Ruins (instrumental)

Last updated

"Ruins"
Instrumental by Henry Cow
from the album Unrest
ReleasedMay 1974 (1974-05)
RecordedFebruary–March 1974
Studio The Manor, Oxfordshire, England
Genre Avant-rock, progressive rock
Length12:00
Label Virgin
Composer(s) Fred Frith
Producer(s) Henry Cow

"Ruins" is a 1974 instrumental composed by Fred Frith for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in February and March 1974 by Henry Cow, and released on their May 1974 album, Unrest by Virgin Records.

Contents

A jazz interpretation of "Ruins" was recorded by the Michel Edelin Quintet  [ fr ] with spoken texts by John Greaves and released on their 2019 album, Echoes of Henry Cow . [1]

Development

In 1970 Frith and John Greaves began developing a piece they later called "Teenbeat". It became a collection of instrumental fragments and ideas the two had been working on. Some of these fragments took on a life of their own and evolved into free-standing compositions. One of them was Frith's "With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star"; the other was "Ruins". [2] On "Ruins" Frith used Fibonacci numbers to establish beat and harmony. He had been reading about Hungarian composer Béla Bartók's use of the Fibonacci series and its 55-beat sequence to structure compositions. Fibonacci numbers are related to the golden ratio found in some patterns in nature; the numbers are also sometimes used in art and architecture. Frith said the idea of the palindromic structure of rhythmic patterns in the middle of the piece came from French composer Olivier Messiaen. [3] [4] [5]

Frith scored "Ruins" for violin, bassoon and xylophone to make it "somewhat classical-sounding", but later regretted having played violin "so badly" on the track. [4] He wrote that "[n]either my violin nor my xylophone skills were remotely good enough to get it close to where it should have been." But he added that the "obvious deficiencies in the writing" were overcome by group's "energetic conviction" which revealed "unexpected qualities" in the work. [3] Frith remarked, "it would be interesting to have another shot at it with [violinist] Carla Kihlstedt", but added "I doubt if I'll ever have the energy or motivation to go that far". [4]

The recording of "Ruins" took place in stages because at the time the group had yet to familiarize themselves with the piece. [6] [7] Chris Cutler later commented, "We should have delayed [ Unrest ]. But we were sure the challenge would 'bring out the best' in us." [6] Benjamin Piekut wrote in his 2019 book Henry Cow: The World Is a Problem , "To this day, the Cows wince when they hear the flubs sprinkled throughout ['Ruins']." [8] [9] Part of the end of "Ruins", played at half-speed, also appears in "Deluge", the final track on Unrest; [5] [10] the drums and bass have been removed and it fades in slowly, loops several times, then fades out again. [11]

"Ruins" was later remixed by Tim Hodgkinson at Cold Storage Studios in London in 1984, and was released by East Side Digital Records on the first CD release of Unrest in 1991. All subsequent CD releases of Unrest by East Side Digital and Recommended Records restored the original mix. [12]

"Ruins" featured in many of Henry Cow's live sets. In early performances, for example in the 25 April 1974 John Peel Show, [13] [lower-alpha 1] they often split the piece in two, playing the first part, jumping to Greaves' "Half Asleep; Half Awake", then returning to the last part of "Ruins". This was generally followed by Frith's "Bittern Storm over Ulm". [15] The setlist of the Peel session is given as "Pidgeons:[ sic ] Ruins/Half Awake Half Asleep/Bittern Storm Over Ulm". [13] In a paper in Representations , Piekut states that it is unclear whether "Pigeons" is the name of a suite of songs, "Ruins", "Half Asleep; Half Awake" and "Bittern Storm over Ulm", [16] or an introduction to "Ruins" that does not appear on Unrest. [17] [lower-alpha 2] Piekut concluded that "Pigeons" may be neither of those two, but simply the working title of several song fragments the band had been working on at the time. [18]

Composition and structure

Frith wrote "Ruins" shortly before, and during, the recording of Unrest. It comprises seven sections: [19] [20] [21]

