Re:

[harvard!topaz!jerpc.PE.UUCP]

> 	SOME UNOBSERVANT OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE STRUCTURE OF TWO
> 			KATE BUSH SONGS

Thank you for writing this!  I really enjoyed reading it.

> While the songs were
> not terribly complex, the way Kate Bush uses a limited amount of
> material to achieve her many different effects is interesting.
> 
> 	Comments?
> 

While I don't feel qualified to comment on the analytical part
of the posting, this latter observation was interesting to me,
as it seems to be something that distinguishes a lot of "good"
rock music from that which is merely mediocre.

The only rock musicians I've ever taken enough musical interest
in to look seriously at their music is (surprise, surprise) Yes.
Not being any good at writing analyses like the above, I had to
wait until I found one already written.  Something of that sort
was published a few years ago in a briefly-existent guitar
magazine, whose title I've forgotten.  I bought the magazine
because it said it was about Steve Howe and had some Yes music
in it.

Sure enough, it did.  Not only that, it had decomposed
"Roundabout" into its component parts (which were all written
out musically) and then showed how they went together.

Much to my surprise, the whole thing was built out of just a few
simple themes, put together in various combinations and rhythmic
variations!  I had never realized quite how simple the music was
until I saw it that way.

This led me to my theory that what differentiates Yes's music
(and some other sorts of music of that same genre) is its
rhythmic and timbral qualities.  This makes sense when you think
about it; try humming or whistling some tunes from Yes songs,
and they come out sounding very boring, usually.

On the other hand, look at Mike Oldfield, who I mentioned
recently.  He also uses a few simple themes, but doesn't put
them together quite as well; the result is that he plays one
until it starts to get uninteresting (usually keeping at it
until there's not much doubt left), then goes on to another one.

Well... just a minor observation there...

						-- jer