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As you may know, careful observance of the structure of pieces is central to my approach to writing music (the article on issue #7 May 2017 will discuss this process). However, I wrote this piece well before the period when I devoted myself to writing only classical music (roughly from 1990 to 1999) and had still not fully developed my skills as a composer.

The positive side, is that this piece has a greater level of spontaneity if compared to most of my repertoire. The downside, is that it is less rigorous in terms of structure. Even though there is a reprise of the initial theme (at the middle and end of the piece), the song is a sort of “chasing the rabbit” where ideas flow one after the other like a kaleidoscope. Nothing wrong with this if it is a “one-off” type of endeavor, but if it is your usual way of writing, it can reflect a lack of composition skills that may affect the overall quality of your pieces. More on this in the article on issue #7 May 2017.

Ra is the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun:

In 2004, I asked my wife Nathalye to write a poem about “Ra”, inspired in this piano piece that I had written 23 years before. So, in this case, I used an opposite approach to my usual writing method: I had to fit the lyrics within an already existing piece.

This is the poem:

RA

En la tarde limpia de aleteo corto

“In the clean afternoon of brief fluttering”

 

Juega sentado a pensar en grande

“He sits and plays about thinking big”

 

Buscando la paz del minuto trágico

“Looking for the peace of the tragic minute”

 

siente los pasos de un deseo errante.

“feels the steps of an erring desire.”

 

Graba tus ritmos

“Record your rhythms”

Escucha tus horas

“Listen to your hours”

Come despacio

“Eat slowly”

alimenta a las diosas

“feed the goddesses”

 

Repite

“Repeat”

Reparte

“Deliver”

Constante

“Steady”

Contento

“Pleased”

Palpa el espacio

“Touch the space”

Respira tu aliento.

“Breathe your breath.”

 

El pensamiento avanza marcando el sol

“The thought moves forward, signalling the sun”

 

gigante que observa y reserva su voz.

“giant who observes and reserves his voice.”

 

El tiempo se agota, él desmaya sus manos

“Time runs out, he faints his hands”

 

Y atrapa en su pecho la paz del ocaso.

“And captures the sunset peace in his chest.”

 

Nathalye Engelke S.
July 2004

Translation by: Vilma L. Sánchez. 2005.

“Omphalos” is the only Kotebel album featuring 7 musicians, including flute (Omar Acosta) and Carolina Prieto (voice). I took this old piano piece, and Nathalye’s poem, and went off to the task of developing a piece for this 7 member Kotebel configuration.

I tried to give as much coherence to the piece as a whole when working on the arrangements. Much more than arrangements, I had to write a lot of melodies because most of the original piano piece consisted of harmonic and rhythmic ideas. So, even though some motifs appear throughout the piece, in essence, the structure is:

Intro – Theme A – Fantasy section 1 – Theme A – Fantasy section 2 – Theme A

Where the fantasy sections are ideas the morph into other ideas. In spite of the lack of a rigorous structure, the composition is very coherent and intense. In fact, in my opinion, the music of the last 4 verses are among the most beautiful passages that I have ever written.

This is a previously unreleased version of “Ra”. It is a totally remixed version done in 2015 and it is intended for a future release of “Omphalos” with all tracks remixed and remastered. The album will be called “Omphalos – Revisited”. There is still no release date for this album.

The original piano piece from which “Ra” emerged, is related to an earlier piece called “Chromatisms” that I wrote in 1977, when I was 18 years old. It is also a piece that features piano throughout, supported by synthesizers, bass and drums. A few years later, in 1981, I recorded this piece in a studio in Miami called Prisma. I recorded the piano part first, then played the drums on top of it, followed by the bass and finally recorded the synthesizers. I recorded the piano directly without a metronome, so it took me a while to learn all the subtleties in tempo before recording the drums and bass.

