Analysis - analysis & comment on the moto perpetuos of Robert Fripp
EXTRACT FROM ROBERT FRIPP'S ONLINE DIARY
Sunday 11th. March, 2001
07.48
In my e-box is an enquiry in an ongoing series from Andrew Keeling regarding the writing of LTIA I & II. From my answer to Andrew:The quick answer is, you're on the right lines.
Larks' I & II was the emerging of my personal voice as a writer / composer (although "composer" claims too much). My "guitar voice" was already reasonably well developed, but composing wasn't my prime direction until Ian McDonald left Crimson in December 1969. ITWOP, "Lizard" & "Islands" might be seen as the development & working through of learnt & acquired materials before my personal voice began to speak.During the middle of 1971 I began working with recognisably Larks' material, running lines which appear on LTIA I, at the new flat in Holland's Park that I had just moved into. This was a vocabulary that I didn't feel worked for that particular version of Crimson, which looked more towards America than Europe.
My way of working through this "new vocabulary" was primarily instinctive & intuitive: I didn't "know" what I was doing, or playing. Rather, I began and kept going following where the material was leading. Discovery rather than invention, perhaps.
As the material became more formalised (during mid-1972 for the Jamie-David-John-Billy & Bob band) LTIA I was conceived as the beginning of a KC show, and LTIA II as the end. LTIA I as a whole contains more ideas & input from all the team than LTIA II, which follows more closely my own overall "vision" (this doesn't aim to detract from the contributions of the other members).
If you were to ask my aim, briefly, it was to access the energy & power of Hendrix (the Afro-American tradition) but to expand the vocabulary to access what was available in the European tradition; notably, via Bartok (the string quartets) & the early Stravinsky of ROS & Firebird. The question I posed myself might be put like this: "What would Hendrix sound like playing The ROS or a Bartok string quartet?" If an older man might look back at this and be struck by that young man's arrogance, well, an ignorance of limitations sometimes allows the young of any age to achieve impossible things!
I didn't, and don't, have the technical qualifications or capacity to "know" what was involved. But I did read music and spent my unemployment in London with Persichetti's "20th. Century Harmony" and Steven's "Bartok" while practising guitar. We might recall that the young Stravinsky of The ROS didn't "know" what he was doing either: for him it was more an instinctive & intuitive process. And Bartok himself described his own compositional process as instinctive & intuitive.
If musical material does emerge instinctively & intuitively, we might postulate that anyone who adopts this approach might be accessing the same "pool" of "information". Formally, this leads to the arithmetic approach (tonal harmony) and the geometric approach (Bartok "Axis" & the Golden Section). The first has the characteristic of stability, the second of dynamism. The first is crystalline, the second vital. This applies vertically (pitch, and therefore melody & harmony) & horizontally (rhythm). Forgive me for telling you how to suck eggs - you know this already.
When I discovered Lendvai c. 1986 it rationalised what I had discovered in practice over the preceding 15 years (although Lendvai appears to remain persona non grata with Western musicologists). The octotonic (double symmetrical) scale seemed to me, as a rock guitarist, very obvious: the scale was both major & minor, or straight & "blue". To include both forms of the third as equally legitimate in a scale of 8 notes wasn't a very great conceptual leap.
My approach during 1971-73 while developing material for Crim was to play the themes while consulting the body: how did the stresses, accents and lines relate to the fundamental pulse? This is not something which the mind can answer. So, I spent many hours testing ideas against my feet in the kitchen of Thornhill Cottage, Holt, near Wimborne, Dorset.
LTIA I began appearing in mid-1971, and LTIA II probably during early-mid 1972. When I first threw out the main riff/motif to John & Bill during the earliest jamming (Command Studios) they didn't pick up on it. The second time I threw it out (Richmond Athletic Club) they did - and how! The 10/8 theme I believe may have emerged during that playing in Richmond. The violin material from LTIA I is primarily David's. My own Englishness is never far away ("Book Of Saturday" and "Pie Jesu" for example) but in Larks' my Englishness drifts towards the continent.