  1. Introduction – organ drone with clarinets in close harmony and periodic bursts of piano and percussion.
  2. Counterpoint – bass guitar, percussion, organ, piano, xylophone and bassoon in a theme taken from parts of Frith's "Teenbeat" and "With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star".
  3. "Ruins" cycle – organ solo for seven 55-beat cycles over a two-chord pattern (E-11-13 and D-11-13) by piano, bass guitar and percussion alternating six times according to 6–4, 5–3, 3–2, 7–3, 7–3 and 4–8.
  4. Chamber music – a series of movements by violin and bass-bassoon, bassoon and violin-bass, xylophone-bass-drums and bassoon-violin, all interspaced with a 55-beat cycle fanfare of wind instruments, followed by a stereo guitar solo over the fanfare.
  5. Violin melody – 55-beat cantus firmus by violin with counterpoint by oboe, piano and bass guitar, oboe again, drums.
  6. Guitar melody – distorted and sustained guitar with counterpart by clarinet, bass guitar and percussion, organ.
  7. Coda – guitar drone with clarinets in close harmony.

The composition is symmetrical, [22] in that the second half of the piece mirrors the first. [21] In the middle of the fourth section the composition "flips ... and the structure goes into reverse", repeating the "Ruins" cycle with a guitar solo, followed by a new melody and finishing with a guitar drone, in contrast with the organ drone that opens the piece. [21]

Garmo said "Ruins" is polyrhythmic with varying metres, including 1
16, 1
8 and 1
4. It also comprises themes that are revisited throughout the piece. [7] Piekut described "Ruins" as "sprawled" but "intuitive" having "two solos around a chamber music core" with "the whole thing bracketed by rock intro and outro". [20] Piekut said Hodgkinson used a fuzzbox with a fuzz control on his H&H amplifier during his organ solo in the "Ruins" cycle. He also made use of a noise gate to create the "sputtering kind of broken sustain". Frith's stereo guitar configuration was the same he had used during Henry Cow's Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall recording. [20]

Hodgkinson has stated that "Ruins" was the only composition Frith wrote for Henry Cow that was recorded unchanged. [7] Generally all compositions presented to Henry Cow by its members were modified by the group. [21]

Reception

In a review of Unrest in Exposé, Peter Thelen called "Ruins" "[t]he album's gem". [23] He described it as "a brilliant 'chamber' piece" that leaves the listener wondering "is it composed or improvised?" [23] John Kelman called "Ruins" "epic". [24] Reviewing The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set at All About Jazz , Kelman said the piece's tone is different in Volume 2: 1974–5 when performed with "Half Asleep; Half Awake" embedded. But he complimented Frith on his guitar playing, particularly on prepared guitar, which he maintained places him "alongside Derek Bailey for sheer audacity and textural unpredictability." [24]

Writing in The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock, Paul Stump described Henry Cow's "emotional range" on "Ruins" as "symphonic": [25]

At the serene heart of the long and funereal [instrumental], the horns gravely soliloquise while the viola contributes its own sorry narrative in the misty chromatic landscape. Percussion tickles and goads the two instruments. Frith's gentle violin and viola work further dispels notions that Cow music was exclusively abrasive and discursive; there is languour here, too. [26]

Live performances

"Ruins" was performed live by Henry Cow a number of times between 1974 and 1978, including: [27]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The 25 April 1974 John Peel set appears in Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set . [14]
  2. ↑ See the track "Introduction" in Volume 2: 1974–5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Cow</span> English avant-rock group

Henry Cow were an English experimental rock group, founded at the University of Cambridge in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler, bassist John Greaves, and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members alongside Frith and Hodgkinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Hodgkinson</span> English experimental music composer and performer

Timothy "Tim" George Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards. He first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968. After the demise of Henry Cow, he participated in numerous bands and projects, eventually concentrating on composing contemporary music and performing as an improviser.

<i>Legend</i> (Henry Cow album) 1973 studio album by Henry Cow

The Henry Cow Legend is the debut album of British avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios over three weeks in May and June 1973, mixed in July 1973, and released in September 1973.

<i>Unrest</i> (Henry Cow album) 1974 studio album by Henry Cow

Unrest is an album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1974. It was their second album and was released in May 1974. It was their first album including oboe and bassoon player Lindsay Cooper, who replaced saxophonist Geoff Leigh. American critic Glenn Kenny said Cooper's presence on the album grounded the band in European art music.

