Moeris, Dancing

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"Moeris, Dancing"
Instrumental by Art Bears
from the album Hopes and Fears
Released15 May 1978 (1978-05-15)
Recorded15– 29 January 1978
Studio Sunrise, Kirchberg, Switzerland
Genre Avant-rock, progressive rock
Length5:08
Label Recommended
Composer(s) Fred Frith
Producer(s) Henry Cow
Etienne Conod

"Moeris, Dancing" ("Moeris Dancing" on CD releases) is a 1978 instrumental composed by Fred Frith for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in January 1978 by Henry Cow, but was released on the Art Bears's debut album, Hopes and Fears in May that year.

Contents

Background

Henry Cow went to Switzerland in January 1978 to record their next album. They had planned on including "Erk Gah", a 20-minute [1] composition by Tim Hodgkinson that the band had performed live several times, but never recorded in the studio. Hodgkinson had been unhappy with the original lyrics and rewrote them for the Swiss recording sessions. The rest of the band rejected the revised lyrics and asked Chris Cutler to write new lyrics for the piece. Cutler was unable to do so in the short period of time left before the recording sessions were due to begin, and "Erk Gah" was not recorded. Short of new material to replace "Erk Gah", Cutler wrote texts for a selection of short songs that Frith had composed. [2] [1]

Henry Cow included the new songs in the Swiss recording sessions, but when they returned to London, some of the members of the band were unhappy about the predominance of song-oriented material. [3] Hodgkinson, Lindsay Cooper and Georgie Born felt that what they had recorded did not represent Henry Cow's goals and should not be released. Cutler and Frith were upset that the material they had composed was considered not good enough for Henry Cow, and as a compromise, it was agreed that two albums would be made: the songs (including "Moeris, Dancing") would be released by Frith, Cutler and Dagmar Krause as Art Bears, and the instrumental compositions they had recorded would be released later by Henry Cow. [4] [1] The newly formed Art Bears recorded four more tracks in London in March 1978 to complete their debut album, Hopes and Fears . It was released in May 1978 with the rest of Henry Cow credited as guests. [5]

Henry Cow's disagreements fractured the band, which resulted in their break up. Frith stated in a 2016 interview that the incident "led to our differences coming to—and staying on—the surface. It was time." [6] To fulfil concert commitments, Henry Cow continued to perform as a group and toured Europe until July 1978. In August 1978 Henry Cow returned to Switzerland to record additional instrumental pieces for their last album, Western Culture , after which the group disbanded. Art Bears continued until 1981, performing in Europe and recording two more albums. [4]

Composition and structure

Most of "Moeris, Dancing" has a time signature of 15
8, with some "intricate syncopations and accentuation". [7] It begins with the composition's main theme performed by synchronised guitar and wordless vocals (oriental-style nasal "ah's"). [7] [1] [8] It is followed by a fast melody in 15
8 and a slower "chorus" with acoustic and electric guitars, and a "droning base". This is followed by "snaking melodic lines" played by synchronised violin and acoustic guitar, another "chorus", some more violin and acoustic guitar melodic lines, and then the opening theme again. [8]

The composition ends with a two-minute coda [9] that features "sustained violin (and probably cello)" [8] "playing slow glissandi, rising and falling approximately a half tone centred around F# in different octaves." [10] Accompanying the strings in the coda is a "rhythm continuum" of bongo drums and bells that was also used in "Labyrinth", another track from Hopes and Fears . [10]

Alessandro Monti stated that "Moeris, Dancing" has "clear and undisguised" (chiari e non mascherati) elements of Balkan and Indian folk music. [11] Frith explained that some of his compositions, like "Moeris, Dancing", were influenced by Balkan music because when he started studying at Cambridge University he was a folk guitarist and was friends with a Yugoslav teacher. [12] Another influence was the English translation of Béla Bartók: An Analysis of His Music, a book on the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók by Hungarian music theorist Ernő Lendvai. [13]

Reception

In a review of Hopes and Fears at AllMusic, Stewart Mason called "Moeris, Dancing" a "puckish instrumental". [14] Reviewing the album in Ground and Sky, Dominique Leone described the piece as "joyous polyrhythm" that could have come from a Magma album. [15] At Pitchfork , Leone wrote that "Moeris, Dancing" reminds him of the Belgium avant-prog group, Univers Zero and the way they deploy Eastern European folk harmonies and rhythms. [16] In another review of Hopes and Fears in Ground and Sky, Gary Niederhoff called "Moeris, Dancing" the album's "highlight", and described the track's extended coda as "an eerie fade out". [17]

Janne Yliruus also felt that "Moeris, Dancing" is the highlight of Hopes and Fears. Writing on the Finnish progressive music website, Pienemmät Purot he called the 15
8 melody "absolutely delightful" (kerrassaan ihastuttava). [1] Yliruus added that this song laid the foundation for Frith's subsequent music, especially on two of his solo albums, Gravity and Speechless , and later in his 2008 band, Cosa Brava. [1]

