As an aside Big Big Train did a track called Victorian Brickwork but I don't think that is what you are looking for as it's too 'clean' sounding. Modern prog bands have a clean sound as you mention. The scandanavian bands are doing the retro thing and so have a more 'authentic sound' but most are leaning more towards Yes. Wobbler are the obvious example. It's something to look at perhaps (?)

I feel the same way.  The Nursery Cryme vibe drew me to Genesis.   Advent's Silent Sentinel isn't in the same cottage where the Nursery Cryme was committed, but it's next door. 

Hi,

Agreed

But honestly ... none of it that might be considered such, is sexy at all ... in fact some of it is rather boring, at times, though there are some nice things. The "Victorian" idea was a serious social change of things, as opposed to a lot of music, Genesis included, where things are more suggestive than they are meaningful. In this sense I tend to think of Genesis as a bit too pompous for my tastes ... there were better "theatrical" works out there that were much more interesting that never got the MM attention for you! AND ... above all ... that time period was MASSIVE in theater and film from a VISUAL perspective, something that is ignored here many times.

Gryphon might be the more interesting group in this area of mentions, and I wonder if they got appreciated AFTER their music was used on the WEST END in a Shakespeare production. However, I think that their work is probably well appreciated in some academic areas in England, which did not help with selling their records, but them the appreciation for their music. I kinda think that in their later days they became a lot more conventional than classical which they displayed before. Still not quite sexy in my book!

omphaloskepsis wrote: I feel the same way.  The Nursery Cryme vibe drew me to Genesis.   Advent's Silent Sentinel isn't in the same cottage where the Nursery Cryme was committed, but it's next door.

 

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for! It's more Gentle Giant than Genesis I think, but it's got the right "vibe".

I would agree that it doesn't describe Genesis as a whole, but Nursery Cryme is dripping with victoriana. They even name drop the period in "Return of the Giant Hogweed"!

Hi,

Sometimes I wonder how much of this is simply what you read and study in school, and how "average" it could/should/might be considered. This is not to say that Bronte ... suggests Victorian anything ... her time was up way before the Victorian days, and the sisters would be a really bad example for the majority of the Victorian anything where women had more freedoms than what so much literature shown tends to suggest ... and it likely helped women get their vote and stature later.

mellotronwave wrote: ... The Madhatter logo is a colorized version of a John Teniel** 's original illustration in the first edition of Lewis*** Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865)/Through the looking glass (1871). ... *Victorian era (1837/1901) ** Sir John Teniel (1820/1914) *** Lewis Caroll (1832/1898)

I have reservations about these folks ... none of them really represent the Victorian era in the same way that it is "known" ... which in terms of literature would be materials that fit a lot more later in the 19th Century ... and the likes of the Pre-Raphaelites would fit this era way better than the stuff mentioned here ... but I think we're being too selective and not open minded ... I might not be exactly correct (and I'm not the scholar on these things) ... but in my book the Victorian era is known for a lot more than just a few books that were, essentially, out of time. Lewis Carroll's book, I tended to think was a styled idea based on drugs and what I often think of a copy of Edgar Allan Poe, without the "seriousness" ... although I tend to think that it only fits in the Victorian era because of the young girl thing ... which is joked and poked at senseless. 

Interesting thought and idea ... honestly I am not sure how to respond to it, since the majority of "Victorian" anything is often related to the age of freedoms in England and the sexy literature that is known to be "pornography", a lot of which has much more "history" about it, than the majority of quasi anything literature.

You'd better look/search inside the Prog Folk section at bands like Comus, Tudor Lodge, Gryphon, and more of that kind of stuff.

Hi,

I wonder, however, how much of all this was more of a sequence and continuation of England's incredible large history of folk music and how so many bands, have continually replay-ed so many pieces in new styles and ways. 

In that sense, the English history of folk music is so huge as to be really difficult to consider any of those bands listed as "original", being that in most cases they are simply repeating the ideas with, or without the lyrics. Gryphon is interesting, but if you change the title of each and every piece and its covers, all of a sudden I am not sure that folks would consider it Victorian, or folkish. 

At this time, I am not familiar enough with Comus and Tudor Lodge. But it's not hard to realize how long this history is, and how well remembered it is, when you hear a Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span do a piece that is more than a hundred years old ... Matty Groves, seems to have come from the days of Shakespeare, for example.

Stranger still is the grouping of "Prog-Folk" being mostly stuff that has such a huge history ....

Some songs:

John Holden "Flying Train"

Galahad "Sleepers 2012"

Iamthemorning "Salute"

I would also check out Tiger Moth Tales and the fist Steve Hackett solo album Voyage of the Acolyte. 

What about Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman's concept album "The Hound of the Baskervilles" based on Arthur Conan Doyle's novel? I'm aware that the OP said something about synthesisers; however, creatively played, soaring synths are just perfect to evoke the pompous yet somewhat twisted character of the Victorian era.

Of course, Rick Wakeman has nothing to do with Genesis, but his album(s) featuring the iconic Jules Verne theme screams with all its grandeur as Victorian prog and certainly deserves an honourable mention!

Jules Verne was a French writer. 

I'm confused. 

His adventure novels; the above, '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' and 'Around The World in 80 Days', were enormously popular in middle-class Victorian England...

Chat GPT, is that you?!

Ok, my bad. 

So an album inspired by a French writer, written and performed by a British artist in the 70s is Victorian prog. Got it... I only listen to Vlad Țepeș  prog, so I'm confused. 

That's possible. 

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Funny how someone tried to poo poo my suggestion of Geese and the Ghost.   Victorian or not you won't find many albums more similar to Nursery Cryme or Trespass than that one. ;)

Well, actually, it's not so difficult to find albums that are much more similar to Nursery Cryme than Anthony Phillips' debut solo effort. The 1972 self-titled first album by Banco del Mutuo Soccorso is, for example, far more musically akin to Nursery Cryme; also, although being sung in Italian, this record musically satisfies the criteria for 'Victorian Prog' superior to The Geese and the Ghost in every way, because, as I said earlier, that album (which I like) would fit a folkish 'The Elizabeathan era Prog'.

In an age where one could hardly trust a railway timetable, it seemed only fitting that Victorians would turn to spirit mediums for a more reliable connection to the other side. Therefore, as my last suggestion on this lovely topic, I would also like to suggest the 1972 album "Ys" by Il Balletto di Bronzo because of its haunting atmosphere.

If you think YS sounds more like early Genesis than Geese and the Ghost then you are out of your friggin mind.