nightspore
Group: Members
Posts: 4770
Joined: Mar. 2008 |
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Posted: Mar. 23 2018, 23:55 |
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The more I listen to certain of Mike's albums, such as Ommadawn and Return to Ommadawn, the more they seem to me to tell a story. I've just listened to Part 1 of Hergest Ridge, and the contours of a narrative were suggested to me by the music and its changes. Here they are:
1. The beginning - a very delicate melody, with delicate instrumentation, suggesting that something is being crafted.
2. The trumpets - suggesting triumph, that something HAS been crafted.
3. A discordant section, suggesting a crisis.
4. A guitar solo, suggesting dejection at what has happened. This segues into a section with a kind of dialogue with an oboe (which means "high boy".)
5. A short, machine-like probing section.
6. A "for whom the bell tolls" section, suggesting some kind of ominous consequences for what has happened.
7. A fast, rhythmic section suggesting fleeing.
8. Coming to a halt - introspection.
9. A kind of cosmic choral section, which intones the sounds of "ha", suggesting laughter. This is in dialogue with Mike's guitar; but while Mike's guitar line is complex, suggesting lots of different thoughts and ideas, the cosmic response never really changes.
10. More ominous tolling bells.
11. The opening melody returns, perhaps saying "I'll be back!"
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And quite a few bois like other bois too. And of course, the earlier English spelling was "hautboy", even if, yes, boy meant a wood 