Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm currently studying composition, both in private lessons and in a historical context. Right now, it's late-Renaissance and Baroque period.

In that era (15/16th century), songs were either strophic (i.e., used a reoccuring melody with different lyrics each time, what we'd call verses in pop music), or through-composed, having almost no repeating parts whatsoever.

I've been trying to think of pop/rock songs that are through-composed or at least close to it, and I can't seem to think of any. Excepting pseudo-avant-garde stuff like Revolution 9, of course. Can anybody think of something with no verses and no choruses, just new part after new part and so on?

Bohemian Rhapsody... let me think of some more.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun...

Abbey Road, side two...

One Man Band (Three Dog Night) comes close.

Would something like Tales Of Topographic Oceans count? Especially side three.

Tubular Bells.

...Dean

'Song Of Solomon' by Steve Kilbey may fit the bill.

I'm guessing this style of composition is extremely rare in rock / pop music. Even the prog crowd likes to give the songs an anchor.

Wait! I think I have a through-composition for you: http://www.myspace.com/noelchristianriddell

Click on 'We Could Glow'. It begins and ends in a similar way but nothing else repeats. And dig those Rickenbacker tones.

Cheers.

Noel, i'll definitley check out your song later!

Bohemian Rhapsody is very close, good thinking! Ditto for Happiness is a Warm Gun.

Abbey Road side 2, hmm, not sure about that one. "Sun King" has verses, "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" have two verses each. "She Came In Through..." definitley has a few repeating motifs. Were you thinking of the second side all as one song basically?

How about McCartney's "Band on the Run?"

JimK

What John is looking for wouldn't have any repeated phrases, and "Band On The Run" has a chorus that repeats.

I was sort of kidding with Abbey Road side two, but a song like "You Never Give Me Your Money" does seem to continue from one musical idea to another.

Even Tales from Topographic Oceans, though it drifts about, keeps coming back to a repeated phrase.

John, this is hard. I can't think of any more, and it illustrates both the difficulty of writing a good through-composed piece as well as our preference for hooks, something we can remember over and over again. I think it even explains why people collect DVDs. But really, the era for this sort of thing in pop music was late 60's early 70's. But even then, these long pieces tended to have at least one thing repeated. "Picasso's Last Words..." close but not it. I would think there is probably something by Genesis or Renaissance or Camel or Gentle Giant, but I can't remember much of their music. Yes may have something, but classical thinking always leads them back to a repetition. Dylan broke a lot of boundaries, but not this one. Neil Young's "Expecting to Fly" nearly does it. Joni Mitchell could write the world's longest verses, but they would repeat. What's a good example from outside the pop world?

This kind of challenge keeps me awake at night. If I'm still up at 3am thinking about John Biscuti, I think you'll owe me a beer.

"You Never Give Me Your Money" is another great one. Dylan? The complete opposite! He's the epitome of "strophic".

I don't know if this will work for everyone, but here's something through composed - a 14th century motet, Dum complerentur, by Palestrina. If it doesn't work, i'll upload it elsewhere. It's an incredible piece of music, one of my favorites. I can also scan the score (six voices) if anyone is interested.

http://www.yousendit.com/download/T1VrT ... M2w1VEE9PQ

Mark, i've got an idea. Come to MARF, i'll buy you a beer, and we'll listen to some through-composed Baroque-era madrigals.

What John is looking for wouldn't have any repeated phrases, and "Band On The Run" has a chorus that repeats.

OK, I couldn't remember for sure. I don't have the album.

Yeah, this is difficult. I have my doubts that such a thing exists in 20th century popular music.

JimK

First of all, this thread kicks all kinds of butt. Way to go, John!

"Cigarette" by Ben Folds Five comes close, it's kind of AA'. (That's "A" followed by "A prime," which is like "A" but a hair different.)

"The Waiting Room (aka The Evil Jam)" by Genesis is kind of close, but it falls more into the Revolution 9 category.