About 15 years ago, I took on the task of recovering and digitally restoring this recording. It was a challenging task because in the 90’s the master tape had some damage because it was stored in a basement that suffered from extreme humidity. However, after a lot of post-processing the result is fairly decent. This is the master tape and the control sheet:

And here’s “Chromatisms”:

Credits

“Ra” – written by Carlos G. Plaza Vegas. Arrangements by Carlos G. Plaza and Kotebel.
© 1982 and 2005. All rights reserved

Omar Acosta – Flute
Carlos Franco – Drums and percussion
César G. Forero- Guitars
Jaime Pascual Summers – Bass
Adriana Plaza Engelke – Keyboards
Carlos Plaza Vegas – Piano
Carolina prieto – Voices

Lyrics by Nathalye Engelke Santos. English translation by Vilma L. Sánchez.

Ra image by Jeff Dahl [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

“Chromatisms” – written and arranged by Carlos G. Plaza Vegas.
© 1977. All rights reserved.

Carlos Plaza Vegas – Piano, keyboards, bass, drums.

This chamber piece is a tribute to composers that I admire – Messiaen, Emerson, Ginastera, Poulenc. It builds and expands the motifs presented in the previous two arcana: “The Fool” and “The Magician”.

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Credits

Music written and arranged by Carlos G. Plaza Vegas.

Omar Acosta: Flute
José Luis Espejo: Clarinet
Carlos Plaza: Piano

© 2017 Carlos G. Plaza Vegas. All Rights Reserved

Description of the “La Papesse” arcanum is taken from the book “Tarot de Marsella” by José Antonio Portela (in Spanish). © 2015 Sincronía JNG editorial, S.L.
www.sincroniaeditorial.com

“La Papesse” picture taken from my personal deck of Rider-Waite Tarot cards.

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We remind you that the audio fragments embedded in the text are to be used when reading the article without listening to the audio program. All these examples are included in the audio program.

Welcome to the sixth edition of the Classic of the Month. Tonight, “Supper’s Ready” part 2 …

Willow Farm

The absence of a promenade between “How dare I” and “Willow Farm” is intentional. As Armando Gallo describes in his book, and quoting Tony Banks:

The obvious consequence of this approach, is that any attempt to find a congruent continuity with the flow of the story is, to put it lightly, a bit dubious. I believe that the lyrics of “Willow Farm” portray the senseless and superficial existence of a middle class manipulated by the factual powers. Mass manipulation. Of course, much in line with the article The Cult to the Ephemeral and its Effect on Art. All you need is to change “Willow Farm” for “Current Society” and the lyrics speak by themselves.

The structure of “Willow Farm” is a large ternary form:

A-B-A

where:

A: aa’bb
B: cd
A’: a’’

Sections “A” are in a meter of 12/8.

The sharp contrast between parts “A” and “B” is achieved by several means:

• The music suddenly stops and a scream “ALL CHANGE” is heard with doors banging in the background
• The rhythm changes from 12/8 to a straight 4/4
• The mode changes from minor to Major
• The organ is replaced by a piano.

The change in character between parts “A” and “B” is remarkable and is a good example of Genesis ability to move effortlessly through different styles.

According to Gallo, Banks suggests including a cadence at the end of “How Dare I” and it is very effective because it defines the mood of this section. Instead of the normal cadence using the ordinary western minor mode:

He uses:

Which is a mode called Phrygian. The second tone is lowered half step. This cadence is also used to introduce the IV and last promenade, but this time it is cleverly used to modulate to G minor.

Let’s identify each section while we listen to this plateau:

a:

If you go down to Willow Farm,
to look for butterflies, flutterbyes, gutterflies
Open your eyes, it’s full of surprise, everyone lies,
like the focks on the rocks,
and the musical box. (1)
Oh, there’s Mum & Dad, and good and bad,
and everyone’s happy to be here.

 
 
(1) I think it makes reference to the following verse in the “Musical Box”: “And the nurse will tell you lies, of a Kingdom beyond the skies”

a’:

There’s Winston Churchill dressed in drag,
he used to be a British flag, plastic bag, what a drag.
The frog was a prince, the prince was a brick, the brick was an egg,
the egg was a bird.
(Fly away you sweet little thing, they’re hard on your tail)
Hadn’t you heard?
(They’re going to change you into a human being!)
Yes, we’re happy as fish and gorgeous as geese,
and wonderfully clean in the morning.

b:

We’ve got everything, we’re growing everything,
We’ve got some in
We’ve got some out
We’ve got some wild things floating about

b again:

