Zugl.: Oldenburg, Univ., Magisterarbeit, 2001

This thesis examines the music of contemporary British progressive rock artist Steven Wilson and explores the ways in which specific musical influences have informed and shaped his work. Wilson’s solo output is extremely eclectic and draws from a plethora of diverse genres including progressive rock, electronica, metal, drone, pop, jazz, and industrial. Although it would be impossible to trace all of the influences involved in Wilson’s unique musical idiolect, I study the influence of three seminal tracks upon his work: progressive rock band King Crimson’s “The Court of the Crimson King” (1969), electronica duo Boards of Canada’s “An Eagle in Your Mind” (1998), and progressive death metal group Opeth’s “Blackwater Park” (2001). I demonstrate how Wilson’s recordings share timbral and formal features with these earlier works and consider the analytic implications through the lens of genre theory. The findings are then synthesized through a focused analysis of Wilson’s “Ancestral” (2015) in order to explore genre fusion and demonstrate how these salient musical features are integrated within a single song. This project ultimately seeks to situate Wilson within the progressive rock tradition, consider the role of timbre and form in popular music genres, and investigate the complex relationship between genre and influence.

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L'objectif de la thèse est d'établir une physionomie du maximalisme musical présent dans le répertoire de la popular music, plus précisément celui du Rock Progressif au travers l'exemple de King Crimson. Je me suis appliqué, pour ce faire, à identifier quels sont les éléments de l'idiome rock soumis au processus de maximalisation, et quels éléments, présents dans le langage du Rock Progressif, sont empruntés à des genres musicaux extérieurs à la popular music.La thèse comporte deux grands chapitres. Le premier explore les techniques d’écriture et l’esthétique de la popular music, en s’intéressant de près aux questions du langage musical, de l’improvisation et du sens, dans un corpus allant du blues à la pop music. La seconde partie détaille la manière dont se manifeste le processus de maximalisation des structures musicales (harmonie, rythme, forme) dans le répertoire du Rock Progressif anglais. L’exemple de King Crimson est de ce fait particulièrement remarquable dans la mesure où la démarche des musiciens était de combiner l’énergie du rock afro-américain à un vocabulaire musical issu de la musique savante occidentale du début du XXe siècle. Ainsi sont utilisées des structures de hauteurs faisant intervenir une division de l’octave par l’intervalle de triton, qui engendre, entre autres, l’échelle octotonique. L’analyse de la composition « Larks’ Tongues in Aspic » montre comment se combinent des structures de natures différentes, telles que des cycles d’intervalles, des tétracordes, l’échelle octotonique et l’échelle diatonique. / He goal of the thesis is to establish a physiognomy of musical maximalism in popular music’s repertoire, specifically that of the Progressive Rock through the example of King Crimson. I applied, for that purpose, to identify what were the elements of the rock idiom subjected to the process of maximalization, and what features of the Progressive Rock’s language were borrowed from outside musical genres.The thesis comprises two major chapters. The first explores the writing techniques and the aesthetics of popular music, as interested in issues of musical language, improvisation and meaning, in a corpus ranging from blues to pop music. The second part details the way in which occurs the process of maximalization of musical structures (harmony, rhythm, form) in the English Progressive Rock’s repertoire. The example of King Crimson is noteworthy insofar as the approach of musicians was to combine the energy of African-American rock to a musical vocabulary derived from early 20th century Western art music. So are used pitch structures involving a division of the octave at the interval-class 6, which produces, among other things, the octatonic scale. The analysis of “Larks' Tongues in Aspic” shows how are combined different pitch structures, such as interval cycles, tetrachords, the octatonic scale and the diatonic scale.

English progressive rock band Gentle Giant is catalogued under the progressive (or “prog”) rock genre for a variety reasons, including unique instrumentation, virtuosity, and interesting/unconventional musical attributes. The complexity of their music is often warranted by the sophisticated concepts behind their albums and the deep messages of their songs. The Power and the Glory (TPatG), Gentle Giant’s sixth studio album, is a concept album that emphasizes the rise and corruption of power. What makes their music, especially TPatG, worthy of scholarly attention beyond the simple examination of the compositional techniques employed is the way in which the message of their compositions is conveyed, and how that message is interpreted. In this project, I investigate the elements that contribute to this album’s theme via semiotic analysis. I begin by exploring the discipline of semiotics as a method for analysis. Largely applied to language and literature, semiotic analysis has been recently adapted and applied to music study. Jean Molino’s method proposes a tripartite model for the analysis of music: analyses at poietic, neutral, and esthesic levels. A poietic level analysis examines the circumstances of the music’s creation, including origination, composition, production, and performance. Situating Gentle Giant among their contemporaries and TPatG among the band’s discography by outlining their history (both personal and professional) illuminates the conditions under which the album was generated and produced. An analysis of the neutral level defines the musical “trace,” or those quantifiable elements of the music (i.e., objective elements such as pitch, rhythm, etc.). These structures are explained in light of their usage throughout history and their impact on the album’s overarching theme of the corruption of power. An esthesic analysis describes the reception and interpretation of the music. I examine the socio-cultural impact the album has made and the influence it has had on musicians throughout the years. Molino’s tripartite method of analysis supports a comprehensive understanding of Gentle Giant’s TPatG, not solely musically by examining its structures, but socio-culturally as a part of the progressive-rock culture and, indeed, the broader music industry of the 1970s.