Crim composing, or "fixing materials", is an ongoing process: the material often appears while playing, and when it is well-formed ("written") may well continue to develop during performance. I consider all material from all my writing life as fair game & available for transformation, transmutation & developing variation today where several decades of material is somehow telescoped into a present ongoing & maturing "now". So it didn't matter to me that motifs from 1972/3 ("Larks'" & "Fracture") presented themselves for consideration during TCOL.
If any writing is "true" its formal properties will also be sound. If Larks' is "true" then inevitably its form will appear to be "based on cosmological principles. i.e.Golden Section in terms of structure and, possibly, pitches". If the work is of a quality, its form will be inevitable rather than intentional. (This may be both involutionary and evolutionary).
I'm not sure that the composer "knows" what is happening, or can fully understand what is involved in an authentic piece of work: their understanding is as limited as anyone else's when it comes to developing a relationship with their externalised work. For example, my Mother knew me well, but there were parts of me which developed when I grew up and left home that she would only have been able to know and interpret in terms of her own knowing. So, even for my Mother, aspects of her son escaped her understanding. And more so with my Father.
Robert Fripp.
EXTRACT FROM "IN THE COURT OF KING CRIMSON"
(published in November 2001 by Helter Skelter Publishing)
BY SID SMITH
reproduced by kind permisssion
Sid Smith maintains an online diary at Discipline Global Mobile
(Starless and Bible Black)
Perhaps it's no surprise that a degree of irritability and impatience crept in to the rehearsals. Bruford would have preferred more material to be pre-written, leaving the band to concentrate on arrangements and interpretation. "The tunes that Robert has written all the way through such as 'Fracture' - these are good and, had there been greater output from Robert, we'd have got on quicker and faster. Robert's always done this. He's started off these bands with one-and-a-half tunes that point the general direction and 'Fracture' would have been one of them."
But Fripp says: "I was never given the time to write. The band had a three-and-a-half-week holiday. I had three days. I recall on another occasion saying to the band that I needed time to write, rather than just continuing to rehearse. Bill, in a school-masterly and rather grudging fashion, would only agree if I really would do the writing as opposed to what he implied was goofing off."
Fracture (Fripp)
The album closes with yet another Concertgebouw track that defies expectations. Just when you think it can't get any more complex - it does. Just when you think the main theme can't get any higher and faster - it does. Just when you think you can't possibly dance the Watusi to it - you can! Talking to Circus-Raves in 1974, Cross recalls the piece's unassuming introduction at the writing rehearsals in Kingston. "He said 'I have this idea...' and proceeded to play this incredible, complicated guitar solo. The rest of us sort of stopped and clapped, 'Oh very good!'" When asked which Crimson piece was the most difficult to play, Wetton offers "Fracture" without any hesitation. The bassist would often feel sorry watching Fripp trapped inside this cage of his own making - but not as sorry as he felt for himself as he grappled with the intricacies of its elaborate, obsessive timings and interlocking sections.
Fripp has often been described as the musical glue holding Crimson together and nowhere is this more evident than on "Fracture". Fripp confirms that the piece remains one of the hardest pieces he's ever played in public. "During the moto perpetuo, in the middle of the piece, if the group's time drifts then the guitarist is hung out to dry. Often, the time drifted in the group. The guitarist is stuck with an endless (it feels) series of equal semi-quavers at 124-136 bpm with cross-picking over two and three strings."
Also in perpetual motion is the rhythm section, which roves under and over the main themes carried by Cross and Fripp. And who else but Bruford would have had the idea to restate the theme on glockenspiel and xylophone? The effect is to introduce a brief comedic respite whilst emphasising the stridently manic nature of the main theme, before the track drives on, shifting gears and throttling up. The power of this piece is extraordinary even by Crimson standards and, on this recording, Bruford can be heard excitedly signalling his evident enjoyment.
In 1974, Cross recalled: "When I went on stage the first time we played 'Fracture' I still had no idea what I was going to play. I had five alternatives for each section. It took me a month of playing every night, of walking on stage and not knowing what the hell I was going to play, and just going from there." If "Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two" (and the cross-picking themes of "Part One") are Fripp trying to find his voice as a composer, then "Fracture" heralds that voice's dramatic arrival in full.