Everyone, we’re changing everyone,
you name them all,
We’ve had them here,
And the real stars are still to appear.
ALL CHANGE!

c:

Feel your body melt;
Mum to mud to mad to dad
Dad diddley office, Dad diddley office,
You’re all full of ball.
Dad to dam to dumb to mum
Mum diddley washing, Mum diddley washing,
You’re all full of ball.

d:

Let me hear you lies, we’re living this up to the eyes.
Ooee-ooee-ooee-oowaa
Momma I want you now.

a”:

And as you listen to my voice
To look for hidden doors, tidy floors, more applause.
You’ve been here all the time,
Like it or not, like what you got,
You’re under the soil (the soil, the soil),
Yes, deep in the soil (the soil, the soil, the soil!).
So we’ll end with a whistle and end with a bang
and all of us fit in our places.

Peter Gabriel’s description, within the context of the “Supper’s Ready” story, is:

Promenade IV

This is the longest Promenade and a very appropriate one because it provides a pause before the long and complex Apocalypse in 9/8. The structure is a Theme and Variation with an introduction:

Intro-A-A’-A’’-A’’’

Intro

In contrast to the theme and its variations which are mainly acoustic, the intro is based on electronic soundscapes drawn by mellotron, electric guitar and bass. A sequence of modulations takes us from G minor to A minor. In the last chord, the mellotron is purposely out of tune, helping to create a stronger contrast between the electric and acoustic parts of the piece.

Theme and Variations

The theme is presented by the flute, with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. Each variation introduces additional instruments: A’ – organ, A’’ – Spanish guitar, A’’’ – an electric guitar.

Notice that in A’’’, the electric guitar recalls the melody of the first verse of G.E.S.M: “I know a farmer, who looks after the farm” and uses it to modulate to F# m, the tonality of “Apocalypse in 9/8”.

I will put this promenade without identifying each section. Try to do it yourself with the information I just provided:

Apocalypse in 9/8

It is very likely that the lyrics of this tableau emerged from the final verses of “Willow Farm”, from the phrase ALL CHANGE onwards. You will recall that they say:

You’re under the soil (the soil, the soil),
Yes, deep in the soil (the soil, the soil, the soil!).
So we’ll end with a whistle and end with a bang
and all of us fit in our places.

As Banks pointed out, “Willow Farm” was a separate piece, including lyrics, written earlier by Gabriel. See how Gabriel ties “Willow Farm” to “Apocalypse in 9/8”:

For those of you with music knowledge, you might want to read Mark Spice’s analysis of this plateau on his paper: Large-Scale Strategy and Compositional Design in the Early Music of Genesis. He makes a very interesting comparison between “Apocalypse in 9/8” and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”.

As it name implies, the meter of this section is in 9/8 but not in 3 groups of 3, but rather follow the pattern 2+2+2+3. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what a measure is, you might want to follow the explanation given on the analysis of Close to the Edge Part / 1 (starting at minute 24).

The structure of this plateau is:

A – Instrumental (organo solo 1/interlude/organ solo 2) – B – interlude – C

Many fans struggle trying to count this section. If you want to try to count this, try not to listen to Gabriel’s melody and count like this:

One – Two – Three – one,two,three – One – Two – Three – one,two,three

Where the long One-Two-Three each occupy one of the three groups of 2 beats:

One(2)+Two(2)+Three(2), one,two,three

Let’s do it together until the beginning of the organ solo:

Now, let’s see section “A” from the point of view of Peter Gabriel. He is not counting in 9/8. He sings each verse in straight 4/4, makes a pause of two beats (2/4) and repeats this 5 times. It takes him 18 beats to complete each cycle (4×4+2), which is equivalent to two 9/8 measures. That is why the cymbal coincides with the beginning of each voice cycle. The last time, he needs to go into the two beats pause to complete the verse and even overlaps with the first beat of the instrumental section. Let’s count them together. Try not to pay attention to the instrumental accompaniment:

A:

With the guards of Magog, swarming around,
The Pied Piper takes his children underground.
Dragons coming out of the sea,
Shimmering silver head of wisdom looking at me.
He brings down the fire from the skies,
You can tell he’s doing well by the look in human eyes.
Better not compromise.
It won’t be easy.

