with Relf and his sister
Jane exiting and McCarty all but gone after 1971. The new line-up
formed around the core of bassist Jon Camp, keyboard player John Tout,
and Terry Sullivan on drums, with Annie Haslam, an aspiring singer with
operatic training and a three-octave range. Their first album in this incarnation,
Prologue, released in 1972, was considerably more ambitious than the original
band's work, with extended instrumental passages and soaring vocals by
Haslam went on to set the
stage for Renaissance to become a band that brought the classical string
orchestra into prominence with their folk-inflected song writing style.
Example #1 - Instrumentation
Carpet
of the Sun
Example #2 - Style
Prologue
Example #3- Arranging and Interpretation
Song
of Scherezade
The Who
The Who formed in 1964 in London, England and disbanded in 1983.
In their active years they completed the rock mold by playing in many adventourous
styles including Mod, Pop/Rock, British Invasion, Hard Rock, Rock &
Roll. Their sound was heavy, but it also evoked tones of being irreverent,
raucous, intense, brash, witty, rowdy, reckless, tense/anxious, exuberant,
visceral, literate, rebellious, cathartic, volatile - all from 4 men who
could stand on stage and simply play! In 1969 they wrote the rock
opera Tommy, the full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy
that launched the band to international superstardom, written almost entirely
by guitarist Pete Townshend. Hailed as a breakthrough upon its release,
it's critical standing has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades,
because of the occasional pretensions of the concept, and the insubstantial
nature of some of the songs that functioned as little more than devices
to advance the rather sketchy plot. Nonetheless, the double album
has many excellent songs and has done wonders for bringing the convention
of opera into the world of rock music
Example #1 - Rock Opera
Tommy
- Pinball Wizard
Far and away the longest lasting and the most successful of the 1970s'
progressive rock groups, Yes has proved one of the lingering success stories
from that musical genre. The band, founded in 1968, has overcome
several generational shifts in its audience and the departure of its most
visible members at key points in its history to reach the end of the century
as
the definitive progressive rock band of the 20th century. Where
rivals such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer withered away commercially after
the mid-'70s, and other groups like Genesis and King Crimson altered their
sounds so radically that they become unrecognizable to their original fans,
Yes has retained its sound, and performs much of the same repertory that
they were doing in 1971 and for their trouble, they find themselves being
taken quite seriously a quarter of a century later. Their audience
remains huge because they've always attracted younger listeners drawn to
their mix of daunting virtuosity, cosmic lyrics, complex musical textures,
and powerful yet delicate lead vocals. In weaving counterpoint and
orchestral sounding arrangements in the standard guitar, bass, keyboards,
drums, vocals rock band setting, Yes
continues to progress forward and push the musical envelope.
Example #1 - Counterpoint
Brother of Mine
Example #2 - Style
Themes
Frank Zappa
Scrutinize This!
(1940-1993)
Frank Zappa was one of the most accomplished composers of the rock
era; his music combines an understanding of and appreciation for such contemporary
classical figures as Stravinsky, Stockhausen, and Varese with an affection
for late-'50s doo wop rock & roll and a facility for the guitar-heavy
rock that dominated pop in the '70s. Zappa was also a satirist whose
reserves of scorn seemed bottomless and whose wicked sense of humor and
absurdity have delighted his numerous fans, even when his lyrics crossed
over the broadest bounds of taste. Finally, Zappa was perhaps the most
prolific record-maker of his time, turning out massive amounts of music
on his own Barking Pumpkin label and through distribution deals with Rykodisc
and Rhino after long, unhappy associations with industry giants like Warner
Brothers and the now-defunct MGM. Frank Zappa's music lives on in
the eyes of those who view him as a genius taken from life in his prime
by cancer while others view him as an opinionated businessman who used
controversy and politics to get noticed as an artist. Whatever the
case may be no one can deny his huge music output and his additions to
rock and classical music.
Example #1 - Counterpoint
G-Spot Tornado
Example #2 - Instrumentation
Peaches en Regalia
Example #3 - Virtuosity
Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar
Example #4 - Style
The Central Scrutinizer
MIDI
Files
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Tarkus
Gentle Giant
On Reflection - MIDI by Claude Chamberlain
King Crimson
Discipline
Renaissance
Fanfare to the Overture of Scherezade
The Who
Pinball Wizard
Yes
Awaken
Frank Zappa
Peaches en Regalia
Links
MIDIs
Progressive Rock Jumpstations
Ghostland
Progscape
Hope you had fun - thanks for visiting!
Your guide to harmonic dissonance,
Christopher Buzby
[email protected]
and remember...
"The harder you work in life, the luckier you get!"
(Thomas Jefferson)
**All band logos, pictures, MIDI
files and linkson this page have been used with the kind
permission of the owners andwebhosts
of the images and sources cited or used."