From the early cross-picking of "Suite No.1", his fierce riff for "21st Century Schizoid Man", and then into the principal themes and dynamics of "Larks' Tongues In Aspic", Fripp had been moving inexorably towards "Fracture", their logical extension - and a quantum shift forward. But its significance as a composition lies not so much in its origins, more in its implications. "Fracture" is a pivotal moment in Fripp's emergence as a composer. The moto perpetuo lays the seed for the pointillistic style of The League Of Gentlemen - and that defined the next step, the interlocking, rock gamelan, at the point when Fripp's concerns shifted decisively away from classical European tradition towards new and world music.
In
this version of "Fracture" one or two overdubs were felt necessary.
To compare the original recording without them listen to the version on 1997's
The Nightwatch. Fripp recalls: "I double-tracked the lead line on the return
in the moto perpetuo. George Chkiantz was impressed: double-tracking that sucker
from a live recording wasn't easy."
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(The ConstruKction of Light)
In fan circles and on the internet, some commentators noted that TCOL failed to deliver the on the radical promise which characterised much of the work of the ProjeKcts. To some degree this is a fair criticism. Certainly, the production of the album is curiously indistinct and staid compared to PX and it certainly stands out as the most self-referential of Crimson albums to date.And yet, TCOL is a further refinement of the ProjeKcts process. Whereas that was about rooting out the superfluous and re-establishing the instrumental vocabulary of the group, post-Double Trio, TCOL represents the move toward the integration of the vocal/song based aspects of the band's personality. It manages this with results that are far more successful and cohesive than anything which the THRAK-era Crimson achieved.
FraKctured
The appropriately reflective phrase which delicately opens this piece is suggestive of a clock ticking. Only here time is moving backwards a point underlined by Belew's backward moving guitar at 1:52. This of course isn't the only reference to times past, as the ghost of "Fracture"'s moto perpetuo is summoned. "This is terrifying stuff for me, right on the edge of what is possible," observes Fripp. "Semi-quavers at 138 bpm, all picked, mostly continuous, written and delineated, awkward time signature, with a rhythm section hurtling along with a linked but separate agenda."
In December, at the very end of the first phase of the recording, the band (minus Gunn) stood in front of the studio white board, considering track titles. Mastelotto was unsure about applying the "Larks' Tongues'" name to the piece and asked Fripp how attached he was to it as a title. When Fripp explained the linkage with "Fracture", Mastelotto agreed, pointing out that Ken Latchney thought Fripp had in fact been playing the 1974 piece when Fripp practised it. So the piece became "FraKctured".
Revisiting one's past can always be a tricky affair and Fripp admits to having some initial reservations about moving on this fearsome piece consisting of whole tones and fast continuous single-note lines, which he first outlined when he was working at Belew's house in February 1997.
Its inclusion on TCOL came about when Fripp allowed himself to reference any musical materials which he found to be convincing and which resonated with what the band were attempting.
Whereas Fripp has often censored some of his favoured compositional devices and vocabulary (i.e. the 70s style of playing during the construction of Discipline and the interlocking guitars during the Double Trio), and normally rejects any suggestion of trading on former glories, here he positively revels in this act of historical plunder.
"I'm not sure that I have to rationalise this, and certainly not justify it. But if I were to present a basement answer to the question: 'Why 'FraKctured'?' it might be this: I'd like to play 'Fracture' again, but it's not a piece for this Crimson," says Fripp. "It's Crimson historical repertoire, and good repertoire, but it's part of the lives of other people, in another country and another period.
"I read enthusiast feedback on how much enthusiasts would like to hear 'Fracture' live. If Crimson did play it again, Pat, Trey and Adrian would have to learn the parts of Bill, John and David. That wouldn't work, for several reasons. Like, they were not involved in the process of that music coming into the world. We have an entirely different relationship with a piece if we were a 'parent' to it. And 'Fracture' requires more than purely professional skills to make it live. I have some reservations with the piece. If I were going to rewrite or rearrange it, I'd probably begin again. If I did begin again, what would it sound like?"
