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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 >
familyjules Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 07:48

I tell you, one further thought related to Sir M's last post....

The very idea of a Mike Oldfield fan of all people not thinking Ommadawn to be a work of near unparalleled genius absolutely beggars my belief!

My 'flabber' is 'ghasted'!

:O

Jules


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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 07:58

At least he loves Amarok. A MO fan disliking Amarok and Ommadawn would be cause for concern.  ;)

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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 12:18

See, part 1 of Ommadawn always causes a negative reaction in me while it's playing. Part 2, at least, makes the ride a lot more soothing and allows me to enjoy the music and the music only. Musically, the album is every bit as solid as Hergest Ridge. But I still like Hergest Ridge more for its boldness and honesty - that album can be a perfect soundtrack for happiness and sadness. It all depends on me. Ommadawn part 1 causes claustrophobia. Part 2 fixes the problem a little, fortunately. It's wonderfully atmospheric, too!

I don't think I'm a "fan" of the album. The review I did of it is too old and dated to be considered. Fact is, my problem is not with the feelings expressed in Ommadawn, but with the way they are expressed. I suppose there is a lot of anger and frustration all over the album (just like with Tubular Bells), but instead of a very angry, frustrated Mike Oldfield playing like a madman, I always visualise a soft spoken gentleman giving out a very formal speech, saying:

"I'm angry. I'm very angry, and very paranoid. I'm scared and angry. But I think, after all, I might be a happy person. See how playful and childish I really am?"


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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 12:26

I must say, as many comments my opinions produce, I don't think it was ever my intention and/or purpose to cause controversy. It's just that controversial topics like these are the ones I feel I have more things to say about. I could rave on endlessly about the albums I love, but I feel that would be just unnecessary and redundant. It's good to remind that this board is the ONLY artist-specific board that I'm a member of. That's how relevant Mike Oldfield is to me.

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
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Alan D Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 12:39

John Ruskin put forward the idea of a quality that he called 'savageness'. He was writing about gothic architecture at the time, but one of the stunning things about Ruskin is that what he says is often so fundamental as to provide helpful ways of looking at a whole range of art forms.

Anyway, this 'savageness' is one of the things, he says, that gives 'life' to art. It's an essential imperfection that arises partly because the greatest art is a symbol of life experience - and life is changeful and imperfect; and partly because 'no great artist ever stops working till he has reached his point of failure'. In other words, the greatest art is risky, poised on the edge of failure.

I think this idea illuminates Ommadawn part 1 superbly. It oozes risk. Its sheer range of expression is magnificently daring, and it culminates in that climax (for which there are no words) where, no matter how many times I hear it, I find myself on the edge of my seat wondering how he can possibly pull this off, and every time being amazed that he does. The tension builds and builds; there is a sense that he's going to lose control of it any moment; and the frustration and the anger and the desperation are expressed dangerously close to the limit of what I think music can do. And then, somehow, miraculously, he manages to restore the listener back to some kind of normality before leaving him with the fading rhythms.

It's not quite my 'favourite' Mike Oldfield piece, because I think I've overplayed it over the years. But if I had to choose his greatest work, I think this is what I'd settle on.

(Yes, I voted for the climax at the end.)
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 16:26

You didn't include the highly celebrated duet beween Paddy Maloney and Mike in your poll, what were you thinking????

All of its amazing though, I agree with what someone said earlier about the end section between Paddy Maloney finishing and the Horse Song. Its a much not talked about section and is utterly superb. I think defintively it has to be Mike's best album, I would probably sooner listen to TB or Amarok but only slightly sooner, Ommadawn is genuine artistic genius.

Funnily enough I was reading one of those big music critic a-z's in Waterstones bookshop  a few weekends ago. Naturally I turned to read what they had writen about Mike and came across one of the best writen articles I've ever read in one of those books (which lets face it tend to be not to kind on old Mike) I remember reading it thinking that guy somes up all my feelling towards Mike these days. I'll try and go back and find out which book it was.

Anyway the writer had some amazing things to say about Ommadawn. He said every musician has an album they were born to write and Ommadawn was Mike's, and not TB. He also went on to say it was, way, way ahead of its time. It was a blue print for what would become both world music and ambient. He noted Mike used African musicians long before Peter Gabriel, or anybody else for that matter, had thought of incorporating them into rock. And all of this through a fractured, tortured and deeply emotional musical landscape that coughed up moments of innocent wimsy as it did emotional pain. Genius, Mike certainly don't write em like that anymore.
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 16:36

Quote (TOBY @ Aug. 25 2005, 16:26)
You didn't include the highly celebrated duet beween Paddy Maloney and Mike in your poll, what were you thinking????

It's talking about side 1 exclusively. If it was the entire album, I'd also choose the very same part.

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 16:46

Quote (TOBY @ Aug. 25 2005, 16:26)
You didn't include the highly celebrated duet beween Paddy Maloney and Mike in your poll, what were you thinking????

Look at the poll subject. It is not about all of Ommadawn. It is only about Side 1 (Part 1). The Paddy section you refer to is in the middle of Part 2, so it can't be a selection in such a poll. "what I was thinking" was to only include the parts that were present in the section in a poll about the section.