Nicole V. Gagné stated in her 1990 book, Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music that "Moeris, Dancing" is one of the "strong[est]" pieces on Hopes and Fears. [9] She said it

stands out for its weird finale, a coup unique in Frith’s music: He sits for a full two minutes – a long time, especially for a five-minute piece – on a noisy stretch of Cutler’s percussion ... Unexpected violin crescendi counterbalance the minimalist effect: They hold your attention, teasing you to anticipate something more, while the music slowly and inexorably fades away. [9]

Frith considered "Moeris, Dancing" to be one of his "unusual" compositions. [18] When he moved to New York City in 1979, [19] he was surprised and "flattered" to see several musicians, including Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, rehearsing the piece in a basement. Frith recalled, "That's already unusual enough that somebody else would want to do this stuff." [18] Frith, Laswell and Maher later went on to form the experimental rock band, Massacre in 1980. [19]

Personnel

Sourced from Piekut, [20] Garmo [21] and Yliruusi. [1]

Live performances

"Moeris, Dancing" was performed live by Art Bears several times in 1979. The band only went on one tour, which was to Italy, France, Belgium and Czekoslovakia in April and May 1979. Known performances of the instrumental include the following: [22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Yliruusi, Janne (19 February 2021). "Levyarvio: Art Bears – Hopes And Fears (1978)". Pienemmät Purot (in Finnish). Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  2. ↑ Kelman, John (12 January 2009). "Henry Cow: The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set". All About Jazz . Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  3. ↑ Piekut 2019, pp. 362–363.
  4. 1 2 "Chris Cutler interview". ccutler.co.uk. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 362.
  6. ↑ Thodoris (30 January 2016). "Interview: Fred Frith (solo, Henry Cow)". Hit Channel. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  7. 1 2 Garmo 2020, p. 147.
  8. 1 2 3 Piekut 2019, p. 359.
  9. 1 2 3 Gagné 1990, p. 116.
  10. 1 2 Garmo 2020, p. 148.
  11. ↑ Monti, Alessandro (2024). Caleidoscopio Folk: Nuove forme e colori della musica popolare (in Italian). Arcana. ISBN   978-8-8927730-7-3.
    "II precedente HOPES AND FEARS era stato pia. frammentario nella costruzione, ma in composizioni come Moeris Dancing gli elementi derivati dalla musica folk balcanica e indiana sono chiari e non mascherati. (Da una comunicazione privata con Chris Cutler, che ringrazio di cuore)."
  12. ↑ Plastino, Goffredo (2013). Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds. Taylor & Francis. p. 47. ISBN   978-1-1367076-9-8.
    "Fred Frith (guitarist and founder of Henry Cow and Art Bears), when asked why some of his pieces had a distinctly Balkanic sound (like Art Bears' "Moeris, Dancing"), answered that he started in Cambridge as a folk guitarist, and his teacher was a Yugoslav friend."
  13. ↑ Fabbri, Franco (2017). L'ascolto tabù (in Italian). Il Saggiatore. ISBN   978-8-8657657-2-2.
    "Fred Frith (chitarrista e fondatore degli Henry Cow e degli Art Bears), quando gli chiesi come mai alcuni dei suoi pezzi avessero un inequivocabile suono balcanico (come «Moeris, Dancing», degli Art Bears), mi rispose di aver iniziato a suonare a Cambridge come chitarrista folk, e the it suo maestro era un amico jugoslavo. Come molti altri musicisti jazz e rock della sua generazione, Frith lesse Bela Bartok An Analysis of his Music (Lendvai 1971) quando fu tradotto in inglese dall'originale ungherese, e si mise a comporre usando la sezione aurea e i numeri di Fibonacci."
  14. ↑ Mason, Stewart. "Hopes and Fears". AllMusic . Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  15. ↑ Leone, Dominique. "Art Bears – Hopes and Fears". Progreviews.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  16. ↑ Leone, Dominique (22 March 2004). "Art Box". Pitchfork Media . Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  17. ↑ Niederhoff, Gary (19 October 2000). "Art Bears – Hopes and Fears". Progreviews.com. Archived from the original on 10 April 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2025.
  18. 1 2 Barnes, Mike (February 1998). "The Frith Element". The Wire (168). London: 21. ISSN   0952-0686.
  19. 1 2 Milkowski, Bill (1983). "The Frith Factor: Exploration in Sound". DownBeat . Vol. 50, no. 1. Chicago: Maher Publications. p. 61. ISSN   0012-5768.
  20. ↑ Piekut 2019, pp. 359–360.
  21. ↑ Garmo 2020, pp. 147–148.
  22. ↑ "Henry Cow Chronology". Calyx: The Canterbury Music Website. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  23. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 370.

Works cited

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