Organ solo

This is unquestionably one of the most remarkable solos in the history of progressive rock. The way climax is built is by creating harmonic stress over a harmonic pedal (please refer to the analysis of Starless for a definition of harmonic pedals). Now in this case, the harmonic pedal is not based on a single note, but on a simple ostinato pattern based on three notes. What you just counted (2+2+2+3) is that pattern that repeats itself throughout the entire solo.

There are 2 organ solos, separated by an interlude with a complex interplay between organ chords and flute.

If you thought counting the voice was hard, wait until you see what Banks does in the organ solos. I believe he wrote the solo purposely building the phrases based on different metrics. The result is a complex mix of meters that is difficult to count. He probably uses each beat of the rhythmic session in order to guide himself through the solo. The guitar and bass, although playing in an irregular metric of 9/8, are not doing a syncopated figure. They play 9 regular straight beats in each measure. So, Banks can take each individual beat as his rhythmic cue. In other words, for him, the band is playing in 1/1. I took the solo and broke it down into phrases in order to get a better feel for how the accents of the solo are displaced with respect to the 9/8 beat.

To keep it simple, I will just refer to the number of beats in each group:

4-3-3-7-4-4-6-4-4-4-6-6-7(with chords accompaniment)-7-8-4-4-4-6-4-4-4-4(chords again)-4-4-3 and from this point on, Tony settles at 4/4 until the end of the first solo. The last 2 measures are 7/8 and then a 4 beat rest before the interlude.

I cannot count this without running out of air, so I will use two woodblocks instead. I will do this until a few bars after the solo settles on 4/4. Each time the sound of the woodblock changes, indicates a change of measure.

During the interlude, the bass and guitar stop playing the ostinato pattern. A single bass note is kept during the whole passage. A very complex interplay is done between the organ, playing chords at 4/4 and the flute with a free form of the ostinato pattern, at 9/8.

To add complexity, the drum plays a pattern that is a hybrid between 4/4 and 9/8. The only thing you can “hang on to” is a cymbal that is always played in the last beat of the 9/8. This is certainly one of the most complicated passages in the history of the band.

The second organ solo, until a couple of bars before the end, is based on 4/4. This is easier to follow because the left hand in the organ is keeping the beat while the right hand plays a syncopated pattern. Both hands start ascending, building a fabulous climax for the entry of “666”:

Let’s take a closer look at the remaining sections: B – Interlude and C

Section “B” starts with “666”. I label this section B instead of A’ because although the rhythmic pattern and voice style are the same, the melodies are different. Notice something very relevant: For the first time, the organ starts to play at 9/8, in sync with the rhythmic section, changing chords every two 9/8 measures. Section “B” ends with the phrase “a brand new tune” and we enter an interlude where the organ now plays in straight 9/8 along with the rhythmic section. At the final part of the interlude, the ostinato pattern in 9/8 stops and the metric is set at 4/4 in preparation for “C” which is really a reprise of “Lover’s Leap”.

If you recall my explanation on Close to the Edge Part / 1 it would seem that this is another example of using polyrhythmic metric displacement to build tension to represent the battle, and resolving the tension by playing all at the same meter to portray the end of a conflict. In “Close to the Edge” it was a struggle between spirit and flesh, in this case a struggle between good and evil.

Section “C” of this long plateau takes us back to “Lover’s Leap”, with a pompous arrangement that includes tubular bells, and on “Now I’m back again” a clever modulation takes us to the final plateau, based on the themes of G.E.S.M.

Let’s listen to the final part of Apocalypse in 9/8 and try to focus on how the music progressively goes in sync until, in the interlude, the whole band plays at 9/8 before changing to 4/4:

666 is no longer alone,
He’s getting out the marrow in your back bone,
And the seven trumpets blowing sweet rock and roll,
Gonna blow right down inside your soul.
Pythagoras with the looking glass reflects the full moon,
In blood, he’s writing the lyrics of a brand new tune.
And it’s hey babe, with your guardian eyes so blue,
Hey my baby, don’t you know our love is true,
I’ve been so far from here,
Far from your loving arms,
Now I’m back again, and babe it’s gonna work out fine.

