Music that is Through-Composed?

I always enjoy the way bands can weave different musical themes through songs, but I enjoy through-composition as well.  Much of the music I have written is through-composed (both my rock and classical compositions).  I think it's a good method to convey a musical idea in more of a linear, narrative sense; you can do that with a lot of repeated themes (and whether that fits kind of depends on what definition of "through-composed" you're using) but if you want a more story-like piece of music, through-composition can better capture the sequence of events and variety you'd find in the traditional story forms.

As long as it's good music.

To me it depends 

I like it.

Ambient Hurricanes wrote: Supper's Ready isn't really through-composed, it's a suite composed of multiple songs with varying degrees of structure.  OP mentioned Dream Theater; I don't think most of their music is really through-composed either, although I'd definitely say that some of their long instrumental sections are through-composed.

Well, I mean through-composed can be used within a song, like DT's Metropolis Part 1, which the middle section definitely is through-composed. Same thing with their recent song Outcry. The epic Octavarium is mostly through-composed as well. However, they obviously do not write like that all the time.

Thinking about it, the classic bands did not have many through-composed sections.

ProgMetaller2112 wrote: To me it depends

HolyMoly wrote: Just as long as it swings, man.

This.

I think my appreciation of music is defined by my complete ignorance to how it's made.

If it pleases my central nervous system then it's been made correctly.

Therefore, that music/band/album may begin draining my bank account like a tap and I am forever grateful.

There's no unique magic formula, both techniques can produce great music and in many cases a combination of both can be ideal.

Gerinski wrote: There's no unique magic formula, both techniques can produce great music and in many cases a combination of both can be ideal. I like music which explores and follows a storyline, but certain repetition and / or recurring themes or motifs frequently provide cohesiveness and a sense of the whole thing being 'one artistic piece of work' which otherwise can feel diluted as a 'sequence of musical events put one after the other'. There's space for everything in good music, richness in techniques, forms and moods is one of the great things in Prog, let's not limit it by saying that 'this way is better than the other way' etc. Subtlety is often a very nice resource to use. You may not want to have a repeating formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus, but perhaps calling back the chorus melody on a different background, or on a different rhythm and tempo, or with different harmonic components (for example changing its key from minor to major) etc can provide both a sense of 'the music does not repeat itself' yet 'there's some unifying scheme in this music'.

This.

Also, I think a lot of Kayo Dot's stuff is through-composed.  There's not much of a reverence for structure of any kind on Choirs of the Eye.

Interesting, I didn't know the term.