Adorno wrote the book on Mahler, literally: the definitive one. He talks there about how Mahler defeats bourgeois expectations with sudden lapses from Romantic depth to pure pastiche, animal sounds, snatches of marching bands and so on.
This is the genius of Horn and Downes (Buggles, who produce and play keyboards on the new Yes album respectively). Yes tends towards the portentous, and they snap it back into place with some sardonic humor such as “Bumpy Ride.”
This snapping back via ugly kitsch is far more disturbing than some fakely sincere darkness horror. Just cutting into the Romanticism, fading in abruptly. (The fade in itself, rather than a smooth transition, or a musical one, says a lot.) Mahler style. Far more genuinely sincere.
Then there's the release of Squire's song. Genuinely sweet after the sardonic interruption.
2 comments:
I've got a very 'focused' view of Mahler: he wrote kickass trumpet parts!! If I could play first trumpet in a performance of his first symphony with a first class orchestra . . . wow! That'd be like riding The Wave on whatever beach in Hawaii has got the waves (Diamondhead?). It's that kind of deep physical spiritual deal.
Shit, I can hear and almost feel it now!
That sounds right Bill. Mahler's horns are really intense!
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