As Sure as Eggs is Eggs

This last plateau shows the victory of “Good” against “Evil”.

Gabriel’s description of this tableau is:

This final plateau is a reprise of G.E.S.M. and presents an astonishing overlapping of opposing concepts and forces. On G.E.S.M. the music and the lyrics refer to the evil impostor who manipulates the masses in the name of religion. Now, the same music, rearranged, has lyrics that represent the return of Jesus Christ Himself, to “lead his children home”.

Quoting Mark Spicer:

Can’t you feel our souls ignite
Shedding ever changing colours,
in the darkness of the fading night,
Like the river joins the ocean,
as the germ in a seed grows
We have finally been freed to get back home.
There’s an angel standing in the sun,
and he’s crying with a loud voice,
“This is the supper of the mighty one”,
Lord of Lords,
King of Kings,
Has returned to lead his children home,
To take them to the new Jerusalem.

Gabriel’s note: [Jerusalem=place of peace]

Resources

This analysis would not have been possible without the solid foundation laid by Mark Spicer in his work: “Large-Scale Strategy and Compositional Design in the Early Music of Genesis”.

Paul Whitehead’s description of the artwork of Foxtrot can be found here.

Foxtrot art cover images were taken directly from my personal copies of the album.

The background music used is “Bayreuth Return” from the album “Timewind” by Klaus Schulze.

This is an excellent orchestral version with Steve Hackett, the band Todmobile and the North Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Thanks to Rob Dubrovsky for this recommendation.

This is the link to the video in YouTube

Here’s the live version of Supper’s Ready in its original format at “Live in Shepperton in 1973”:

This is the link to the video in YouTube

This is a wonderful animated version of “Supper’s Ready” created by Nathaniel Barlam:

The style of “Discipline” fits under the traditional progressive rock language. The music they make could have been written in the 70’s because there are no stylistic elements that one could identify with the more avant-garde current progressive acts. But don’t let this put you down. Their music is not only good; it is much better than most current prog bands, whatever their sub-genre happens to be. Because one of Discipline’s strengths is at the same time the most common weakness in current prog bands: the melodies. Discipline’s melodies are ingenious, elaborate, original, well though-out. And they are also masters at achieving what progressive rock fans enjoy most: intense climaxes.

I believe this album is perfect for 70’s progressive prog lovers who believe that nothing much has happened after the early 80’s. In this section I will gradually build a selected catalog that could be called “Introduction to Current Prog for Old Prog Lovers”. So, consider this as the first addition to this catalog. I’m sure even current prog followers will find a few surprises…

A couple of examples:

Live in Gettysburgh (2015)

Canto IV (Limbo)

Before the Storm / Blueprint

You can purchase their music here.

It has become usual in her concerts to devote the last part of the program to improvisations. She selects a couple of people from the audience and ask them to suggest a popular melody that most attendants would recognize. That way, they will be able to appreciate how the melody is integrated into her improvisation. When we reached this part of the concert, Gabriela said:

Her statement is very accurate. For example, until the 19th century, cadenzas in concerts for soloists and orchestra were not written in the score. People would go to concerts in expectation, to see how the cadenza would be played. The popularity and perceived quality of a soloist was linked to his talent as an improviser when performing such cadenzas. Over time, cadenzas began to be written and became virtuosistic passages where the performer must follow the score. Nowadays, for example, no one would dare to modify the cadenza of a Bartok concert. Another example in classical music comes from the Baroque period. The “basso continuo” was a figured bass on top of which melodic instruments would develop melodies spontaneously; even organists and harpsichordists were allowed some liberty when building the chords defined by the figured bass.

As I have stated in previous occasions, progressive rock has many common elements with classical music, especially symphonic. The small amount of improvisation, is another common element. Of course, I’m not implying that improvisation is not present in progressive rock but I can firmly state that improvisation is not one of the most distinctive traits of the genre.

Why is this the case? Is it because of lack of technical ability of the musicians? Is it related to the type of music? Or is there another reason?

To look into these questions, let us pause to examine the various types of improvisation.

