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Question: Favorite part of Ommadawn side 1 :: Total Votes:75
Poll choices Votes Statistics
Beginning sections 9  [12.00%]
Screaming guitar climax toward end 28  [37.33%]
The "Ommadawn" chant 9  [12.00%]
Other section not mentioned here 19  [25.33%]
Like all sections equally 10  [13.33%]
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Topic: Favorite part of Ommadawn side 1< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
hiawatha Offline




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Posted: June 13 2005, 09:37

What is your favorite part of Ommadawn Side (Part) 1 ?

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familyjules Offline




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Posted: June 13 2005, 11:34

I voted for the screaming guitar, but to be honest on another day I might reply that my favourite section was the folk melody played by Mike and Leslie Penning earlier on.  I just love that section - it's pure joy!

Jules


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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: June 13 2005, 12:38

On side 1 exclusively? It would be the fast solo, halfway through it.

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moonchildhippy Offline




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Posted: June 13 2005, 19:09

Quote (familyjules @ June 13 2005, 16:34)
I voted for the screaming guitar,

Jules

Me too!!!  Love it,  makes me so glad to be alive, Yippeeee!!!  Such  pure pleasure  :D . I have great difficulty in sitting still when I hear it, such is the  exitement it produces within me. I also like the way the sections piece together, the Ommadawn Chant, builds into this amazing screaming guitar climax, and then the African drummers come in, what a great ending  :D .

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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: June 13 2005, 20:30

Go the ending!!! It's one of my favourites out of all the music he has done. There's just so much intensity there if you play it loud.  :)

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familyjules Offline




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Posted: June 14 2005, 04:56

Quote (moonchildhippy @ June 13 2005, 19:09)
I have great difficulty in sitting still when I hear it, such is the  exitement it produces within me.

I have great difficulty in not turning up the stereo to maximum, playing incredibly over-the-top 'air guitar' and shaking my head about like a mad man.  I usually have the decency to make sure I'm not near a window while I'm making an ass of myself in this manner.

;)

Jules


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EeToN Offline




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Posted: June 14 2005, 23:48

To me it's a draw between the fast descending solo part at the middle and the huge climax at the end. Maybe the former one is really my favourite - though my favourite live version is from the 10th anniversary concert that doesn't include this part.

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maria Offline




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Posted: June 18 2005, 09:18

i voted for the chant because that's the moment when ommadawn spell has completely done the job in me, since then, i feel hypnotized while diving its imaginery and aware that there's no way to leave the powerful stream of sounds and feeling it contains until the end of the second part.

for me the first side works as a perfect warming up for the second, like a previous flight through shifting landscapes as one gets closer to the well where i've always found a deep source of strenght, the climax at the end of side two, my favourite musical moment of any time so far.


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Sonilink Offline




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Posted: June 28 2005, 06:16

well my favorite part of the whole album is beetween the bagpipe section and "on Horsback"  :)

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HearItAll Offline




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Posted: July 11 2005, 12:24

My favorite part of side 1 *IS* side 1.  It is all great.  But really, from the transition at approx 8:16 to the end of side 1 is my favorite.  The light guitar right through the chanting to the buildup to the final crescendo.  Something about it makes you want to hear it over and over and over and over.  I may even listen to it again.  I first heard it when it was released in 1975.  I saw he had this "new" album out and grabbed a copy knowing I would like it because of TB and Hergest Ridge.  I have NEVER grown tired of it.  Something mystical about it.  It is my favorite album in my Mike Oldfield collection.  Mike's magic at its best!   :)  :)
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familyjules Offline




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Posted: July 12 2005, 04:24

Quote (HearItAll @ July 11 2005, 12:24)
I have NEVER grown tired of it.  Something mystical about it.  It is my favorite album in my Mike Oldfield collection.  Mike's magic at its best!   :)  :)

I really couldn't agree more!

Jules


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Guru Meditation Offline




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Posted: Aug. 23 2005, 16:17

Well, I am sorry to dissapoint many of you, but there must be hundred and one way to improve Ommadawn part 1, as well as any other large-scale work ever written. It is hard to find a perfect short song, and not so speak about perfect long-scale work. It is as close to impossible writte something like that as it gets.

I remember when I listened to Ommadawn for the first time, I was enchanted with mystical opening, and then utterly dissapointed with pastoral continuation. I expected continuation and evolution of atmosphere from the beggining.
But I was again delighted with the last, african part.

Would you believe this - once I dreamed Ommadawn, the music played in my dreams. And after the well known opening part, I heared a theme, that was so perfectly in tune with that opening feel. It was a great theme but when I woke up I couldn't rember it even varguely. And I regreted: why wasn't Mike able to round this album? Why wasn't he able to keep the unity of atmosphere from the beggining to the end?

But I never found a long-scale work that would perfectly achieve this aim, not even in classical music.
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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2005, 05:05

Quote (Guru Meditation @ Aug. 23 2005, 16:17)
Why wasn't he able to keep the unity of atmosphere from the beginning to the end?

