Welcome Guest
[ Log In :: Register ]

 

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

Topic: Perpetuum Mobile< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Shingebis Offline




Group: Members
Posts: 26
Joined: Nov. 2001
Posted: Dec. 11 2001, 19:59

Right from the first time I listened to Amarok, there was one section that sounded familiar - 26:20, straight after the Intermission. To be precise, I could swear I'd heard it in an advert for an instant noodle snack.

Well, today I found the answer to the riddle. I discovered the same piece of music on a compilation album named "Classical Chillout", entitled Perpetuum Mobile, performed (and composed?) by Simon Jeffes with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. It isn't exactly the section in Amarok, but it's very close, right down to the tapping percussion. After a bit of searching I've found a link on Amazon where you can hear a sample of the piece.

According to this page, the track appeared on a 1987 album, so it predates Amarok. Does anyone know anything more about this piece, or whether there's some deep MO connection that explains it all?
Back to top
Profile PM 
Ugo Offline




Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000
Posted: Dec. 13 2001, 17:47

It's funny, how a melody goes into your head without you having not the least idea about its title... it happened to me with the melody you mentioned. I've heard it for years & years & years & years as the music playing over the end credits of an Italian TV magazine called 'Nonsolomoda', about fashion and not-only-fashion, as the title says. wink I'm glad to know that the tune is used as backing music also elsewhere. wink
Anyway... after saying all this, I must admit that I experienced the same sensation of deja vu (or deja connu = already known) when I first heard [and that was, shamefully, in October 2000... eek] the melody from 'Boat' in Amarok. It's only that I didn't link it to the piece from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, but with something I heard some years before (early '95?) in a theatre dance show, called 'Lord of the Dance'. All the music in this show was supposedly composed by a guy I'd never heard of before (Ronan Hardman or something)... but whose name was unmistakably Irish. And really, most of the music was based on Irish folk themes, rearranged on keyboards and synths (also the choreography was based on modern reworkings of traditional dances.) That repetitive piano-percussion theme is similar to a theme used in the show. wink Steve Farrell, in his Amarok Analysis (available on TW) says more or less the same, talking about a 'Riverdance style pattern' on percussion, 'Riverdance' being (as you probably know) a theatre dance show very like 'Lord of the Dance'. So the only link I can find between Amarok 'Boat' and Perpetuum Mobile is their common source, i.e. an Irish folk style of combining repetitive piano and percussion.

--------------
Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
Back to top
Profile PM 
Ugo Offline




Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000
Posted: Dec. 13 2001, 17:52

P.S. Perpetuum Mobile is a lot older than 1987, because the album on the page you have linked is a compilation of older tracks. I think it dates from about 1979. smile

--------------
Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
Back to top
Profile PM 
2 replies since Dec. 11 2001, 19:59 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

 






Forums | Links | Instruments | Discography | Tours | Articles | FAQ | Artwork | Wallpapers
Biography | Gallery | Videos | MIDI / Ringtones | Tabs | Lyrics | Books | Sitemap | Contact

Mike Oldfield Tubular.net
Mike Oldfield Tubular.net