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Ce mémoire propose un regard transdisciplinaire : historique, sociologique et musical sur Harmonium, un groupe culte de folk-rock progressif québécois des années 1970. Y sont étudiées la révolution musicale engendrée par l’arrivée du folk et du rock progressif au Québec ainsi que la mise en récit de l’œuvre et de l’histoire d’Harmonium. Les œuvres du groupe, les sources écrites d’époque (articles de journaux et de revues), l’histoire documentaire et l’histoire et la mémoire publiques y sont confrontées pour analyser les processus narratifs. D’abord, l’essor du groupe est situé dans les transformations de la scène musicale québécoise au cours des années 1960-1970. L’histoire d’Harmonium, entre 1972 et 1978, est ensuite reconstituée au travers des sources d’époque, articles scientifiques et biographies. Par la suite, les caractéristiques musicales des œuvres ainsi que les thèmes, valeurs et messages véhiculés par le groupe sont examinés. L’essor et le succès d’Harmonium sont ainsi réinterprétés au travers du développement de la scène musicale progressive internationale et de la popularisation de la contre-culture. Finalement, en regard de l’ambiguïté politique d’Harmonium dans les sources historiques, la prédominance des réinterprétations néonationalistes de son œuvre et de son histoire sont analysées selon un processus de mise en récit de l’histoire nationale. Il en ressort que la narration prédominante au sein de l’histoire et de la mémoire publiques semble assimiler le destin des artistes québécois à celui du peuple et de la nation. Dans le cas d’Harmonium, ce récit qui s’appuie principalement sur le nationalisme de Serge Fiori, la figure de proue du groupe, contribue à l’occultation du projet artistique spirituel, progressif, contre-culturel et « authentique » du groupe. / This study proposes a transdisciplinary point of view: historic, sociologic and musical to Harmonium, a Quebec preeminent progressive folk-rock group of the 1970s. This work is interested in the musical revolution that came with the birth of folk and progressive rock musical scenes in Quebec and in the narrative and symbols associated with the musical work and history of Harmonium. The group’s albums, the written sources of the time (articles in journals and magazines), the documentaries and the public history and memory are all examined and confronted in this research to study the historical narrative. To begin with, the rise of the group is contextualized in the transformations of Quebec’s musical scene in the 1960s-1970s. The history of Harmonium, situated between 1972 and 1978, is then reconstructed using historical sources, scientific articles and biographies. Thereafter, the musical characteristics, themes, values, ideals and messages of the group are examined. Harmonium’s emergence and success is then reinterpreted through the development of the progressive rock international musical scene and the popularization of the counter-culture. Finally, in light of the political ambiguity of Harmonium that the historical sources reveal, the neonationalist reinterpretations of its work and history is analyzed as a narrative process. This narration, which predominates in public history and memory, seems to assimilate the destiny of Quebec’s artists with the destiny of its people and its nation, therefore contributing to the occultation of Harmonium’s progressive, counter-cultural and “authentic” musical quest.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:23:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3419.pdf: 1908813 bytes, checksum: 00e2359e53f73b176da4dec0219ba4aa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-10 / The film Pink Floyd The Wall, adaptation to the cinema of the Pink Floyd´s concept album, tells the Pink´s story, a musician, that was born in England during the World War II final years, he had his father died in a battle and this fact start a process of depression and melancholy that culminate in his total apathy towards life. This research has its focus on the literary content of the songs from the original album, the aim is study the film formal structure, its differences, similarities and complementarities comparing to the album narrative, observing the translation and artistic recreation process from the album to the movie and also confirming the dialogical relations between the different problems, contextualization, languages and representations explored in this art piece. / O filme Pink Floyd The Wall, adaptação para o cinema do álbum conceitual da banda Pink Floyd, narra a história, desde a infância até sua completa alienação, do protagonista Pink, um músico nascido na Inglaterra nos anos finais da Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuja morte do pai durante a guerra lhe desencadeia um processo de depressão e melancolia que culmina em sua total apatia diante da vida. A presente pesquisa, tendo como foco o teor literário das canções do álbum original, tem por objetivo o estudo da estrutura formal do tecido fílmico, suas diferenças, semelhanças e complementaridades com a narrativa musical contida no álbum, observando e constatando os processos de tradução e recriação de uma obra para outra, além das relações dialógicas entre as diferentes problemáticas, contextualizações, linguagens e representações exploradas na obra.