Fripp argues that this kind of re-interpretation of previous themes is part of a wider strategy which addresses renewal and maintaining a momentum. "The musical identity, 'tradition' or 'way of doing things' is given - King Crimson! - and this is one way, within that tradition, of keeping the creative process moving. The externals may sometimes seem familiar, recognisable, and even appear to be the same, but the inside is fresh."
THE ABOVE WAS AN EXTRACT FROM "IN THE COURT OF KING CRIMSON" BY SID SMITH
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Andrew Keeling has written a brief analysis of FraKctured as part of his larger article "King Crimson: The ConstruKction Of Light - An Analysis by Andrew Keeling" which we commend. He has kindly allowed us to reproduce the FraKctured section here. Hopefully further analysis will be added to these pages in due course...
Click the graphic below...
Robert Fripp - At the End of Time (DGM0701)
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A personal opinion on the moto perpetuos of Robert Fripp by the webmaster...
"Fracture" & "FraKctured" are important pieces in the cannon of work for guitar.
At the heart of each lies a structured composition of a very specific musical form known as a moto perpetuo and they stand full-square in a European conservatory tradition dating back at least 250 years.
From the Latin for perpetual motion, a characteristic of this form is that it contains a powerfull inner dynamism which propels the music, often at breakneck speed. The most famous example is The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The best known moto perpetuo for guitar is by the great virtuoso, Niccoló Paganini - Moto Perpetuo.
"Fracture" (1974) & "FraKctured" (2000) are essentially the work of another great virtuoso, guitarist Robert Fripp, and are much more modern pieces - atonal and with varying, often uneven, time signatures - but they may still be compared directly with the Paganini which Fripp has practiced hard and knows well.
A clue to this influence can be found in an earlier work of Fripp's from 1968 - Suite No.1 from "The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles & Fripp".
Bars 50/51 of the Paganini
Bars 4,5 & 6 of "Suite No 1" by Fripp
Although harmonically they are not related (for that you must look to Bartok and beyond), and alhough strictly not moto perpetuos, influences of the Allegro from La Catedral by Augustin Barrios and the Etudes by Carcassi can also be detected in the arpeggiated figures that Fripp uses.
What's astonishing is that when Fripp plays Carcassi Etude No 7 (as on King Crimson - Live at the Marquee 1969) he does so using a plectrum (pick) in place of the traditional thumb and 3 fingers employed by classical guitarists.
I saw this for myself during a Guitar Mechanics lesson in the front room of Fripp's house in Putney, London over 20 years ago. Guitar Mechanics was the pre-cursor to Guitar Craft and, with my friend Richard, I answered an advert in Melody Maker that purported to offer guitar lessons with Robert Fripp. Since we were, at the time, the only long-haired music students at our college, well... we HAD to, didn't we?
My insrument was the classical guitar and, when asked by Fripp to "play something" at the beginning of the lesson, I mumbled about course work and played Carcassi's Etude No 3 (rather badly on a Gibson SG Junior that I'd borrowed for the occasion) using the traditional thumb and 3 fingers method. At the end Fripp said "Hmmm.... why don't you use a plectrum?" And I remember rather stupidly saying "Because the piece would be impossible to play. It requires the use of four digits."
Whereupon Fripp promptly played it faultlessly all the way through (with plectrum on the black 3 p/u Gibson Les Paul, naturally).
And my own practice with a plectrum began.
I commend the "classical" pieces on this page to all who are serious about cross-picking. I also invite analysis of Fracture & FraKctured from visitors for placement here. Finally, I'm planning a Players Area for tips & techniques - again, your contributions will be welcomed.
Warning! Please note that I am neither a guitar teacher nor a friend of Robert Fripp. In fact I'm not in any way qualified to do any of this stuff at all and I ought to point out that this is all just opinion anyway. Now go to the music please.
Thanks for reading this far.
Mark Graham, Webmaster - Thriplow, Cambridge, UK - Monday, April 23rd, 2001