I'm not sure that a "unity of atmosphere" would have worked on Ommadawn - it would have kept its dynamics and drama in check, and those are arguably the key features of the work.

It does maintain a "unity of theme" though, and does it more successfully than Tubular Bells.  Maybe Hergest Ridge and Incantations are more successful in this regard, but all three albums succeed as examples of how to compose a long piece in my book.

I suppose Hergest Ridge maintains the "unity of atmosphere" best, despite the "Thunderstorm" section.

Jules


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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2005, 05:38

I would say TSODE has a unity of atmosphere (and theme). Because I love the atmosphere so much, this unity is precisely why TSODE is my second-favourite of Mike's albums. But of course an album doesn't have to have such unity for me to enjoy it. Amarok is my favourite album ever, and for all the flow that it does have, unity of atmosphere is definately not one of them!

As for Ommadawn, I don't think I'm ever going to love the album. I certainly like it, the Part 1 ending and On Horseback make sure of that, but not love it unless I have a major change of mind.


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Guru Meditation Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2005, 14:15

Arrgh, my previous post on this thread is missplaced - it was intented for the other thread, "how to improve Ommadawn part 1". But never mind, you cheked it out. I also agree that Ommadawn is a great balance between continuity and dynamics, the best Mike ever produced - neither so frippery as TB, neither so extended as Incantations, neither so predictable as Herdgest Ridge.

My favourite part from Ommadawn is without doubt the opening part, for which I voted - the mystical one. It always induces very meditative and a bit oriental state of mind in me. I imagine a desert before a sunset, a tired caravan, and sand-watches that slowly flow...
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2005, 16:40

I think it's exactly that "balance" that makes me want to hate the album every time I listen to it. I don't need such a polite, tame Mike Oldfield. The unstability is exactly what I like the most in his music.

Well... the second factor is that the album is always so blatant and obvious in the emotions it tries to achieve. "Okay, here's the sad part! Now here is the cathartic part! Now here is the happy part! Feel exactly like that and don't even DARE to feel any other way!" Um... no, thanks. I'm a free man.


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bee Offline




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Posted: Aug. 24 2005, 17:16

I voted for the screaming guitar climax, it has such an earthy vitality! I also love the chanting and the rhythms of the drums underneath. I always have.

Ommadawn, like most of mike's music, has meant more to me as I've grown older. I wonder if it's because I understand it more as I have gone through  life  and have experiences to draw on. Perhaps the music has just become so familiar it sort of reassures me, I don't know, but I do know that I think it utterly remarkable that someone so young could get all that 'grownup' stuff down into music that is going to last. We should not forget that. :)


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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 06:44

Quote (Guru Meditation @ Aug. 24 2005, 14:15)
My favourite part from Ommadawn is without doubt the opening part, for which I voted - the mystical one. It always induces very meditative and a bit oriental state of mind in me. I imagine a desert before a sunset, a tired caravan, and sand-watches that slowly flow...

What a beautiful image - yes, I can see that.  Very apt.

Jules


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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 06:49

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Aug. 24 2005, 16:40)
I think it's exactly that "balance" that makes me want to hate the album every time I listen to it. I don't need such a polite, tame Mike Oldfield. The unstability is exactly what I like the most in his music.

Well... the second factor is that the album is always so blatant and obvious in the emotions it tries to achieve. "Okay, here's the sad part! Now here is the cathartic part! Now here is the happy part! Feel exactly like that and don't even DARE to feel any other way!" Um... no, thanks. I'm a free man.

I couldn't disagree more!!

"Polite" and "tame"?  My arse!  It's the last time that Mike sounded this human, this dynamic, this demonic!  If you relate to the emotions in TB, Sir M, then I'm surprised you don't notice them here.  There's peace and joy in Ommadawn, but there's pain and war in there too.  The climax of Part One is wracked with "unstability"!

I think your impression of each part of the album being obvious, blatant and manipulative is hideously wrong and ill-judged.

Your loss!

:/  :(  :p

Jules


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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 07:43

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Aug. 25 2005, 05:40)
I think it's exactly that "balance" that makes me want to hate the album every time I listen to it. I don't need such a polite, tame Mike Oldfield. The unstability is exactly what I like the most in his music.

Well... the second factor is that the album is always so blatant and obvious in the emotions it tries to achieve. "Okay, here's the sad part! Now here is the cathartic part! Now here is the happy part! Feel exactly like that and don't even DARE to feel any other way!" Um... no, thanks. I'm a free man.


Does this mean you're not a fan of Ommadawn? I always thought you were (Nine out of ten on your site suggests that you didn't want to hate it when you wrote the review). Of course opinions can change, but your reasoning doesn't make much sense to me. I'd have thought that albums such as Amarok are just as forward with their emotions. I'd also like to know why you think of this album as tame or polite.

On an unrelated note, you asked a while ago why you seem to generate so much comment. I think it's because that no-one else here thinks quite the same way you do. If anyone does, certainly none of them are as outspoken as yourself. I very much enjoy discussing and debating with you, and others who think differently about music than myself. Keep up the good work!  :)


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69 replies since June 13 2005, 09:37 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

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