YES: The Masters of The Reprise

Hello fellow proggers....This will probably be my very last post for quite sometimes....so enjoy!

I believe that most people, while having different opinions would agree that YES is truly a phenomenal band. However what could possibly be even more dissimilar than opinions regarding the quality and value of YES, perhaps lies within the circle of YES fans themselves, as to why each individual finds satisfaction and comfort in the music of YES.

For me, among many things, it would have to be the quality of their composition. I sit and constantly do I marvel at the tight knit structure of their work. Perhaps what is even more striking, is their ability to keep things so tightly wrapped for long lengths of time. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times....the greatness of YES in my opinion lies in their ability to think over large formal structures. As God is my witness, I have never heard a rock band with so much concrete, solid structure.....

There are Genesis songs which have beautiful song structures as well, I imagine due to the compositional efforts of one Tony Banks. One song that comes to mind is The Battle Of Epping Forest on the "Selling England By The Pound" Album. It is the longest track on the album and I also feel that is quite possibly the BEST track on the album (along with Dancing With The Moonlit Kinght and Firth Of Fifth). Compositional technique is such a delicate process, and it's really a craft. We owe much to the great classical masters in this respect.

...Of course, we mustn't forget Gentle Giant.....whose compositional technique is quite possibly unparalleled. However, I would have loved to see that technique under pressure so to speak in a venue that Gentle Giant never attempted. That of course would be the 15 - 20 minute epic pieces. Now don't get me wrong...Gentle Giant is no less prog because they never wrote a 20 minute composition, in fact many would say that it's a completely irrelevant regardless of the fact that longer pieces have been somewhat of a homestead for prog rock. I'm just simply saying that it would be interesting to see them in that enviornment. As a counter argument, many people suggest that Gentle Giant didn't have to, which I completely agree. However I would like to throw another possibility at you. With all due respect to Gentle Giant ( I LOVE THEM BY THE WAY)...maybe it was a case of Gentle Giant not being able to function within 20 minute spans of time. Possibly the band worked better, and wrote music that better suited shorter songs, and of course their is nothing wrong with that. Basically what Im saying is that perhaps it wasn't a case of Gentle Giant deciding not to write 20 minute pieces, but maybe it was more the case of their strength simply not lying within the 20 minute format. As a side note I would also like to say, that songs should not be pushed beyond their limit. If a song works as a 3 minute song then it should stay a three minute song. I am in no way suggesting that longer songs make better pieces. That's not the case. As a composer you have to know when to end and when to keep going. The fact is YES did not ALWAYS write 20 minute pieces.

King Crimson, regardless of what some detractors say, does indeed have structure, but King Crimson is more of an experimental, free-form, improvisational band. The idea of King Crimson was to blur the line between composition and improvisation, which I feel they do very well, but it's certainly not the tight knit structure of YES.

...and while I LOVE Premiata Forneria Marconi, their one weakness is that they lack structure. There is a compositional technique in classical music called "moment form"....in which each section is new or rather there is less reliance on previous material. Maybe PFM subscribe to this type of format.

However in my humble opinion....all four of these great bands pale in comparison when measured with the song structure of YES. I'm going to make a BOLD statement right now....YES music is the measuring stick to which all other prog compositions are compared to. Even if I HATED YES.....I could still be objective and recognize their amazing formal structure. Now in regards to the title of this thread...it is indeed about the reprise, which I shall comment more on later in this post, but really this is about celebrating the composition of YES as a whole.

Now, what is it I mean when I say the reprise? In classical terms it is the recapitualation (the recap). The return of familiar material. In order for their to be an appreciation for that returning material, events are needed prior that build anticipation of such a return. YES are indeed the masters of this. Let me explain. In the piece Close To The Edge, YES begins with a FURY of organized chaos (of course proceeded with atmospheric sounds of birds and water and wind..so on and so forth) which melds into the first presentation of the theme oscillating between D Major and D minor, beautifully written I might add.

This of course takes us into the verse....the piece continues with tightly knit units bringing the whole thing together....YES are known for the "bookend" effect as I like to call it, this of course is the reprise......The entire song is this huge build up....it builds and builds and builds until it overflows, but the amazing thing is that, not only is the build up focused and concentrated, but the overflow is as well. Nothing is filler. It is direct, it has purpose and they do it within the span of 18 plus minutes. There is the soft, atmospheric, almost angelic 'I get up I get down' section, in which the piece almost seems to stop in time...it simply hovers in the air. Which by the way is another aspect of composition. Their is REAL TIME...which human beings abide by, and then their is MUSICAL TIME....and in that section YES actually stops time...IT'S AMAZING!!! This then leads into Rick Wakeman's organ "prelude"....which in turn leads into the resurfacing of the first material from the beginning of the piece but this time in a different key. This is then followed by Rick Wakeman's synthesizer solo, which builds and builds and builds, and by the end of it.....your heart is racing, and when they finally recap, or recapitulate there is such a feeling of being home. You've gone through this long journey, and when they hit that verse again and lead into the varied 'I get up I get down' at the very end....you say to yourself.."Oh My God.....I am home"

YES also acomplishes this same effect in the first movement of the monsterous Tales From Topographic Oceans. This could quite possibly be their most concrete formal structure within a 20 plus minute frame. When that beginning material comes back at the end of the movement, it is so satisfying. I can't put into words the majesty and the power that lies within a reprise, and YES does it masterfully. Once again, you're left with saying..."Oh My God, I'm home...I've been through something, and now I'm back, and damn it feels so good to be back".......It's an age old classical technique.....there is the presentation of material, then the development of that material, and then the return of the original material. YES also does in Tales what is termed in the classical world as cyclic material. Basically it means that the same material appears in more than one movement but varied. There is a very distinct rhythmic, motivic figure in the first movment of Tales...which later reappears towards the end of the second movement of Tales. Perhaps many don't under the significance of that, but it is truly telling. First off, it means that YES knew what the hell they were doing, and secondly it is music structure at its best. Only a band with a concrete understanding of structure would do something like that.

