Storytelling or illustrative component of Prog

Wafflesyrup wrote: I suppose my own perspective would be that all music inherently tells a story.

I think that all music tells at least part of a story, not necessarily an entire narrative.  Of course, some composers bring this element of music out more than others.  One of my favorite examples has always been 2112 by Rush; the lyrics tell a story, obviously, but the instrumental sections, especially Lifeson's guitar solos, are just as integral an aspect of the narrative as are the lyrics.  Alex plays five solos on the song.  The first one, along with the rest of the Overture, sets the stage for the story by instrumentally conveying the back history of the war in which the Solar Federation took control of the galaxy.  The second solo chronicles the protagonist's discovery of the guitar and process of learning to play it.  The third solo depicts the Priests' destruction of the guitar, while the fourth primarily functions to express the emotion of the protagonist afterwards.  The fifth solo, and the entire grand finale, depict another battle for control of the galaxy; Lifeson's solo sounds exactly like a dogfight.  Alex's ability to tell stories with his guitar is astounding.

Most prog is heavily influenced by the Romantic composers whose music strongly communicated a passing of time. Many prog artists combine actual storytelling with this aesthetic effect, which may cause one to associate the psychological time aspect with the folklore or image of an artist.

Take Yes as an example. "Close to the Edge" conveys a passage of time and change of setting, yet the lyrics are abstract and introspective leading the listener to conclude the song is about a big personal change. "Close to the Edge" refers to being close to a huge "self-discovery," as Jon Anderson puts it.

Or take an example of the opposite. Classical composer Olivier Messiaen wrote music that "suspended" psychological time, so to speak. His works were mainly religious and the suspension of psychological time was used to communicate eternity. Almost all of his music was this way.

Don't negelect instrumentals that tell a story.  Case in point are a lot of the songs (I know I know some people are going to say how instrumentals can't be songs ) on this:

What got into prog in the first place was what you refer to as the storytelling component.  Of course just my luck I got heavily into prog just when that was being abandoned in favor of commercial appeal.


Edited by Slartibartfast - December 24 2012 at 13:07

This is a thread I wanted to post for a long time.
Some music is more than intriguing music from a musical perspective. It tells a story. It might narrate a story with lyrics, but most importantly it illustrates a story with the meandering instrumentation and composition. What Peter Gabriel called "journey songs". Note that I'm talking about stories driven by the whole composition, not just any run of the mill ballad, although lyrics can be a part of it. With purely instrumental pieces one may not be able to identify and report on specific story events, but there's an impression of events transpiring. Jade Warrior-Floating World is an example; entirely instrumental, but if you squint just right and allow yourself to daydream... Gong had a strong storytelling capacity, especially on You. Most of old Genesis would do it as a matter of course, and I think that's a big part of why people, including me, disdain later Genesis so vehemently. It wasn't just the change in the music but the loss of the stories, the folklore. I think that's why some old Genesis fans are more gracious toward Duke, because it had Duke's Travels on it, which is a perfect example of a piece with a story being told. We don't know what the story is, but there's a story nonetheless.

Storytelling is not a part of the PA definition of Prog. Some bands are great musically, but show no interest in storytelling. I'm thinking of ELP or Soft Machine, for example. Should the illustrative capacity of music be thought of as at least an optional component of Prog? What is its general significance to Classic Prog and how does it fare in Modern Prog?