Le 28 juin 2017
de 15h00 à 15h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3208
Séance - Sounds of Popular Music (I)
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteurs : Maxime Cottin et Guido Saá
In 1981, the british prog rock band King Crimson reappeared with a brand new album entitled “Discipline”. The new material was very different from their previous compositions. Instead, the band chose to mix a wide range of influences from rock, minimalism and African drumming, which led to an intensive use of the loop within all musical parameters.
This paper will investigate the compositional processes undertaken by King Crimson in the early eighties. This period (1981-1984) can be perceived as a radical transformation of their own musical language that reveals an incoming influence and a rethinking of rock musical aesthetics. The paper will take a close look at some seminal compositions such as “Frame by Frame”, “Three of a Perfect Pair” and “Discipline”.
Formal analysis provides a good global view of the musical material used (scales, chords and progressions, pitch collections, rhythmic ideas, motives, instruments and effects), which is the best data to be used as a tool to explain aesthetic decisions: form and musical syntax, pre-compositional pitch structures, ways to represent lyrics, thematic or tonal integration, use of improvisation or strict planning, etc.
We aim to demonstrate how this innovative musical language uses various techniques and influences that include minimalism, motivic integration, the use of various effects dramatically and texturally oriented, and the use of the loop in order to create an avant-garde aesthetic. This research, by adopting an analytical perspective, will help understanding the aforementioned style used by the band in order to reinvent its own musical paradigms.
