Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones

Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones

This piece was originally conceived as a tribute to the anthem rock bands of the 1970’s and 80’s - groups like Yes, Kansas, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. Anthem rock has hard driving beats with often intricate melodic lines and layers of sound; all features which influence much of the classical music I write. I did not intend this piece to be a pastiche of my favorite rock songs; it is rather (in a small way) my homage to the musical artistry and inventiveness of these musicians.

Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones

Ok, let me see if I can see the influences in each artist:

Led-Zeppelin: I don't see this band's influence in the pieces here, I'm afraid, although I like them :( Led-Zepeelin was great in how they were sloppy and "amateurish" in their playing, and yet they were an exception to the rule that playing sloppy and "amateurish" was bad: they were actually amazing in how they played in such a way. (It's seen in how they sing, the bizarre, psuedo-twanginess of the instruments they used) This is too refined to be considered Zeppelin-esque.

Yes: ...A little. Yes tends to be more grandiose, and a little bit pretentious too, in their music. They are also incurably optimistic, and that same feeling of optimism is seen in this music. But there's never an insane, complex climax that is reached in these pieces, as is done by many Yes pieces. And I wouldn't really consider these pieces prog-rock either: it is, again, too refined to be so.

Kansas: Somewhat! The somewhat wild music is fairly spot-on (although the style is, I think purposefully, not the same: no overuse of synthesizers, and such), as are the driving beats (although not driving enough to resemble the Led-Zeppelin, as I said before)

Pink Floyd: I don't see the influence here at all, except for the reverb. Aside from that, it's nothing alike: Pink Floyd has an impressionistic, hypnotic sound to it, and this is too grounded feeling.

As far as the homage to these musicians, I think you somewhat failed to find their "essence". But as far as the music ITSELF goes, it's really neat, and the use of reverb is very interesting. My only complaint is, the movements aren't varied enough. But good job nonetheless, thanks for sharing!

I like this work. My only complaint is that I think this is posted in the wrong forum - even though it is a string quartet arrangement. I would recommend though that you not add the reverb to it - and what in the world is that squeaky noise??? The audio limits my ability to review this correctly.

Why is there a chorus effect? do you intend the quartet to be amplified with effects? pretty neat piece here and the score is very nice. The information on the front is a nice touch. I hear the Yes influence, who I love. Very cool.

I don't know much about rock music, but I certainly liked this piece a lot. This is absolutely great work! The score is neat, the effects clearly explained and well used as well! The recording quality was terrible though; any chance of a clearer recording?

Thanks for sharing!