I would like to discuss the last song off the Close To The Edge album. Siberian Khatru. Now unfortunately, I have read many reviews from people on this site who write this piece off as just another 'rocker'.....it is certainly much more than that. Siberian Khatru is composition par excellence. It is also an example of the economy of writing music. The craft of creating something large out of very small means. It's sooo tightly knit and woven together that there is simply absolutely no filler whatsoever....everything has purpose. Take the master Beethoven for example...I'm sure most of you are familiar with the 5th symphony....da da da daaaaaaa.....da da da daaaaaaaaa...........well ladies and gentlemen..THAT'S BASICALLY THE WHOLE SYMPHONY.....Beethoven was such a genius that he was able to build an entire four movement symphony out of a very simple motivic gesture. The ingredients that YES use to create Siberian Khatru are not much, and they even use them sparringly....but they are able to form a beautiful piece of music with using very little.....ECONOMY OF WRITING MUSIC. It's almost like, going to the store and shopping for everything on your list but you have to stay within a budget and you can't go over that budget. Siberian Khatru is FRUGAL composition. YES uses material and reuses the same material but varries it, and then recycles that SAME material, then turns it up side down, then turns it sideways, then changes the harmonic structure underneath it, then change the rhythmic motion underneath....Chris Squire's bass line in the beginning of the piece is a variation of the theme Rick Wakeman plays, but they are playing both the theme and the variation at the same time and it is delicious....and the ostinato that Steve Howe plays is timeless......listen to that song again, it is masterfully written. NOT TO MENTION THE BEAUTIFUL AND COMPLEX HARMONIES!!!!!!!!...GORGEOUS!!!!

YES show their understanding for composition even more in the piece America originally done by Paul Simon. First off....if you've heard the original by Paul Simon and then hear what YES does with it.....THAT WITHIN ITSELF IS PROOF THAT YES IS NO ORDINARY BAND!! But in any event, they utilize another classical compositional technique called quoting. This is when a composer or band as the case may be, quotes another theme in their music....much like a writer who quotes another writer.....Emerson Lake and Palmer do this ALL the time. Perhaps you do not know, but in the song America....YES quotes Leonard Bernstein's I Want To Be In America from West Side Story. Not only do they quote Berstein but they varry Bernstein. Infact they do a masterful thing in the beginning of the song, they combine the varried Bernstein with their own version of Paul Simon's tune, and they intersperse the two and it creates such a sense of unity....and by the time you get to the first verse...you're thinking to yourself...wait I've already heard this...because YES foreshadows the tune in the introduction. YES also does this with Gates of Delerium. YES foreshadows material yet to happen in the piece, and when you finally get to it, it is such a satisfying thing...because it's familiar!!

Outside of solid formal structure, YES also has an affinity for beautiful music. After all.....a piece of music could infact be tight structurally yet not be beautiful, or be beautiful but lacking formal structure. An example of both is Turn Of The Century from the Going For The One soundtrack. It's beautiful music with beautiful structure. HAHAHA, and may we not forget the Juggernault Awaken. Listen to the last moments of Gates Of Delirium.....and also the last moments of To Be Over on the Relayer album........It makes cry everytime. It crosses the realm into divinity. It is BEYOND beautiful, it is miraculous.

I hope that I have effectively shown the wonder that is YES. But I must leave you guys for a while. So have fun, and enjoy the post.

Proglover:

Your hypothesis cannot be faulted.  While it is true that Genesis and King Crimson had many excellent, heavily structured compositions, I would have to agree that, based on their respective core ouevres, Yes probably comes out ahead on the whole as having the most consistently brilliantly structured and arranged material.  GG might even be equal, though the structures they use are quite different from those used by the other three.

I would even agree that the "formalization" of Yes' compositional structuring occurred on their debut album, though admittedly spottily.  However, by Time and a Word, the songs, while still as much "rock" as nascently or outright "prog," were already showing what would become Yes' formidable approach to their composition.  By The Yes Album, that approach was full-blown, and remained with them at least until Going for the One.  Indeed, even though I personally dislike Tales and Relayer (yes, I know I must be nuts...), I still appreciate the structural approach to the compositions that is nevertheless in evidence.

I also think that the success of that approach may have been due at least partly to the way in which Yes collaborated as a band.  Fripp was clearly the primary writer of KC.  And although Genesis almost certainly had a similar collaborative approach to their compositions, Gabriel and Banks almost certainly had larger roles to play.  With Yes, even though Anderson wrote the lyrics and was the front man, one doesn't get the sense that he was the compositional focus (except on Tales).  Rather, one truly gets the sense that all five members were integrally involved in the songwriting and arranging process: that there was "equality" to a greater degree than in KC or Genesis.  (Though GG probably also had this equality, for the most part.)

Ultimately, I agree that there is a "specialness" to Yes' music that is, if not "better" than the others, then different in a particularly satisfying, uplifting, even exciting way.

Peace.