Sir Mustapha
Group: Musicians
Posts: 2802
Joined: April 2003 |
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Posted: July 02 2008, 05:55 |
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Quote (nightspore @ July 02 2008, 01:18) | Sir M, there's a branch of mathematics called "Ramsey Theory" that proves that if you have a domain of sufficient complexity it's possible to find in it any pattern of your choosing. This explains the well known phenomenon of "figures in the carpet", and the ability to find any message you like encoded in the Bible. I suggest that if you're finding resemblances to Mike's music in countless TV programmes and pop songs the only conclusion to be drawn is that you're watching too much TV and listening to too many pop songs.
Next point: as I've said before, it's meaningless to say "such and such melody is a cliche", because by the standards of academic music all melody is a cliche; that's why modern classical music tends to sound like the noisy bits from Amarok. It has been remarked that the melody of "Sunset" from Light and Shade is similar to a melody from Sibelius's second symphony. Well, Sibelius himself was considered rather old-fashioned, way back in the early twentieth century, for writing Romantic-period style melodies.
Why do you have a problem with Mike's use of climaxes? I find them enjoyable, just another one of his instantly-recognizable musical signatures. Rossini (a classical composer) used climaxes a great deal, too, to the extent that a particular kind of climax became known as "the Rossini climax". Perhaps we'll soon be able to talk of "the Oldfield climax"!
That you can't take TB3 seriously doesn't really come into it. The record is seriously-intentioned, if only because of the obviously autobiographical references it has. Why not just say "I don't like TB3" and leave it at that? |
I could see how that could be the case, but I don't really think it is. I watch very, very little TV recently - perhaps that's one evidence towards my ignorance of the whole thing - but it's not really hard to see the general mentality that "chord X sounds extra nice next to chord Y", or that those tiny dissonances cause a highly "emotional" effect every time they're used. Maybe a cliché in itself really doesn't mean much, but I think it means something when a cliché is used as a safe spot, a means for surefire success, the guarantee that the bit will work. Everything is potentially a cliché, but the problem arrives when the whole piece converges towards it - which is what I think of The Inner Child, when that whole next chorus sounds like huge, enormous, neon laden arrows pointing at that five note hook.
Alas, I shouldn't formally have any problem with Oldfield's climaxes, because he used them often in his career, and in several pieces. But during the 90's, especially in that album, he seems to have forgotten that a climax works better when there's something leading up to it. It's not just a little gift at the end of the album, "okay, you've all been such nice, patient kids, now here's the part you've all been waiting for!". As such, Outcast, with that huge swell, sounds very artificial. I'd understand if the layers got thicker and thicker every second, or if the whole song gave you that feeling of "doomsday" approaching (which happens often with Sigur Rós, and their climactic endings almost never sound artificial), but the way it's done, it comes out of nowhere - you're just outta a regular bridge, ready to go back to the chorus, and then "WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA" on your head. Even Taurus 3 had a slight build-up effect towards the choruses, and the extremely loud banging was just a humorous exaggeration, like a caricature. Outcast is like what the caricature looks like when there's little or no humour involved.
Ok, I admit talking in detail like this is far, far better than dropping in a rather obscure "joke" rant, and about the final question; I get disappointed when I have an opinion and cannot formalise or justify it, just like if someone said "Amarok sucks BECAUSE!!", and cared not to explain. I think it's fair to just try to say I dislike Tubular Bells III for these, these and these reasons, and like I said somewhere else once - I only bother going to such lengths of justification because I overall like Mike Oldfield so much.
-------------- 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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