<i>Desperate Straights</i> 1975 studio album by Slapp Happy with Henry Cow

Desperate Straights is a collaborative studio album by British avant-rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry Cow. It was recorded at Virgin Records' Manor Studio and Nova Sound Studios in November 1974, and released in February 1975. It was Slapp Happy's second album for Virgin, and they had invited Henry Cow to record with them.

<i>In Praise of Learning</i> 1975 studio album by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy

In Praise of Learning is a studio album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975, and released in May 1975. On this album, Henry Cow had expanded to include members of Slapp Happy, who had merged with the group after the two had collaborated on Desperate Straights in 1974. The merger ended after recording In Praise of Learning when Peter Blegvad and Anthony Moore from Slapp Happy left the group.

<i>Concerts</i> (Henry Cow album) 1976 live album by Henry Cow

Concerts is a live double album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at concerts in London, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway between September 1974 and October 1975. Sides one and two of the LP record consist of composed material while sides three and four contain improvised pieces.

<i>Western Culture</i> (album) 1979 studio album by Henry Cow

Western Culture is a studio album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Sunrise Studios in Kirchberg, Switzerland in January and July–August 1978. It was their last album and was released on Henry Cow's own private label, Broadcast, in 1979. Later editions appeared on Interzone in the US and Celluloid in France. Only the UK Broadcast pressing used the custom label artwork design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Greaves (musician)</span> British musician and composer

John Greaves is a British bass guitarist, pianist and composer who was a member of Henry Cow and has collaborated with Peter Blegvad. He was also a member of progressive rock band National Health and jazz-rock supergroup Soft Heap, and has recorded several solo albums, including Accident (1982), Parrot Fashions (1984), The Caretaker (2001) and Greaves Verlaine (2008).

<i>Hopes and Fears</i> (Art Bears album) 1978 studio album by Art Bears

Hopes and Fears is the debut album by the English avant-rock group Art Bears. It comprises tracks by Henry Cow, Art Bears's predecessor, recorded at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg in Switzerland in January 1978, and tracks by Art Bears, recorded at Kaleidophon Studios in London in March 1978.

<i>Henry Cow Box</i> 2006 box set by Henry Cow

Henry Cow Box is a seven-CD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was released in December 2006 by Recommended Records and comprises the six original albums Henry Cow released between 1973 and 1979, including those recorded with Slapp Happy. A bonus 3" CD-single was given to advance subscribers of the box set which contains previously unreleased material taken from live performances in Europe by the Orckestra, a merger of Henry Cow, the Mike Westbrook Brass Band and folk singer Frankie Armstrong in 1977. The two bonus CD Orckestra tracks were later reissued on the 2019 Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow bonus CD, Ex Box – Collected Fragments 1971–1978.

<i>Stockholm & Göteborg</i> 2008 live album by Henry Cow

Volume 6: Stockholm & Göteborg is a live album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and is disc 6 of the 10-disc 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set. It was released in September 2008 by RēR Megacorp as a free-standing album in advance of the box set release in January 2009.

<i>The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set</i> 2009 box set by Henry Cow

The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set is a nine-CD plus one-DVD limited edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and was released by RēR Megacorp in January 2009. It consists of almost 10 hours of previously unreleased recordings made between 1972 and 1978 from concerts, radio broadcasts, one-off projects, events and the studio. Included are new compositions, over four hours of free improvisation, and live performances of some of Henry Cow's original LP repertoire.

"Erk Gah" is a song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English experimental rock group Henry Cow. "Erk Gah" was performed live by the band between 1976 and 1978, but was never recorded in the studio; three live performances of the song would later be released on the live album Stockholm & Göteborg in 2008 and the compilation The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set in 2009. In 1993, fifteen years after Henry Cow disbanded, Hodgkinson recorded the composition under the title "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine" for his solo album Each in Our Own Thoughts (1994), featuring former Henry Cow members Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, and Dagmar Krause.

"Living in the Heart of the Beast" is a 1975 song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in 1975 by Henry Cow with Slapp Happy, who had recently merged with Henry Cow after the two groups had recorded a collaborative album, Desperate Straights the previous year. The song was released on In Praise of Learning in May 1975 by Virgin Records. The song's title is a quote from the nineteenth-century Cuban poet and liberation fighter José Martí. "Living in the Heart of the Beast" was the first of two "epic" compositions Hodgkinson wrote for Henry Cow, the second being "Erk Gah" (1976), later known as "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine".

