Yes, Close To The Edge - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction

so we are in 1972 and one of the members of Yes was John Anderson which is the John from the John N Vangelis I'll find my way home which you recognized while listening to magenta remember yeah so he it seems that he got his inspiration while listening to symphony's number six and seven by uh Jean sibelius which was one of his favorite composers and this this song which is uh entitled close to the edge is a 19 minutes piece of music which combines that's good enough it is it is uh and okay you will I don't say anything about it but just that it combines elements of classical music psychedelic rock pop and Jazz finally yes it has been a long time coming and I it's not that I was dragging my feet about it um I've really wanted to listen to it for a long time but well many of you have suggested several different ones of their Works um but close to the edge has consistently ranked at the top and close to the edge is long and so I needed a time when I could sit and do a long piece of music and even today it's not ideal you might hear the chainsaw outside and there's absolutely nothing I can do about that so I hope it doesn't interfere with this too much I'm going to go ahead and listen to Yes it won't bother me because I have my headphones I hope it doesn't bother you and I am eager to do this I'm curious many of you have said ah come on you're listening to all these other bands and things but you have to listen to yes first in order to understand and as a music teacher as a music um student as someone who teaches the history of music I understand that and I don't want to treat it lightly so here I am I'm going to enjoy this and I'm going to see how my impressions are but here we are with yes close to the edge foreign [Music] [Music] that's such an interesting combination of instrumental sounds because it led in with this nature track water and bird songs and and then when the instruments came this this lower instrument and I assume some of these sounds are probably relatively engineered a fair amount in the studio I'm a little bit reluctant to call out the names of instruments but this this lower one [Music] [Music] is [Music] that face [Music] it almost has this this wild animal sound to it like I don't know bear or a Tiger's voice or something like that and it's so interesting because we just came from this natural world intro into this it fits really well [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] did you notice that climbing up from the base the scale [Music] thank you what is it [Music] I stood in reverse it's a d harmonic minor scale that's being yeah D harmonic minor scale that's being played [Music] part of this and that is something that we find In classical music a lot usually not quite so strictly I mean I can't think of a lot of classical pieces where I hear slow ascending scale one note the next the next two octaves like that it pays almost like the tempo that I would have fairly under Elementary student practice it on the harp or on the piano and I promise I'll go a bit further this time [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] that's a bit of a surprise so this tinkily tinkly tinkly sound makes me think a bit of the harp um kind of a synthesized harp sound it's a bit brittle it's almost like it's almost like someone's touching their hand here [Music] if I can get the right sound that's sound quality and it's very fingery busily running around in there again it feels like it's imitating sounds in the natural world maybe twinkling stars or maybe maybe leaves wrestling or or water sparkling or that sort of portrayal of something that you find in the natural world [Music] but what is that I'm going to keep listening because I don't know what to make of that bit okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you so I feel like that whole section I've just listened to obviously I have never heard this piece before and I don't really have a sense of the shape of it yet so my impressions as I go along through a piece of this length might have to be adjusted after I've gone to the end of it but that feels like a sort of introduction a a preliminary portion of the piece which is setting us up I was listening to the way those vocal insertions are first it was just like one and then out and then more of this sparkly busy stuff and the the is it supposed to be a saxophone Maybe and then the base also they're offered Lively and and interactive and weaving together but then the voice comes in again a bit more and then again a bit more and then here we are and suddenly we settle into something what exactly I don't know yet but we'll find out a little suspense here [Music] now we're settling more [Music] the scale is stepping down now foreign [Music] I had no idea that there was going to be singing with this like actual lyrics okay somehow I had the idea that this was an instrumental piece okay so then maybe all of that was an intro well now I have to adjust my thinking a bit let's just keep going [Music] do I need to have the lyrics are they important to this piece okay maybe maybe I should have the lyrics [Music] thank you [Music] don't [Music] interception points [Music] foreign [Music] this voice is not a sound quality that I love I'm I see how it fits in this music but it's not a sound quality that I really a a vocal quality that I really gravitate towards but this is this is making me feel like well well it's funny because the compositions that inspired this music okay I haven't listened to it all the way through yet I've just listened to the beginning but the compositions that inspired this music to me seem very different from this music if I were going to pick a classical composer that I would relate to what's coming to mind for me is Camille Sanson because he was a bit acerbic in his humor and anybody who listens to the carnival of the animals uh and and understands a bit of the humor that's built into that piece of music maybe you'll hear a bit of similarities between this at least what I've heard up to this point in close to the edge and some of the sounds we hear in Carnival of the animals think aquarium or even The Pianist The Pianist is treated as an animal in that in that work which I think is just brilliant and this sort of uh there's there's a sort of humor in it that is at the same time not really immediately obvious it it kind of hides under everything I almost get the feeling that that's happening here with with this close to the edge I don't know but that's the feeling I get anyway I'm going to go on [Music] like here [Music] that's really quirky [Music] dude across the line around the changes [Music] [Music] that's an interesting section because you hear all these different instruments doing their thing and the voice doing its thing and the articulation of the words in The Voice almost