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Topic: Hergest Ridge, The different seasons< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
TheInfection Offline




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Posted: Nov. 18 2002, 01:49

I think the music is trying to descripe the different seasons of the year.

Part One
summer, autumn, christmas, new year

Part Two
spring, a thunderstorm, summer

Regards,
Marko Marin
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Ugo Offline




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Posted: Nov. 18 2002, 17:45

This is very interesting, Marko. :) The very ending of Part Two sounds melancholic to me... just like summer was getting into autumn again... kind of closing the circle with Part One. It's really something to think about, and you are the first who did. Congratulations. :)

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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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rollosb Offline




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Posted: Dec. 27 2002, 05:50

You're right there!

The sleigh bells in Part One give a feeling of Christmas, and when the orchestra joins, it all gets more emotional...and the choir would then be New Year...yup, you're right!


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Rollo - The Psychedelic Freaky Guy
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dgcaer Offline




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Posted: Jan. 07 2003, 12:44

Do you think it could be Mike Oldfield emotions from the released of Tubular Bells in may 73 to the recording of Hergest Ridge in spring 74? It fit with the different seasons, and he moved near Hergest Ridge, just after the release of TB, if I remember well.
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rollosb Offline




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Posted: Jan. 14 2003, 12:08

This gets even more close!

You're obviously right, dgcaer. The very high-note flute in the beginning could be Mike's shout-out to the people who praised him for Tubular Bells: "Don't overrate me, I'm just a normal guy with a great sense of harmony like we all have."

It seems that Hergest Ridge would be his "resting" after all his fast popularity because it's probably the album with the most chilling feel of Mike's. Just imagine making a whole year pass away for 40 minutes. Yes, Hergest Ridge fits perfectly in there. Thanks to you.  :)

Oh, and he didn't move to Hergest Ridge precisely. As Richard Carter says: "Hergest Ridge is a hilly ridge which Mike was able to see from his house at the time of writing the album. He moved there after the success of Tubular Bells to escape the attention." Could I actually be right? I don't know! ;)


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Rollo - The Psychedelic Freaky Guy
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MO fan Offline




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Posted: Jan. 26 2003, 15:37

Quote (rollosb @ Jan. 14 2003, 12:08)
"Hergest Ridge is a hilly ridge which Mike was able to see from his house at the time of writing the album. He moved there after the success of Tubular Bells to escape the attention." Could I actually be right? I don't know! ;)

You are right, Mike did live near there at the time and must have walked those very hills.

I took a personal detour to that area while on holiday a few years after the album came out, to see that tranquil part of the English countryside, on which the album was based.

'Hergest Ridge' at its launch was a music critic's dream, they had a field day criticising the album as being 'far too quiet' but the critics did not affect Mikes fans and the album sold then and still does now, and has stood the test of time just like those hills.

Cheers MO Fan :D
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: Jan. 27 2003, 10:47

He lived on Bradnor hill which is just to the north of Hergest Ridge (there's something to add to the discography...) - he'd certainly have walked on the ridge and flown his model gliders from there.

I think that, like Mike once said, the music fits the countryside there very well - nowehere else sits together with the music in quite the same way. I see it not as the seasons, but just as the different moods of the countryside - the dark, the light, blue skies and thunderclouds. It could be lots of things - the course of a day, a journey through the landscape, a week spent looking out the window watching the changing weather on the imposing hills.
The album's a musical version of the countryside whose name it takes - somewhere to escape to and enjoy the surroundings...with a little imagination...
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maria Offline




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Posted: Jan. 27 2003, 19:34

Quote
It could be lots of things - the course of a day, a journey through the landscape, a week spent looking out the window watching the changing weather on the imposing hills.
The album's a musical version of the countryside whose name it takes - somewhere to escape to and enjoy the surroundings...with a little imagination...


it's nice that the references to landscapes written on the music appear told by someone else (maybe there are more words about that somewhere else... i didn’t see them yet... ), i had always some feelings about that... not too much about personal stuff but... i've spent a lot of years going trekking to mountains since there's a quite big ridge near the place where i grew and almost always i took my walkman (there weren't cd players yet...:( ) with me and the albums i used to take on my bag were hergest ridge, incantations and ommadawn and later amarok and i told about that because i always thought that the music (i’m thinking about instrumentals since it seems to me that with songs with vocal all is more clear because there are words) u listen to remains along time pervaded with one’s feelings and remembers... and that’s why this or that music suggests this or that to you but... now i’m also thinking about the possibility of the music carrying its own message and in this case it would be not that i associate the albums i mentioned more with natural landscapes because i took them with me in my walks,but that i needed to take them because in some way ‘mountains are written on them’... or could be neither black nor white... don’t know...

btw. the second part of hergest ridge is great for climbing lift paths... and for incantations... the best for long mild ones :)

ps. and now that no one listens to me... :D i’d like to add that i would have never imagined that some day it could be possible to share thoughts with people who could feel the same... or at least who could ask about the same... always had a bit feeling of being alone about music... now it’s possible to speak to others who at least can understand what one says... yep... this was a good discovery... glad about it.
... midnight thoughts...


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...morning and evening i'm flying, i'm dreaming...
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Luke 666 Offline




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Posted: Jan. 28 2003, 17:17

I absolutately love that Irish like flute (or somethin' like that) melody in first half of part 2 - for me it's like growing of first flowers on early spring times, when a warm air enters back to country...
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