Concept instrumental albums

 

I don't know how to answer that but I can tell you that I have bits and pieces from everywhere, and one day I write a piece about John Doe, and this bit and piece I had, fits in the middle of it somehow, and becomes a part of it.

 

You play music. You know that happens!

 

I am not sure, or convinced, that we all start with "ideas", similar to a child, just sitting at one keyboard ... and they do this and that, and you look at it. The "sense" that you and I would expect and define for ourselves, when we do something, would be missing ... at least as far as we know, since we do not know what a "child sense" would be other than our own ideas.

 

And there are many artists, that are "very child like" (if you will) in their approach.

 

Sidebar:

Actually "Savage Messiah" and Ken's film on Dante Gabriel Rossetti are my favorite "biographies" of his, and his Isadora Duncan is very nice as well. Mahler's film was very nice, but in some ways ... left me "disconnected" even though I don't know why. Have to see it again.

 

Dean wrote: ...Holst's Planet Suite is most definitely a concept, but Handel's Music For The Royal Fireworks and Tichycoughski's 1812 Overture are commemorative pieces based upon ideas but are not conceptual.

Edited by moshkito - July 20 2014 at 11:27

Naivety perhaps, but not child like. As a "composer" (I use that term very loosely)  I may have a melody or hook to play around with but generally start with an idea of where I want to go with it - a game-plan or a story board perhaps. It's like with writing - I have written two novels, both of them episodic in that I wrote them live online, publishing each chapter as I wrote them. Personally I could not have done that without a conceptual story-board and extensive plot and character notes to guide me through the process. The world is full of badly conceived and executed novels without me joining in. I'm sure other authors can do without all that, but when you're working without an editor and/or a proof-reader to keep a sanity check on what you are producing mostly that results in a glorified mess. I guess you like that unstructured approach, but for me it rarely results in a satisfactory novel - I dislike cut-ups and 'stream of unconsciousness' ramblings - it's too hit or miss and often is simply "miss". Gonzo is an amusing character in The Muppets, it's not a writing style that I adhere to or particularly admire. 

Similarly, music has structure for a reason. Too many "bedroom" composers just noodle around on the keyboard and it shows - music that rambles and goes no-where, melodies that fail to develop or resolve and often only end when the tape runs out (so to speak) - that is not even improvisation, it's just noodling. Noodling is for finger and brain exercise and personal amusement, it's something I do when I've a free moment to just play and enjoy myself, it's not for public consumption. The world could be improved if some artists kept their meandering noodling to themselves - we don't need to hear every note they play in their lifetime.

When I produced my "Pilgrim" album I developed the initial idea into a concept and spent hours in research long before I wrote a single note. This involved not only re-reading Pilgrim's Progress, but also in researching the history behind it and trying to understand the concepts Bunyan was putting across in the book and my impression of it - so rather than re-tell the story, I took a different tack and tried to convey Mr Valiant-for-Truth's journey to the Celestial Country in music - each part of the journey was carefully considered, I knew the mood and feeling I wanted in each piece even if the tune or melody eluded me until I pressed the first note of the first bar. How successful that was as a finished album is immaterial - it started with the concept and pulled themes from all directions but all with a clear plan of where it was going and how it would end. [As I have said before, it's not one of my favourite albums - it simply strayed too far from the kind of music I set out to create 50 albums earlier - it's pseudo-classical and that's not the music I wanted to make when I started - I don't dislike the music or the finished product, I simply became disillusioned by the style of music my writing developed into - that was the "naked lunch" moment for me if you like]

So, I've partly explained the backstory to my 50th album and  I have stated was a instrumental concept album by design - it is now impossible for you to listen to it (the name above is a link to a free download if you're interested) without knowing that. You can of course ignore the concept and just listen to the notes, it doesn't change anything.