Free Improvisation

In this case, musicians have total liberty to play whatever comes to their mind. A motif can arise spontaneously and the musicians can use it to develop fantasies based on that idea. This type of improvisation has no predefined structure. There is no underlying harmonic base and musicians do not know beforehand what is going to happen. Some examples:

John Zorn Improv Marathon (The Stone, 16.10.2011) – part 1

Angel Ontalva & Vasco Trilla MUZENERGOTOUR 2014 (Live in Kemerovo)

Improvisation over a harmonic base

This is the most common improvisation and the key characteristic of jazz and its derivatives. This type of improvisation is also present in rock, World music, folklore, etc. In this case, the harmonic base is previously determined, as well as the duration of each improvisation. The performer knows beforehand what harmonic sequence will be used and, therefore, he can “plan” his interpretation. He knows what scales to use that will be compatible with the harmonic base or that will generate the type of tension that he wishes to create. This type of improvisation is less free and lends itself to the development of “templates”. For this reason, it is not uncommon to see the same soloist performing very similar improvisations, even in different songs.

The usual structure in jazz songs is to organize the piece around a harmonic sequence known as the “chorus”. The first time that the chorus is played, there are one or several previously written melodies. In other words, it can have the form A, or AB where B is a contrasting section. The first “chorus” is known as “head chorus” and has a variable duration (8, 16 or even 32 bars). When the “head chorus” ends, the improvisation rounds begin. In each improvisation, the harmonic base established in the “head chorus” is preserved. At the end of the improvisations, the piece ends with a reprise of the “head chorus”. Sometimes the song includes introductions or codas.

During the improvisations, usually there is total liberty when developing the melodies and frequently the improvisations are not based on the written material that was presented in the “head chorus”.

Chick Corea – Spain – Live At Montreux 2004

This pattern is very frequent in other genres, including rock. The famous “jams” follow this same pattern: a chord sequence on top of which musicians improvise. For example, the “Grateful Dead” jams were very popular in the 60’s.

Improvisation over a melodic base

This type of improvisation is much more difficult because, in essence, you need to create “on the fly” a theme and variations or a structured fantasy, using a specific melody as a starting point. This was the type of improvisation done by composers like Chopin or Liszt and has fallen into disuse probably due to its enormous difficulty. In exceptional cases, the thematic development and underlying structure are so rigorous that it is hard to tell whether it is an improvisation or a previously written song. The best way to describe this type of improvisation is with a couple of examples:

Gabriela Montero Improvisation Happy Birthday Heidelberger Frühling 2016

In this second example, the organist Thomas Ospital improvises over an ancient melody called “Puer Natus Est Nobis” (Christmas Day, Introit). This is the original melody:

This is Thomas Ospital’s improvisation:

Let us now explore the question of why improvisation is scarce in progressive rock. In the article Progressive Rock – A Misleading Tag, I argue that perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of progressive rock, that sets it apart from other genres, is:

“A structured approach to the development of thematic material”

The first two types of improvisation – “free” and “based on a harmonic base” do not lend themselves for this type of structured development. Only the third type of improvisation favors this type of development and, as we have seen in the last two examples, it requires an exceptional talent and technique, within the reach of a privileged few. For this reason, when improvisation appears in a progressive rock song, it is “free” or “over a harmonic base” to the detriment of a structured theme development. King Crimson was one of the few well-known 70’s progressive bands that embraced improvisation. Many of their songs were the result of “free” improvisation. Here are a couple of examples of improvisation in progressive rock:

“Free” Improvisation – King Crimson: “Starless and Bible Black”

Improvisation over a harmonic base – Jethro Tull: “Passion Play”

Progressive rock is a very good example of Art Music. Again, I refer to the article Progressive Rock – A Misleading Tag where I claim that another relevant characteristic of this genre is:

“A desire to evoke states of transcendence”

This is the ultimate goal pursued by the composer and, for this, he resorts to the structured development of ideas (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic) for the purpose of bringing the work to reach one or more climaxes. In other words, the construction of these climaxes is done through a process, sometimes artisanal, in which each step is conditioned by a conscious exercise of analysis and reflection. In the article of issue # 7 – May 2017 I will talk about the creation phenomena from my experience as a composer and I will expand on these considerations. For the time being, let’s keep the idea that, in progressive rock, climaxes are built “on paper”; they have been written beforehand.

