PROG ROCK

The simple verse-chorus format and the 3-4 minute single length is not enough for some artists. Some bands want to consider also atmosphere in their music, some want their music to be dynamic, some want to incorporate breaks, tempo changes and varying signatures and all of that leads to longer, more elaborate song structures. Whether these bands succeed in this, is a totally different question. Progressive Rock is a style of music that combines classical music's sense of space and monumental scope with rock's raw power and energy. There is frequent inclusion of other musical styles such as classical, R&B, jazz, folk, avant-garde and world music. Arrangements are typically complex, dynamic and multidimensional usually featuring intricate keyboard and guitar playing. Many of the early progressive rock bands incorporated a Mellotron or string synth to simulate an orchestra backing. Dynamics are also an important part of progressive rock. A mixture of loud passages, soft passages and musical crescendos add to the emotion of arrangements, as do extended instrumental solos, which may involve some improvisation. It is also not unusual for bands to compose lengthy, yet structured, multi-movement compositions that center on a core musical theme.

Lyrical content may draw from science fiction, mythology, fantasy and utopian literature. The most famous category of progressive rock is where most of the well-known bands fall (aka Symphonic Rock). The symphonic bands execute their arrangements with a great deal of orchestration, sometimes creating extended songs in the form of multi-part suites. Elements of classical and jazz music are often prevalent as well. It is also common for an abundance of musical virtuosity to be exuded in the form of long solos, frequent time changes, shifts in tempo and strong sense of dynamics. Typically, lyrical content involves philosophy, mysticism, the abstract or science fiction. Indeed, 1966 with the Revolver of the Beatles can be regarded only as 'embryonic' period. The year was a turning point for the band, when, so tired of the Beatlemania, they gave up the concerts, and the studio works has showed their gigantic growth in comparison with the semi-pop period in the first half of the '70s. All right, the merits of the Beatles should not be underestimated, for it was them who opened the door to a more complex music. In the second half of the decade the Beatles' style can be marked as an excellent Hard And Art, for sure, quite real Proto-progressive, but exactly the true Progressive Rock, two years earlier before the appearance of that genre as a separate flow in Rock Music, was performed by Pink Floyd. How much Syd Barrett has paid for the creation of the new music, you're knows well. But it has happened. Within the atmosphere of the albums of that time The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn looks like an alien body, so unusual is the music of the album. The Planetary Mysticism intended by Barrett, or confided in him carried in itself something unearthly, mysterious, enigmatic. Up to now we can listen to this album with a great pleasure, and as time goes by it is loses none of its attractive power. It doesn't need to insist, but merely advise, to suggest: turn your look back, listen the first two albums once more. Can't such things as 'Interstellar Overdrive' (1967) and the title track of 1968 to strike one's imagination? And who're else from the surrounding performers has approached then such a subtle compositions? Each sound of the seventies Pink Floyd LPs has opened up new horizons for Prog-Rock, as well as the new facets of its talents.

A few years ago Prog turned 30... Now it's a grown-up and clever man, that experienced his hard transitional period in the '80s, now standing on his strong feet. The term 'progressiveness' does not have to do in reality with once well-known 'Rock for Peace' projects. The aspect of progressiveness in music generally does not deal with politics. Music, this harmonies of sounds, that somehow makes our souls tremble, is the most remote art from all earthy grades and projections. In this sense 'progressiveness' applies to music directly: progress as opposed to stagnation, it's a movement forward development, the capacity to think, the absence of repetitiveness. Departing from the last notion, the least inclined to repetitiveness is Classical music, including the modern forms, whereas the other extreme represents the most primitive forms of Pop music. Taken generally, Rock music is situated in the middle, and not only conditionally. The fact that modern Rock includes modern Classics is questioned only by few, fortunately, as well as the fact that most such works refer to Progressive or Proto-progressive Rock. The yearning for growth, for the elaboration of own forms - these phenomena of evolution and progress of the life on earth same the same bearing on the music structures. Progressive Rock is distinguished from other works by a great member of the musical smells and shades, that are expressed by the richness, depth and variety of arrangements. Of course, the authentic musical findings in terms of Rock music have been occurring particularly on the edge of Progressive Rock. And findings and progress are indivisible terms. The history of Progressive Rock contains a lot more sad events than any other trend of Rock music. In the beginning there was a powerful rise, development and world recognition. In the wake of Pink Floyd two years later a complete legion of original and strong bands continued the good cause, and if 1967 is considered the year of birth, 1969 can be called the year of development. About the same time the bands came into being that are now regarded as the classic of the genre: King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator, Genesis, Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, PFM, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, Gentle Giant and Colosseum.