behaves like the percussion another type of percussion so you have you have the drums then you have this and then you have the the Rhythm Of The Voice and these other instruments [Music] I guess that's the guitar in the middle [Music] that we see [Music] everything is creating a texture we relieve the tensions [Music] seasons [Music] now [Music] back to this rhythmic texture [Music] and now here comes this just for a moment we're back to this [Music] thank you memorize [Music] some problems [Music] nice little bit of basement [Music] layering of different [Music] [Applause] [Music] that could have actually been well I like that little spot it could have actually been done also with voices just imagine if those if every part adding in were a singer just for fun [Music] so here's the base [Music] the percussion is holding it together now but if this were one voice and what if this were another voice and what if this were another voice that would be kind of fun wouldn't it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this makes me feel like I'm in maybe an aquarium [Music] underwater looking through some glass [Music] some menacing creature swimming along the bottom [Music] I even heard water dripping there that's interesting maybe it's a cave [Music] very atmospheric [Music] thank you that's the scene is changing a little bit can you see the latest [Music] music has a very Primal mystical mysterious quality [Music] to million people better satisfied today the eyes [Music] I kind of like this part I like the way the voices are weaving together and I like the I like the way that everything is kind of shifting a bit but at the same time working together in charge of me [Music] the truth is written all along [Applause] [Music] the rhythm of the words [Music] with different voices [Music] foreign [Music] there's getting to be a more space perfect place for the organ to come in it's almost as if the the voices [Music] were underground in this I don't know underwater cave or something like that and so we feel there's a sort of sealing over us whether it's rock or water or what and those little drips water drips that we could hear kind of made me think of a cave without water in it although all those watery sounds were making me think of maybe a Tunnel underwater anyway whatever [Music] the voices are in that space whatever that space is and so we felt a sort of of limit a constraint a an encapsulation and then there was this point at which they started to open the space for us one went Higher One went lower and and the dimension between the top and the bottom increased to the point where it was as if they made room for the organ to enter kind of like you know on stage when you have the curtains opening like this and it makes room for the performers to come out [Music] it's a really interesting effect I want to listen to that again I enjoyed it there it is so now that organ has taken front stage very nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] I get up I get down [Music] you can tell I love Oregon [Music] maybe it's the classical musician's electric guitar there's something about the power of it incredible [Music] the dissonance suspense interesting have both of those instruments together it works pretty well [Music] [Music] [Music] so much happening so quickly here it's it's shifting from one to the next to the next one a bit Patchwork instead [Music] thank you thank you makes me think of [Music] it that is leading us back into the voice [Music] [Music] coming from earlier in the summer [Music] awesome time summing up everything we've been through so far [Music] [Music] and now it's this forest sounds outro again almost as if we've been Underground and now we've re-emerged from whatever wherever we've been that was quite an experience and I guess I can understand why so many of you have said you really must listen to yes it's quite a complex piece of music it's long enough that I am going to need to take a bit of time to dig into it before I come back with an in-depth portion but my first impressions are and you probably picked up on this as you watched me listen to it there are portions of it that I don't love that I don't really relate to immediately and there were portions of it that I really enjoyed this last section well all the way through sometimes when I'm faced with a challenging some music that challenges me that that I that I have a hard time figuring out how to get into sometimes the question I ask myself is if this were going to be a piece of visual art something you hang on the wall a framed print or painting or something what Style of painting would it be in other words would it be um a Rembrandt would it be a pen and ink would it be something really well would it be Picasso would it be an impressionist painting would it be all of these different sometimes it helps me to think in terms of visually how does this sound what sort of sound does this sort of picture does this sound paint is what I'm saying I have to get my words together here um I can't quite figure out what type of art this would be if it were visual art towards the end when I started commenting about how it's changing so quickly I got this idea in my mind that it might perhaps be a strip of undeveloped film with different snapshots one after the other at least in that portion but I'm not sure that really applies to the entire work yet uh maybe it's not the type of music that really translates well into some type of visual art I'm going to think about it just because sometimes that helps me find my way into something that I'm very unfamiliar with but um there we have my first exposure to yes and it's going to be a fun project to dig into it and prepare for the in-depth I'm looking forward to it a lot I'm so happy I finally got to sit down and listen to this I do hope the chainsaw didn't bother you and nice project thank you very much and I'll see you soon do you think the title is appropriate to this piece of music close to the edge well you know I when I heard close to the edge I've had in my mind this idea that maybe it would be some very either dramatic or or Intense or scary piece of music or something with a lot of suspense it did have something there but nothing really that made me think that that was what the title meant I'm not sure but of course reading through the lyrics which I did part way through um I also get this idea that this is more of a I don't know the lyrics give this contribute to this idea of a primal mystical mythical experience or world and maybe close to the edge I'll have to I'll have to explore that because I really don't know right now well you got close to the edge today yes indeed yes

Channel: Virgin Rock

Views: 163,667

Keywords: rock, rock music, music review, rock music review, yes, close to the edge, jon anderson

Id: DeIXYgFzaJk

Length: 41min 7sec (2467 seconds)

Published: Wed May 31 2023