Jazz lovers know that it is possible to achieve intense climaxes during improvisations. As the Spanish broadcaster José Miguel López says, when “there are elfs” in the concerts. Therefore, to reach an effective artistic communication it is not mandatory that the work be previously written, with no space for spontaneity and immediate creation. Of course, not everyone agrees with this observation. For example, the German philosopher Theodore Adorno in his essay “Aesthetic Theory” (to which I will refer in a future article), argues that art requires a certain “thingness”. According to Adorno, this “thingness” comprises a set of rational elements derived from the artist’s background, such as his cultural, social, and aesthetic sediments. These sediments, in combination with the artist’s “intuition,” create that which transforms the work of art into something that transcends both reason as well as the conditions of the environment from which it emanates. Adorno claims that the “thingness” is absent in improvisation or only present to a much lesser degree.

I believe that, as I will explain in my next article about the experience of artistic creation, “inspiration” goes beyond what Adorno labels as “intuition” because it brings with it a Superior intelligence from which the composer may or may not be conscious. During moments of great inspiration, the composer becomes an intermediary who transcribes a strong message that he is perceiving. The fidelity with which he embodies this message, depends on his technical ability.

In exceptional cases, like Gabriela Montero, technical competence is developed to a point where she is capable of transcribing “in real time”, with all sorts of details, a complex message that entails not only melody but a whole entity with all the structural elements of form, harmony, rhythm and dynamics already in their place. In most cases, however, what happens is that the composer lays out the ideas received from his inspiration in raw form, and then invests most of his time transcribing, structuring and refining it. During this process, the work of art can be complemented (or contaminated) by a rational process. This is the basis for the popular saying: “Composing is 10% inspiration and 90% transpiration”.

In the case of progressive rock, this refinement work is done “in the lab”: on paper as I previously stated, or as a collective effort. As Carlos Romeo explained in his article About Starless, often the pieces were developed from ideas, phrases, melodies, etc. that were contributed individually by band members. From that point, a team work process took place where the structure of the piece, the development of ideas, and climaxes were defined and fixed through successive iterations. Works of great complexity like Jethro Tull’s “Passion Play” were written from fragments from different sources. However, even though there are a few improvisatory passages, the end result is a song that was fixed down to the very last note.

We have a good example of this process in Genesis’ “Selling England by the Session” which provides access to recordings of some of the composition sessions of the band. Here you can clearly see that in many cases the ideas were refined through a cyclic process, until they were finally fixed in the form that we all know. This is the antithesis of improvisation. The objective is to take an initial idea and refine it through a series of iterations until you reach a version with which you are fully satisfied. In each iteration, a fragment of the idea could be fixed while the rest remains “unstable” and subject to additional experimentation (much of it improvised). The objective is to eliminate such “instability”, which is equivalent to saying that the objective is to eliminate improvisation. Let’s listen to some recordings related to the composition process (or “fixation”) of “Dancing with the Moonlit Knight”:

In this session, we can listen to Hackett experimenting with several ideas. Of all the material, we can see that only a small fragment made it into the final version:

In this very interesting take, we listen to Gabriel beginning to shape the melodies of the voice, with the support of Banks at the piano:

This third session portrays a much higher maturity of the ideas. The percentage of ideas already “fixed” is much greater. It seems evident that at this point the lyrics had not been written yet.

Therefore, we can see that, as a rule of thumb, the aim during the composition process in progressive rock is to fix the ideas. Pieces are the result of a refinement process, of “trial and error”, where decisions about what stays and what is discarded are taken consciously.

During this process of “fixation” of the pieces, many times improvisatory sections are determined. However, it is curious to see how some of these improvisations are reproduced almost identically during the concerts. In other words, what emerged as an improvisation, ends up being a “written” solo. To continue the analogy with the classical music world, it is similar to the cadenzas that started being a free section to gradually change into just another fragment of previously written music.

We can conclude that the scarce presence of improvisation in progressive rock is a natural consequence of the process that is usually followed when writing the songs. This process, in turn, is conditioned by the goal of achieving a structured development of thematic material which, as I already mentioned, is perhaps the most remarkable feature of this genre.