<i>The Virgin Years – Souvenir Box</i> 1991 box set by Henry Cow

The Virgin Years – Souvenir Box is a three-CD limited-edition box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was released in 1991 by Recommended Records and East Side Digital Records, and contains three albums Henry Cow made for Virgin Records between 1973 and 1975: Legend, Unrest and In Praise of Learning. Included in the box set is a 24-page souvenir booklet and a Henry Cow fold-out family tree.

"Beautiful as the Moon – Terrible as an Army with Banners" is a 1975 song composed by Fred Frith with lyrics by Chris Cutler for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in February and March 1975 by Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, and released in May 1975 on their collaborative album, In Praise of Learning by Virgin Records.

"Nine Funerals of the Citizen King" is a 1973 song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. It was recorded in May and June 1973 by Henry Cow, and released in September 1973 on their debut album, Legend by Virgin Records.

<i>The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow</i> 2019 box set by Henry Cow

The Henry Cow Box Redux: The Complete Henry Cow is a seventeen-CD plus one-DVD box set by English avant-rock group Henry Cow; it was released by RēR Megacorp in November 2019. The box set comprises the previously released 2006 Henry Cow Box and the 2009 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set, totalling over sixteen hours. A bonus CD: Ex Box – Collected Fragments 1971–1978 was given to advance subscribers of the 2019 Box Redux, and contains newly recovered and previously unreleased recordings, plus the contents of the 2006 box set bonus CD-single: "Unreleased Orckestra Extract". The 2019 Box Redux plus the Ex Box bonus CD contains all the officially released studio and live recordings of Henry Cow, excluding "Bellycan" as released on the 1991 East Side Digital version of Legend, and the complete version of "The Glove" from the 1991 East Side Digital version of Unrest.

"Teenbeat" is a 1973 suite of three instrumentals, "Teenbeat Introduction", "Teenbeat" and "Teenbeat Reprise", by the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. The three pieces were composed by Henry Cow, Fred Frith and John Greaves, and Fred Frith respectively. They were recorded in May and June 1973, and released on Henry Cow's debut album, Legend by Virgin Records in September 1973.

References

  1. ↑ "Michel Edelin Quintet with special guest John Greaves: Echoes of Henry Cow". RogueArt. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 58.
  3. 1 2 Cutler 2009, pp. 10–11.
  4. 1 2 3 Romano 2014, p. 315.
  5. 1 2 Kitching, Sean (8 April 2014). "After The Deluge: Henry Cow's Unrest Revisited". The Quietus . Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  6. 1 2 Piekut 2019, pp. 133–134.
  7. 1 2 3 Garmo 2020, p. 65.
  8. ↑ Piekut 2019, pp. 134.
  9. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 425 (Chapter 3, footnote 29).
  10. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 135.
  11. ↑ Garmo 2020, pp. 66–67.
  12. ↑ "Henry Cow – Unrest". Discogs . 1974. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 "Peel Sessions: 25/04/1974 – Henry Cow". BBC . Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Recommended Records (2009). The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (Box Set liner notes). Henry Cow.
  15. ↑ Piekut 2019, p. 137.
  16. ↑ Piekut 2015, pp. 113–114.
  17. ↑ Piekut 2015, p. 114.
  18. ↑ Piekut 2015, pp. 116–117.
  19. ↑ Garmo 2020, pp. 64–65.
  20. 1 2 3 Piekut 2019, p. 133.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Cutler, Chris (21 October 2005). "Conference on Composition and Experimentation in British Rock 1967–1976, Palazzo Cittanova, Italy". Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage, University of Pavia . Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  22. ↑ Garmo 2020, p. 64.
  23. 1 2 Thelen, Peter (1 November 1999). "Henry Cow – Unrest". Exposé. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  24. 1 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 23 February 2020.
  25. ↑ Stump 2010, p. 126.
  26. ↑ Stump 2010, pp. 126–127.
  27. ↑ "Henry Cow Chronology". Calyx: The Canterbury Music Website. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  28. ↑ Compendium (1976). Concerts (LP liner notes). Henry Cow.

Works cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.