Keith Emerson and music theory

I can't listen to stuff like "Fanfare" that's too polished and well played, but bought the Deluxe Edition of "Pictures" after watching "Prog Rock Britannia" and realising how wild they could be live. There are three different concerts on it and Emerson makes some amazing racket. I love the bit when Greg Lake is singing some dirge only for it to be suddenly oblterated by a mad blast of noise which sounds to me like Emerson fell asleep and toppled across the controls of the Moog. Top marks to Greg for the Hendrix intro to "The Barbarian" though.

Dean wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: Keith Emerson and music is thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and thin again at the far end. ...in theory

It also is my theory about the Keith Emerson and what it is too.

(I really did watch a bit too much Monty Python when I was young.)


Edited by Slartibartfast - January 22 2012 at 08:02

And the first part of Tarkus with him playing in a simple scale while it's obvious there's two and that the riff is made on 4ths. He sure knows a bit of his musical rules but not enough and still want to apply the rules he learned but it's not always working. When composers use dissonance it's always clearly wanted. Even real good improvisers make dissonance but it is wanted and it is clear. Keith Emerson's dissonances sound only like errors. There's a huge difference between wanted and unwanted dissonance.

Edited by The_Jester - January 28 2012 at 17:00

richardh wrote: Keith did have some problems with the Moog in the early days

The_Jester wrote: For Toccata I was aware it was an arrangement but listen to the first chord. There's a tritone and two minor seconds (half tones). It is used in some contemporary work but never in such a way. It's not scary it's only a quickly made intro. And the first part of Tarkus with him playing in a simple scale while it's obvious there's two and that the riff is made on 4ths. He sure knows a bit of his musical rules but not enough and still want to apply the rules he learned but it's not always working. When composers use dissonance it's always clearly wanted. Even real good improvisers make dissonance but it is wanted and it is clear. Keith Emerson's dissonances sound only like errors. There's a huge difference between wanted and unwanted dissonance.

2dogs wrote: richardh wrote: Keith did have some problems with the Moog in the early days Ah, I see now that what I am impressed by here is the feeling that Emerson is battling against the foces of chaos and randomness. It could all come apart at any moment, but his skill and inspiration are producing far more exciting music than could ever be achieved by sitting quietly and writing a lot of notes down, no matter how cleverly.

I've always felt that for Keith the journey was more important than the destination. He used to pull apart his own peices and try to find different ways of playing them. Tarkus had so many different incarnations over the years. Other bands/artists just went on stage and played things exactly like they were written (yawn).

Well, I said it was an opinion, you all have yours and it's perfectly okay but it doesn't change. I don't say he doesn't know all of his musical theory. I simply say that he doesn't seem to know it enough. I sure saw an evolution through time (he's not the same composer from Tarkus to Brain Salad Surgery) but I keep my point. And I admit that in Toccata the first chord was completely wanted. 

Like I said before, I sure know it is an arrangement.

I studied music for 1.5 years and have played music as a low-level amateur for 20 years but I can not claim knowing music theory myself, so I can not debate on technical grounds.

Edited by Gerinski - January 28 2012 at 05:27

I never heard the album Trilogy but I'll try it and see if he evolved. But I sure know that in Tarkus and the albums before that he does things that have a little connection with the scales they are in but that still does a dissonance because he doesn't consider chord change or the note he should play, etc. In Brain Salad Surgery I couldn't believe he doesn't know his musical theory. He evolved but it wasn't always like that.