Interactive Poll #9 - Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar

no, just curious,

 I wouldn't do it, that's all. 

ok

the new non-prog thread is already here. 

Snicolette wrote: I do enjoy the thought processes of others, on how they perceive the music, what makes each person "click."

Same here!

Also, in my view people should take their time. Things are going well, which is fine, but I wouldn't complain about slower pace.

Well, 

What you write is flawless, the song always revolves around the same chords. It is in a sense all the opposite of prog. As I also wrote, the theme of the song is perhaps the simplest in this poll. 

Yet the song has its own strength, which lies almost entirely in the beauty of the melody. Sounds of Silence is also a song made with few chords, and four verses without a refrain. And Born in the Usa if I'm not mistaken it contains two chords. Rock is essentially based on a few chords, which the singer is capable of interpreting in such a way as to make them captivating, always different, exciting. 

In this song, Einaudi makes an introduction first, then a pause, after which he restarts with the same chords and triggers a rhythmic and tonal progression, which leads to the climax, the most exciting part. The song conveys passion, power, a galloping rhythm, an overwhelming sentimental process seems to be underway that cannot stop. Maybe it's love. 

Then, we are in the middle, the song stops and again the same theme starts but this time it slows down, with much higher pitch and with the keys pressed much more softly, so as to give a completely different pathos: delicacy, fragility, vulnerability, perhaps it is life that is born, given that the title is "In another life". 

The composition is therefore really simple and elementary and all the beauty of the piece derives from the beauty of the melody and its emotional impact. It is clear that there is a hypnotic effect, with which the music wants to conquer the listener and put him at the same wavelength of the emotion he wants to convey. If the listener lets himself be carried away and puts himself on that emotional channel, he fully enjoys the song, and can feel a strong emotion because the melodic theme, as I described above, is developed with wisdom, exploiting all the skills of the piano, from the high notes to the low ones, from the fast to the slow rhythm, from the pressure strong to the pressure soft on the keys, in other words the author focuses entirely on the development of the melody, on deepening it in all directions trying to reach the maximum intensity (this is the right word), emotional intensity. 

The piece focuses on a few agreements to develop them with maximum emotional intensity. In the prog, the opposite often happens: each theme is not too detailed, in order not to be repetitive and show creativity, and punctually after a short time the digression, the instrumental part, or the variation on the theme starts, which makes the composition richer but sometimes , if the melody is beautiful, it makes it lose its beauty a little, it does not make it reach the same emotional intensity. In this song by Einaudi we are at the extremes of intensity, which can be reached with the minimum of composition and the maximum of repetitiveness. 

In some prog songs we are extreme of the richness of the composition, of the musical score, where, however, we touch a not strong emotional intensity, preferring a more cerebral pleasure. This happens in certain Gentle Giant songs for example. When approaching the emotional emphasis, the Gentle Giant shy away from inserting a dissonant variation, as in Think of me with Kindness, one of their most beautiful melodies, limpid, crystalline, which is well developed but without deepening its intensity too much, and with a rather dissonant bridge that completely interrupts its mood.

In the prog masterpieces, the artist reaches the climax, reaches a deep emotional intensity with a rich musical score, and an elaborated composition.

 

Believe me, I love the modern sound, but in the instance of this movement, I love how he transitions back into the dissonance and style of the 20th century from the romantic style and how it just flows so easily from one style to another.