As for "the end section between Paddy Maloney finishing and the Horse Song", also in Side 2, that's my favorite part and always has been.


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Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 16:49

WHOOPS! Big apologies to all, must read things properly!! I actually linked to it straight from the main board index so didn't get the full title. A cheap excuse if ever there was one!

Just part one eh? Well how about the famous guitar solo, I've always loved the bit where the second eletric guitar comes in a duets for those few notes. It's a bit more obvious on the live versions he's done. That would be my fav bit. The whole end section is mindblowing though.
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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 16:56

Where is this guitar solo? Is this the very fast one that has the rising theme (the third one introducted on the album) in the background?

--------------
"In the land of the Dacotahs,
Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 17:00

Yes its the big fast one directly before Terry Oldfields flute comes in to start off the end section. Sometimes I wish the guitars were given a bit more presense, they're kind of mixed into the background, but I can see Mike's thinking behind not doing that, its perhaps more subtle.
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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 17:07

Hmm. Did not have "Ommadawn" near me, but I checked the MIDI file on this site, and it appears that there is the short section of the first theme (with African drums in the background) between what I think of as the guitar solo, and Terry's flute doing Theme 2 before the chant.

It starts at 9:51 on the Carsten Kuss midi:

http://tubular.net/midi/OmmadawnPart1.mid

Is this it? The "rising theme" rises in the background while the guitar line falls in casdades of notes. There is something similar right before the flute section, but it is very short.


--------------
"In the land of the Dacotahs,
Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 17:41

It starts at 9.30 on that midi mix as the lead guitar soars in and really lifts you up, not sure that midi mix can handle it though, sounds a mess. But yeah thats it, sublime.
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moonchildhippy Offline




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Posted: Aug. 25 2005, 19:28

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Aug. 25 2005, 17:18)
Fact is, my problem is not with the feelings expressed in Ommadawn, but with the way they are expressed. I suppose there is a lot of anger and frustration all over the album (just like with Tubular Bells), but instead of a very angry, frustrated Mike Oldfield playing like a madman, I always visualise a soft spoken gentleman giving out a very formal speech, saying:

"I'm angry. I'm very angry, and very paranoid. I'm scared and angry. But I think, after all, I might be a happy person. See how playful and childish I really am?"

I can't imagine Ommadawn that way.   As a 20/21 year old known for his shyness I can't imagine Mike using his vocal chords as his main method of communication,  but could easily see him articulating his thoughts and feelings by playing his guitar   :) .  

To me  Ommadawn can stir up many different feelings upon  listening to it.   Yes it can make me laugh, feel happy,  can make me to cry.  The guitar climax in Part 1  makes me feel so alive, a rebirth perhaps?1 Then I read a quote by Mike "The end of the first side of Ommadawn, is the sound of me exploding from my mother's vagina"  
(quoted from "Mike Oldfield A Man and His Music" by Sean Moraghan).  So I now know why I get this feeling.

Side 2,  I find this to be a very happy side a natural progression from the cathartic climax of Part 1.  The ultimate conclusion to the happiness is "On Horseback, childish???, well not really, playful, uplifting YES!!!  Why should happiness be the preserve of chidren alone  :/. I do feel many adults  take life far  to seriously.


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It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad

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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 08:44

Quote (TOBY @ Aug. 25 2005, 17:41)
It starts at 9.30 on that midi mix as the lead guitar soars in and really lifts you up, not sure that midi mix can handle it though, sounds a mess. But yeah thats it, sublime.

I see now. I tend to consider the section from 9:30 to 9:50 (midi times only!!!! ) as a different section than the one that starts at 9:51, and the "theme 1 with drums" before Terry's flute section as yet another section.


--------------
"In the land of the Dacotahs,
Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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familyjules Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 09:29

Quote (moonchildhippy @ Aug. 25 2005, 19:28)
The ultimate conclusion to the happiness is "On Horseback, childish???, well not really, playful, uplifting YES!!!  Why should happiness be the preserve of chidren alone  :/. I do feel many adults  take life far  to seriously.

It's certainly childlike.

By the way, some great posts in this thread.  Y'all keep reminding me what a truly exceptional piece of work this is.  Well, all of you except Sir Mustapha, that is!  ;)

Jules


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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 10:31

Yet, it all takes on a sarcastic tone with the loud "Hmph!" at the end. At least that's what it sounds like to me. I've never heard anyone else comment on it.

--------------
"In the land of the Dacotahs,
Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 11:56

What I actually meant is that, on that ending, Mike assumes a childish attitude towards himself and the world, on purpose. That's how I always faced that piece, and it always worked for me.

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Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds.
Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com
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hiawatha Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 13:32

From the recent discussion, it is clear now that the favorite parts of Ommadawn Side/Part 1 are the Paddy pipes and "On Horseback".

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"In the land of the Dacotahs,
Where the Falls of Minnehaha
Flash and gleam among the oak-trees,
Laugh and leap into the valley."
- Song of Hiawatha
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TOBY Offline




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Posted: Aug. 26 2005, 13:41

I wouldn't worry about it. Quite often these discussions end up taking in a much wider frame of reference that was obviously indended, sometimes thats half the fun of it.
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